Bats...or not!

[rob speirs]

Hello Folks,

Sitting on the float tonight watching the full moon rise on the eastern horizon I was struck by the total absence of the familiar squeaks of bats. 

We've always had bats at camp. At dusk we would see them in erratic flight, in front of the porch and over the float on the waterfront. Sometimes we would, to the dismay of many, find them fluttering about inside our camp. 

When we were young there were so many, we could sit quietly on the float with a long handled fishing net, and wait patiently for one of the many bats to come close. With a quick flip of the net, by the most articulate, we would capture a bat. 

They were put into a large glass jugs, with a long diagonal stick and leaves. The jugs were of the kind which we used to carry water from the spring, the wire handles on full jugs practically cutting off our young  fingers, or so it seemed. I'm confident some of you remember those days.The bats were released the next day, unharmed, after camp friends came to ooh and ahh over our treasures.

Tonight, not a squeak, not a sighting.. nothing. Up until 2 years ago we had a bat(s) roosting up under the roof of camp's back porch, their droppings a nuisance to sweep away every morning. As much as we were unhappy about the droppings, we were more unhappy about the absence of bats. White nose fungus is, apparently, the culprit. 

Let's hope this is cyclical and our mosquito eating friends recover. What has been your experience???

Rob 

[Ralph Eldridge]

Ditto!

Here on MSI there were never many but always a steady, resident population. Now they are none.

Until a couple years ago, I never saw a single mosquito on the island and over 16 summers, I only heard tell of one or two sightings.​ Now you absolutely must Deet-up if you go near long vegetation, mow the lawn or just spend much time outside.

Compounding things here, there are virtually no other mosquito eating critters on the island.

 

It's pretty much the same story throughout my home range of South Western New Brunswick. (The whole Eastern Seaboard, I guess).

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[Margaret Viens]

I

A few years ago we would see several flying around our camp in Rome at dusk. I do still have ONE resident bat that lives in the crack between the joints near our front door light. I can see him peeking out right now.

Margaret Viens

Rome

Sent from my iPhone

[Jim Bright]

Very interesting, but on Islesford, Little Cranberry Island, which in the last few years has been absolutely so overrun by mosquitos that people took to walking around with two of those electric paddles there are virtually no mosquitoes.  There are still plenty in the marsh and in the tall grasses but there has definitely been a big die off and the bats are still missing. Cold icy spring seems to be the answer

Sent from Jim's iPhone

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[Maggie Strickland]

Our resident bat returned to its spot above our back porch only briefly in June, but we have not had many mosquitoes this year either.

Maggie Strickland

Harmony ME

[wela...@gmail.com]

We have had a resident bat at our home in Cape Elizabeth for several years but have not seen any at our camp near Moosehead for several years

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 30, 2015, at 10:05 PM, rob speirs <rspe...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Lynn Havsall]

Haven't seen or heard a bat all summer in Eastbrook or Ellsworth.
Mosquitoes are so bad that you can nearly be exsanguinated in the
Hannaford parking lot in Ellsworth at night...several acres of nothing
but concrete.

I'm so sad and worried about the loss of our bats.

Lynn Havsall
Eastbrook

[Boots.]

I saw one bat, just last night (8/30/2015). I was astounded! And excited. I actually yelled to no one: BAT! 

And I saw one bat on July 31 at 8:28 PM flying across the East Side Rd in Hancock

I have had a small bachelor colony living in my bedroom wall for 16 years. Until about 3 years ago. I have not seen a single bat. I used to get calls from neighbors on a regular basis to come get a bat out of their house or their wood stove. Now? Never.

I, too am horribly sad and deeply concerned about the loss of bats. Maine doesn't seem to be big on bat research. I haven't even been able to find anyone who knows where "our" bats go to hibernate.

Is anyone in Maine studying bats?

Boots.

Franklin

[Ellen Campbell]

Search "bat houses Bangor daily news" for an article published last week; search Maine Audubon for bat programs & presentations; and search Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife for their work regarding bats. There's much going on, with bats possibly gaining a little this year after disastrous declines due to white nose syndrome. 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Robin R Robinson]

I have often wished that there is a data gathering site for wildlife such as eBird, but for butterflies, moths, mammals, amphibians and so on. The data collected by citizen scientists could be used for tracking populations of these critters for range changes, increases, decreases or stable numbers and other points. Even if there is no one using the info currently, it would seem to me to be of value to have the raw data available at some point. Here in Phippsburg, I have seen an assortment of rare and notable wildlife. I did report and endanged Spotted Turtle to Trevor Persons with IF&W a few years ago. But, Gray foxes, bats, butterflies.........no one to tell for science. Seems like a loss to the scientific community to not have people making reports. Does anyone know of such a data collection site that perhaps I am unaware of? If so, I'd love the info.
Robin R Robinson
Birding, Bugging and Beasting in The Burg (Phippsburg, that is)
http://robinrobinsonmaine.com

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Subject: Re: [Maine-birds] Bats...or not!
From: elle...@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 21:11:52 -0400
CC: maine...@googlegroups.com; wela...@gmail.com; rspe...@gmail.com; lhav...@gmail.com
To: boo...@gmail.com

[Pete Darling]

iNaturalist... Download the app and begin posting your sightings. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Logan Parker]

I've been really interested in bats/bat conservation for the last several years and have had the pleasure of working on a few projects in which I surveyed bats with acoustic detectors. With NABat I installed stationary detectors in various locations in the Casco/Naples area and drove transects with a detector affixed to my car. While the data collected in these sorts of projects is no doubt valuable, its collection is not something many citizens would be will take on. This year, however, I started working on a project in partnership with UMaine, Maine IFW, and Maine Audubon that aims to study bats through a citizen science network. I think it shows real promise. 

In this project (BatME), citizen scientists around the state would be supplied with detectors compatible with iOS devices. With these user-friendly detectors in hand, the citizen will have to power to conduct surveys whenever (at sunset) and wherever they wish. Best of all, the associated application has a live feed spectrogram, lowers the echolocating calls of bats to an audible frequency, and has fairly accurate identification software. The calls are recorded and GPS coordinates logged. I've conducted more than a dozen surveys with this detector in various habitat and recorded the calls of six (out of eight) of Maine bat species. Included in these recordings were the echolocating calls of the recently state-listed endangered Little brown bat. I've been really impressed with the detector and have high hopes for the project. We're certainly primed to gain a lot of data on our local bat populations and distributions. We will be working on the logistics of a statewide monitoring project later this year. 

In the meantime, MPBN covered the project last month. I took reporter Susan Sharon out to seek out bats at Mt Apatite in Auburn. We were not disappointed. Click the link below to read the article or give it a listen:

http://news.mpbn.net/post/volunteers-count-bats-maine-effort-save-them