Bats

The almost full moon Sunday night. The sky was beautiful that night, except for one thing. No bats.

We have had bats living in our barn and shed since we moved here in 1987. I assume they were around before then too, but I can't swear to it.  One of my summer pleasures is was standing on our porch steps hearing the scrabble of tiny claws on our metal roof, and seeing the bats fly out of a tiny crack in the roof peak. They swooped out in ones and twos, some flying under the porch roof before they started eating their hundreds and thousands of mosquitoes.

An article in our paper about colonies of bats being wiped out by white nose syndrome reminded me that I hadn't done a batwatch yet this year. I went out a little too early the first time, so popped out every 15 minutes or so to watch the roofline, until it was fully dark. I checked again Monday night- nothing. I am so sad. I liked watching them fly overhead and I liked the bugs they ate. Bats just were part of our summer life and now they aren't, and there is nothing I can do to bring them back.

 I did send the bat-survey-people an email letting them know of the colony disappearance. Apparently it will take a long time for the bat population to rebound, if it can, since the females have just one pup each year. We'll have to wait and see.