BAT CRAZY

I spent the past two nights up in Delta National Forest, attempting to catch bats to get paired DNA samples (wing tissue and guano) for one of my team's current projects.

 

We met at Crane Lake Hunt Camp for registration and assigning netting sites and safety briefings, then split into 4 teams in the hopes of covering more ground and catching more bats. The group of scientists and USFWS employees (most or all part of the Mississippi Bat Working Group) planned this Mist Net Event to coincide with national bat censuses (similar to the annual Christmas Bird Count). The hunt lodge left a lot to be desired, and I was thankful that Vicksburg was only 35 minutes away so that I could go home to my own bed at night...

Our first night was spent working a water site (a culvert under Dummy Line Rd), so it was muddy, the embankments were extremely steep and slippery, and there was a lot of traffic along the road where we stationed ourselves between net checks (there are a couple small towns that are only accessible via this small road, which is just crazy to me - and I thought Vicksburg was small...)

The nets were run from sunset (7:10pm) until midnight, with net checks every 15-20 minutes.

We didn't catch a single bat... 

...but I did enjoy reading half a novel on my Kindle in between net checks.

Our second night was spent next to a small lake (Blue Lake) surrounded by cypress trees and thousands of frogs that hopped the trails all night long (note to the Kennedy's - it looked like a beautiful little place to take your new canoe, and there is primitive camping on site... )

There were two groups at this site. One worked high nets over the main road (they caught 3 bats, though one got away because a flying squirrel ended up in the net and knocked the 3rd bat out) while we set our nets along the trail (bats utilize open spaces as flyways, and we were hoping that setting our nets in spots along the trail that had more overhanging vegetation, we'd "funnel" the bats through our nets).

My boss and the retired ERDC employee who joined our team for the night were not very hopeful, since they prefer to work water sites, but they gave it a shot because we hadn't caught anything at our water site the previous night. Unfortunately, we didn't catch a single bat, and were thus the only team to get skunked both nights. Womp womp. On the bright side, I finished my novel AND walked a total of 6 miles checking nets, since they were spread over a 0.3 mile stretch of trail.

This is the other group, which we joined briefly when they captured a Myotis austroriparius, so we could collect genetic samples. The kids belong to my boss - since they are homeschooled, they joined our mist netting adventure both nights as part of their curriculum. Made me a bit jealous - my kids would love to do something like this, but there's no way they could stay out until 2am and then go to school all day from 8am-3pm. Maybe when they're older...