Last night, I took Maile to the Black Diamond Regional Preserve here in Antioch to help take a Bat Census. Maile had chosen bats (specifically vampire bats) for her animal report in school a few months ago in 2nd grade. When Bill saw the newspaper article asking for volunteers to help count bats at the park, we knew this task would be right up her alley! We arrived at the park just before 7pm.
After a short orientation by two park rangers, Maile and I along with 19 other participants hiked up to the entrance of one of the park’s abandoned silica mines. (Originally coal was mined here, which is how the park got its name.)
There was striking scenery along the way.
When we arrived at the observation point, we were given clipboards with tally sheets and red cellophane to cover our flashlight lenses as dusk was falling. We settled in to begin the count.
We were asked to count and record the number of bats that we saw flying in and out of the mine entrance between approximately 8:00 pm and 9:45 pm. Altogether, Maile and I saw 11 bats flying out and 9 flying in. One small bat flew very close over Maile’s head which gave her a thrill!
It was a fun way for us to spend an evening together. We learned a lot about bats . . . well, I learned a lot; Maile already knew most of it! In fact, I was especially proud when one of the rangers said to the other “Wow, she knows A LOT about bats!”
