Thanks for the bat update, its the first bats I've heard about in the
Seattle area this year...

It does seem that the bats that leave/return are a bit early this year,
yesterday at dusk we watched some Big brown bats come out of a tile roof
at a house near Black Lake, Olympia area. They foraged over the
several-acre lot (surrounded by woods), then took off after about 15
minutes. For a while there were up to about visible, and we recorded them
on a full-spectrum bat detector so we could verify species using SonoBat
software. We also recorded one Silver-haired bat during that 20 minutes.

Since Feb. 27th we have been seeing a few Big brown bats on the 'BatCam'
set up at a barn a few miles south of Tumwater. So far they only come into
the roost site at night, for a little 'night roosting,' but sometime in
Apritl they will be there during the day, and in June will have their pups
int he barn, all on camera! I was surprised at the Feb. 27 arrival,
however we have found a few Big browns that did not leave this area for
the winter, tucked in crevices here and there. We believe they go to
colder areas to hibernate, where they can really drop down their
metabolism.

Last, there are 2 species that stay active all winter in western Wash.,
California myotis and Silver-haired bats. They hunker down for the wet
periods, but if its dry and over 40 degr F., they are out foraging.

Here is a link the 'BatCam' south of Tumwater. Its 'live' so if you want
to see bats there now, check it out between 8pm and midnight. They seem to
be there on dry evenings so far:

<http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildwatch/batcam/bbb_video.html>

Greg

Greg Falxa
Olympia, Wa.
gregf (at) efn.org

> ------------------------------
>
>
> Message: 10
> Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:28:26 -0700
> From: Kevin Purcell <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Bats in Volunteer Park at dusk
> To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Cc: Kevin Purcell <kevinpurcell at pobox.com>
> Message-ID: <414FDCE0-0484-42CF-9CB4-A354B08E2E3B at pobox.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
> Just got back from a walk up to VP for the past hour as it's a
> beautiful evening.
>
> I saw at least four bats (two groups of two at one time) above the
> loop road to the west of the amphitheater. The rest of the time I saw one
> or two, briefly three and once four.
>
> This is the earliest I've seen bats anywhere. Lots of mosquitos out so
> they were having a great time feeding. --
> Kevin Purcell
> Seattle, WA
> kevinpurcell at pobox.com http://kevin-purcell.blogspot.com
> http://twitter.com/kevinpurcell
>