Break coming up

The fourth of July break is rapidly approaching. I have two more sites, then I am headed home! In the mean time I am still with the same team leader which is nice. It makes it easier to know one person's preferences and style and just stick with it for a while. Bat count has been low. One or two per night :( Oh well. Break is calling my name....

Bat catching

The bat catching has been slow but steady. This area just doesn't have a lot of bats. Two nights ago I caught six Long ears. Last night I had one Red and five Luna moths. Here are some pictures.

"Big" News

Due to the sensitive nature of the information and the possible ramifications for the PATH power line project I can't be specific. But I can say that while netting in WV a bat species was caught that was thought to be an endangered species (in VA). Upon further inspection we found that it was actually a closely related species that is not known to live this far to the north. The "bigger" discovery was that it was a lactating female, which means not only is it living here, it is also breeding. The following night we caught three more of this species. We are doing some telemetry on the first one to see where the maternal colony is roosting! This is "big" news for these cool looking bats. Chris wanted me to see it so I walked up a mountain with him while he went to ID it. I am happy he picked me.

In other news we are still in WV in the Charleston area. In a few days two groups will split off. Chris is sending me to the Monongahela National Forest to "round out my learning experience". I was told that this means he wants me to see a Cedalis (sp?) (Indiana bat). That is cool. I hope to see one. This project is also famous for lots and lots of bats! Up to 100 in one night!

White Nose Syndrome

Here is the long- expected message about white nose. White nose is a fungus that lives in caves. Scientists are unsure of the exact effects that the fungus has on the bats. I was told by my boss Chris that the fungus gets into the bats body and eats it from the inside out. This is what we are looking for evidence of on the wing membrane. It starts as little dots, and they look like small punctures. Punctures occur naturally so we look for the ones that are obviously fungus. In some pictures I have seen the wing only has half of the membrane left. In Chris' career he has noticed locations that used to have fifty bats a night now average one to five.

There are lots of precautions that we have to adhere to in order to avoid spreading the disease. We wear latex gloves when processing bats and don't let the bats touch our clothing. We bleach the nets and our boots between sites. Recently we have ordered painters suits to wear over our clothes. We toss them at the end of each site so we don't spread spores.

ATV madness!

What a long night! Last night our crew had atv sites. This is usually fine and a lot of fun! We strap on the nets and gear and ride to the location because it isn't accessible by car. We needed two atvs for the three locations we were running. Chris hauled one behind his van because he was the closest to our location. We also had one. After going down the wrong road into a cow pasture and then ending in someones yard (they had over 20 dogs) we had to find a way to back up the trailer and get out of there before anyone came out. It took a while because we had a goal to not turf the yard. As luck would have it, they must not have been home. When finally on the right road we followed Chris and went through SIX gates! We had to stop and unlock each one.

We finally reached the drop off spot and loaded up the atvs and headed out to the site... or so we thought. The only trail lead us in the wrong direction. We rode for an hour trying to find the right trail. Many times I had to get off to make a turn, stand on the side so it wouldn't tip, stop and fix the gear after it shifted, and avoid being wacked by branches. It is a good thing I'm not nervous going up and down 45 degree slopes on an overly packed atv with a driver that is stressed that we are late, therefore probably going a little too fast. We eventually come to a location on the gps where a trail should be. There is none. Maybe there was a trail there fourty years ago... the forest was a little less dense there so we tried it. I rode huddled behind Jason with my arms covering my head and face the entire way.

We reached site 17 finally! Do we have a corridor for the net to go in? Absolutely not. We broke branches, stomped little trees, and tied ropes to the bigger ones and pulled them back. Still we ended up raising the nets into branches. Chris said it would be best if we could walk to the next location (ours was conveniently placed at the end of the less dense strip). Aaron started out and was not making good progress because of the terrain. He ended up just coming back and helping us. One of the three sites was up. We opened the nets at 9:30pm (and hour late). After we were settled Jason and Aaron went scouting for the other sites for tonight. When they got back the five of us were all in the one site. We talked for a while but soon it was time to take the nets off. We all piled back on the atvs and went back to the truck. We met Chris and drove back out the six gates and the hour on the high way to get back to our hotel which at this point is after four. A good thing that came of the night was that Jason bought us all 99 cent vanilla cones from McDonalds! Tonight we leave early again for another set-up. Hopefully it will be smoother this time.

West Virginia

We traveled to WV and had safety training to mist net on a potential powerline location. It is called the PATH company. Last night we started netting here near Charleston. I worked with Julia and we didn't have any bats or squirrels or anything which makes for a long night. We had to use the ATVs to get into our location and on the way out at 2am the three of us all rode out and got lost. We finally found our way out and headed back to our hotel. Tonight we are going to have a meeting to figure out the schedule but as far as I know we are here for about two weeks.