Hi Tweets,

In the world of the other flying vertebrates, you have the opportunity to
take your knowledge of birds and turn it upside down and consider how bats
have solved many of the same problems in sometimes very different ways.

Bats Northwest, your local bat stewardship organization is having its annual
volunteer orientation and training Saturday, January 20, 2007 at Sand Point
in Seattle.

See www.batsnorthwest.org for info on the event. Completion of the training
and signing up for a 4-hour shift at the 2007 Northwest Flower and Garden
Show in Seattle will get you free admission for the day. Bats Northwest has
previously won first place for its educational exhibits, including last
year. We also give bat walks in area parks and talks to other environmental
groups and kids.

No pre-exposure rabies shots are needed for this class. They are needed if
you, later, choose to participate in our bat grid protocol which is much
more hands on with mist nets and high speed digital audio recording of the
bats on zip lines, light and radio tagging and tracking to roosting
structures.

Bats pretty much fly below most peoples radar - they are silent (to us),
invisible, and so good at what they do that we just never really interact
with them. Please recall, if you don't like insects, you really should like
bats - all of Washington's 15 species eat almost nothing but nocturnal
invertebrates. Bats aren't rodents, they can live nearly 1/2 a century and
are vital for normally functioning ecosystems everywhere except Antarctica.

Thanks! Hope to see many of you there - please pass this on to anyone you
feel might be interested.

Warmest regards,

Curt Black
Environmental Scientist
Office of Environmental Assessment
US EPA, Region 10, Seattle
and Part Time Bat Chaser