Last night I had the unique opportunity of going into the national park and observing part of a government study on bat populations. If I remember correctly, this study is part of a follow-up to a similar project conducted in the ’80s, with the goal of comparing the results of the bat species in various parts of the park to see how things have changed/remained the same.
(Pallid Bat)
The researchers use a special type of bat netting (pictured below) to capture the bats. Although you can see it in the flash photo below, once dusk settles in, it is virtually impossible to see even with the human eye. The nets are set up in areas (mostly along pools of water) where bats tend to travel. When they fly into it, they get tangled up and the researches can then handle them and take down the information they need.
(Bat Net)
It was a relatively slow evening. We only ended up with three bats in hand, even though they were flying all around us. Only a few nights before they captured ninety-five bats in another part of the park. I believe they had counted a total of fifteen or sixteen different species.
(Fringe-Tailed Myotis)
The three species we saw last night were the Fringe-Tailed Myotis, the Pallid Bat, and the Hoary Bat. The first two were rather gentle, but the Hoary Bat was downright ferocious. Needless to say, I didn’t handle any bats, but I was thrilled that they let me come and take some pictures. It was definitely a “Discovery Channel” moment.
This video, according to Live Science, “is part of a larger study to estimate the population size and distribution of bears in northwestern Montana using genetic analyses of the bears’ hair samples.” Researches think the Bears may be trying to scratch hard to reach spots, and/or communicating their scent to other bears. Read about it here.
Heard there might be some migrant sandhill cranes passing through our area, so we took a drive about five miles or so up river this morning just to see. Here they are.
I’m happy to announce that I filled my elk tag this morning, which means now we can fill our freezer for the year.
Not much of a story to tell. We found a herd of elk feeding a ways off the county road and made short hike up a small hill. This cow was standing about 75 yards away down in the flat. It was a quick out and back in, which is always nice.
In case you didn’t know, at some point in the last two years of living in western Colorado I began to really get into birding. There is something very rewarding and even addicting in learning about and being able to identify all the various species that come through this part of the country. I’ve spent a good bit of time in the mountains where I’ve identified different species of hawks, eagles, ospreys, and other birds. But even at our house we get all kinds of creatures that come through.
The bird pictured above is a downy woodpecker. We have a few hanging around our trees (and house!) right now. This is the female. The male has a red cap, and he’s been doing some work on the side of the house. I’ve yet to photograph him.
The recent change in seasons brought with it a change in the species of birds we’ve been seeing around the house. Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed the appearance of chickadees. As a began to take a closer look (especially as I was photographing) I realized that we don’t have just one species of chickadees, but two.
We have the black-capped chickadee (pictured above), as well as the mountain chickadee (pictured below). You’ll notice that the mountain chickadee has white stripes above the eye, whereas the crown of the black-capped chickadee is solid black.
The house finch was a regular summer visitor to our backyard. Now it looks like they’re going to stick around for a while. I guess that’s what happens when you start feeding them. They usually carry a bit of red on the crown and breast, and their plumage is very bright right now.
We actually have several species that visit us. Now that the weather has changed, we’ve been seeing some black-capped chickadees, which I’m still trying to get a good shot of.
