Little Brown Beauties - Myorific!

Little Brown Bats just last night made their first appearance for me in 2011.  They showed up one day earlier last year according to my records, though, my methods are far from scientific and more than likely, I missed them the night before as I was out feasting at a delicious Spanish Tapas joint until well after dark.  I go out and check periodically at dusk and those checks become more frequent as it starts getting warmer.  I look forward to the bats' arrival every year and last night was perfect:  I was grilling out on my porch, sipping a French Gimlet, and swooooop - there they were.  Two years ago, their first appearance was in April, but again, hard to tell with my lackluster methods when they really start flying.

These little cuties (scientific name: Myotis lucifugus) have made a home somewhere west of me and do a nightly migration to the river which is east of me.  Every year I vow to go find their day-roosts, but have yet to do so with any success.... but all dusk long they flit and dart overhead on a consistently west to east path en route to their crepuscular feeding grounds.  Much to my cat's entertainment, a few have wandered into my house by mistake, but they are quickly escorted safely out an open window and are off again erratically hawking bugs as they go. The image to the right is courtesy the US Fish and Wildlife Service and I have to say, they are much cuter dodging back and forth in the sky at dusk.  

I worry every year now that they won't show up.  White-nose syndrome is rapidly wiping out communities of bats in the northeast to the tune of over 75% killed since the winter of 2006-2007 when it was first noticed in an upstate NY hibernaculum.    This fungus grows on the skin of the bats and renders them more active in the winter thus causing them to use up reserves and starve before food is available;  and to date, the pathogen has moved as far south as Tennessee and is expected to be in California within a few years.  Our biggest hope is that there are bats out there with strong enough immune systems to ward off the fungus.  Elizabeth Kolbert wrote a heart-breaking article in May of 2009 detailing the bats' and other potential extinctions and I highly recommend reading it if you can get your hands on it. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/25/090525fa_fact_kolbert     If we lose our bats, what a travesty that would be.  I cannot even fathom it.

But here they are, these important players in the ecosystem - at an appropriate time - just as my daffodils are blooming.   I also saw my first forsythia in boom today (that may be a little premature!).  There are definitely bugs in the air ready to be eaten and bees during the day going about their pollinating business.  I am happy to see the bats.  It is surely a good sign.