May 1, 2001
Some more information about the internal survey last night: roughly 4-5 thousand sodalis was observed remaining among 40 thousand or so bats. A few other entrances were also "discovered", leaving us with the impression that any bat smart enough to avoid our operation altogether certainly has the option. Despite this, it was the busiest night yet for captures-- nearly 700 total including seven sodalis. Two were female; unfortunately one sported a previously broken (but healed) wing and the other, while lightweight, escaped the holding cage while in transport to the official weighing station. Trapping continued until nearly 4 AM that night/morning.

During the trap night starting May 1 we captured just under 400 bats total. Male little browns made up the majority with 223 individuals, followed by 166 females. A smattering of northern long eared, pipistrelles, and a big brown made an appearance as well. Two Indiana bats were captured, both males, one around 10:30 and the second at 1:00 AM. At dusk males and females were captured in fairly equal numbers, then as the night wore on males were caught over twice as often.
Left: Ack! My eye! This poor male lucifugus sports only one eye, though didn't seem to collide with nearby trees when released.
Left: Our evening sodalis. This one was picked out initially by Jeff from the CT DNR detachment. We had to make sure Jeff didn't palm the critter to seed a colony in CT.
Left: Jeff's keeled bat. This was the first bat Jeff pulled from the cage to identify. If only he could stick around more...

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