Subject: [Tweeters] Re: A bat
Date: Feb 3 13:32:55 2009
From: FLECKENSTEIN, JOHN (DNR - JOHN.FLECKENSTEIN at dnr.wa.gov


Friends,
It's a rare evening when I don't see a moth or two on the kitchen
window. Temperatures at particular small sites can be quite different
from the "official" temperature. And many insects aren't really limited
by 32F. An active bat could probably find something to eat on most
nights in western Washington. But this bat might not have been feeding.


Bats will awaken and change roosts because they were disturbed by
temperature changes, parasites, or activity. This is why it's so
important to stay out of bat hibernacula. You might pass a bat in a
cave or other site and think it's still asleep. If it was disturbed, it
may not become active at all for several minutes and may not be able to
fly for 15 minutes or more. Awakening imposes a huge energy load on a
delicate system. The white-nose fungus that's causing such a problem in
the east appears to kill bats by irritating them to the point where they
don't sleep soundly and starve.

No one has found a silver-haired or hoary bat in Washington in the
winter. We assume that they all migrate to CA or Mexico, although
that's not documented. If you'd been able to identify it as either of
these, you'd be rich and famous...at least you'd be well known within a
very small group which would probably pass the hat to buy you a cup of
coffee.

John Fleckenstein
Olympia, WA

Message: 26
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 09:33:01 -0800
From: "Rob Sandelin" <floriferous at msn.com>
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] A bat!
To: "'Tweeters'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP33C81C2C232D28186FC9A6A3C20 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Actually there are species of insects which mate in the winter (less
predators around then) and they fly when the temps are above 40 degrees.
The
winter crane flies in the family Trichoceridae can fly at temperatures a
bit
below 40. They are relatively slow and weak fliers and would be food for
either bats, or winter swallows. They are sometimes in dense mating
swarms
in a bit of sunlight in the forest, or at the edges of forests.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish

-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
vogelfreund at comcast.net
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 8:00 PM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] A bat!

Yeah, sounds like the one that flew low between me and another person
many
years ago here in Bellingham. It was dusk, and we were trying to call
barred
owls. It seemed like it was telling us that it was not amused. This was
in
March, I think; anyway seemingly too cold for insects to be out and
about.

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: mgd at myuw.net
> I was walking the dog around Seward Park this evening and saw a bat!
> This was at
> 5:25 p.m. It was large?certainly larger than a Myotis, and I'd guess
> bigger than a Big Brown--maybe a Hoary or Silver-haired bat? It?s the
> earliest in the year I?ve seen an active bat.
>
> It was too late in the day for it to see it?s shadow?
>
> Mike Donahue
> Beacon Hill, Seattle
>
> ***************************************