Anyone else been seeing more bats around the New Paltz/Rosendale area? Still not what it used to be but at least I'm seeing a few more this year.

Wet summer = more mosquitoes for the bats to eat??

Yeah obviosly, but with a large bat population dying out it just means more mosquitos. I was asking if anyone had noticed an incease in bats this year compared to previous years.

A few more than when?

Rosendale saw a massive die-off in its hibernaculums in the winter of '08. Bats flying around during the day, flopping dead on streets and sidewalks, littering the grounds outside the mines. A dozen starved in our eaves. It was Biblical.

Little browns and Indiana bats remaining this winter didn't make it into spring (they're seeing die-offs in hibernaculums of 90-100%). Some appeared in late December. We watched them working thermals on warmer days over the Rondout in March, then it just stopped. Now, you see a stray one from time-to-time, probably other species that aren't being hit as hard.

I was showing RR last week how you used to be able to watch the shift-change along the canal footpath next to the creek in town at dusk, when the swallows gave way to bats. Not any more.

Isn't this due to some fungal disease going around?

WNS is getting the brunt of the blame, but there are other immuno-suppression things going on.

Bats are coming out of wintering torpor states sooner and more frequently, possibly to groom themselves of the WNS fungus, which burns fat reserves. When their reserves are gone, they begin hunting: that's death in winter.

But they're also finding some bats going into hibernation in poor shape, and infected carcasses harvested in Rosendale have been found lacking certain enzymes in their digestive systems, making them unable to properly digest insects. They're not sure yet if this is caused by some background pesticide or chemical in the environment.

Here's the most comprehensive overview I've been able to find:

http://www.caves.org/WNS/WNS2009research.pdf

That being said we did see two bats in our yard Saturday evening. But that doesn't count because we're in Kerhonkson, not New Paltz/Rosendale. Everyone knows the really cool bats live in Rosendale and New Paltz. The ones over here are missing a few teeth and have these really little mullets.

RR

This is hysterical.

Like RR in high school. You can take Brooklyn out of the Headbanger, but...rest assured, Kerkonkson found him.

I see you subscribe to the George W. Bush school of mangled cliches.

Or does RR still reside in Brooklyn?