I did my first bat survey of the summer last week, and the numbers were miserable. I saw no bats leaving the exterior of a nearby house -- a figure born out by a story by Jim O'Neill in The Record earlier this week.
Bat counts are dropping because of white-nose fungus. Link to Jim O'Neill's story is here.
The zero count by me is in sharp contrast with years past, where I've counted between 39 and more than 100 . I have done the surveys for several summers now.
Here is a link to an update I did in 2007 for a previous incarnation of this blog, when I was an environmental writer for The Record. (The blog back then was called, appropriately, "Birds, Bats & Beyond.")
What's more, I counted only three or four bats whiz silently past in the twilight sky last night, even though I watched for more than an hour -- or 20 minutes longer than usual.
There could be several reasons for the poor showing.
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Here are some theories:
1. The nearby house house got a fresh coat of paint in the spring, and that disrupted the bats that in years past enjoyed perching under shutters and soffits. The exterior of the house seems totally bat-free.
Alas, none of these bats appears to have moved to the two bat houses erected on the side of my house (above), even though I would dearly love to have them.
2. The local bat population has been affected by white-nose syndrome.
3. I did this survey, the first of two each summer, a month or so earlier than in summers past, so comparisons aren't fair.
4. All of the above.
5. Some of the above.
6. None of the above.
I do not want to reach any conclusions -- I am just reporting that the numbers so far this year are troublingly low.
