I watched the bats leaving their colony the other night from an overpass in our neighborhood.
It was amazing watching that many bats, and I captured some on video.. I posted it in this blog
Oh Bats!!!~
http://www.chron.com/channel/houstongardening/commons/persona.html?newspaperUserId=rjudd&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3arjuddPost%3a17d4e3ae-cf88-44ae-b93f-da0ad1887f82
Great photo: thanks for sharing! I've always hoped to visit Texas one day to see the dusk emergence from one of the big caves or bridges. Bats are amazing creatures; I've always found them fascinating. And they do so much good by devouring vast numbers of insects every night; truly a shame that so many people hate and fear them.
Ruth
Glad you enjoyed it Ruth, they do eat a lot! And then there is the guano!
Give me a Dmail if your ever in town!
Rj
Ah yes, one mustn't forget the guano; but it does make a great natural fertilizer. Have the bats in your area been affected by the new fungal disease that's devastating to colonies here in the East? Hope not, and hope they can soon find some help for the little winged guys.
Ruth
These are a different kind. They winter in Mexico, rather than hibernating like the ones getting hit with that white nose syndrome.
Freetails live in huge colonies, so they are vulnerable if something happens physically to their home. The nice thing is that it's pretty obvious where a million bats are staying, and folks are nowadays pretty aware of the advantages of leaving them be.
Thanks, realbirdlady; I knew that freetails overwinter in Mexico, but hadn't realized that hibernation is what leaves our eastern bats vulnerable to white nose. I've been delighted in recent years to see that efforts are being made at last to protect the roosting sites: cave gating, etc. Bats have been maligned by public opinion for far too long, and it's great to see that people are finally learning to appreciate them. And you're right (lol); it's pretty hard to miss a roosting site called home by millions of bats!
I didn't even know about it!
It's pretty devastating, from what I've read, rjudd: wiping out or having a very high mortality rate in colonies of little and big brown bats, pipistrelles also, I believe. No one had seen this disease until recent years, and so far they have no idea what to do to combat it.
Hmmm..strange..sounds like the bees, wonder if this is a by product of global interaction, trading etc.
Certainly possible, I'd imagine; at this point they seem to know little except that it's demonstrably deadly. And the honeybee problem is equally disturbing. We've had a little house designed for mason bees in the garden for years, and this is the first year we've seen mason bees: a small piece of good news, since they're also awesome pollinators.
