First two nights of catching bats

The first night of catching was very interesting. We went out to Little Pine Creek, PA and set up in a camp ground. We are netting on a near-by ridge next to an oil rig. We are looking for occurrence of endangered species before they begin to build the pipe line. We set up five sites with two nets at each. I was at the last one with the boss, Chris. This was intimidating. I was doing my best to learn as we went along. The set up process was difficult because I am short and can't reach the top of the poles to tie on the lines. This is a problem. I was told that a girl 4.11 figured out a technique and so can I. The whole process is going to be about finding the right technique. We got it all set up and opened the nets at 8:30. We are required to net for five hours.

As soon as we opened the nets we caught four birds. Chris said it was because we started a little too soon. We check the nets every 10-15 minutes. On the very next check we had our first bat! I was excited. I was busy looking at him and making comments about the clicking noise and Chris had to remind me to lower the net. We wear latex gloves for each bat to avoid the spread of white nose syndrome. I also wear a golf glove under one. After Chris untangled what turned out to be a male little brown bat, he handed it to me and let me play with it for a few minutes. I quickly found that bats are angry about being stuck and bite and gnaw as much as possible when they are not flailing to get away. The bites don't hurt much but the gnawing does. The old-timers don't even wear the golf glove. They say "this is nothing." After releasing him we went a few more checks and got a male long-ear bat. In PA we have to radio track five females per location. We started the first night with two. Later in the night we had another bat in the net but it wasn't very stuck and got out on its own before we could grab it. In the down time I sat in the truck with Chris and read my book and ate some almonds to keep warm. On the first night we only have to unclip the nets before we leave. At one thirty we were unclipping and by a little after two we were back at camp.

I woke up early the next day (before noon) and willed myself to go back to sleep. I knew I would need it later. When I finally was up for the day we were told we were to be ready to go at 7pm. Eight hours from now! We are in a camp ground in a valley in the middle of no where with no cell reception for twenty miles. I finished my book, took a walk, talked with tow other girls (as everyone else had left to do telemetry) and realized it was still only 2:30! I ended up taking a nap to pass some time.

Seven rolls around and I am ready to go. It is a bit colder tonight. I am working with another new girl tonight because Chris is doing his own thing for the night. Set up was simple, we just clipped the nets back on and started out checks. Unfortunately it was quite cold, but on the line of quitting. It needs to be 10C or 50F to catch bats. We stayed at 52. The site that Chris was at got too cold at about midnight because he was on the other side of the crest. My partner, Hannah and I caught four bats in all. She pulled out two, Keith our identifier and expert, got one, and I worked on one for fifteen minutes but he was really stuck (to me) so Keith finished it up. It was fun handling more bats, and getting bit some more.

At one thirty we stared the tear down process. We had to take everything down because tomorrow we are going to a different spot. This process was long and harder because it was dark. Again it will be better with practice. I am dreading the time in the summer when we have to put up, check, and take down by ourselves. We rolled back into camp around four am. The camp is in the valley by the river. It was at least 5 degrees colder there than our sites. We had planned a campfire but everyone was tired and cold.

After sleeping in longer today we emerged ready to go again. Today we followed a leader into a nearby town, a thirty minute drive, and stopped at the library to get communication access. I can't wait to use my phone.

Our tentative plan is to catch bats tonight, and tomorrow night and on Wednesday go to a new location all together. This is dependent on the weather and us catching bats. I am ready to go somewhere new hopefully with better service. I will try to get pictures when I can.