Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Friends, it’s sad news for our local bats.  I received an email update from Bat Conservation International (BCI) last week and I wanted to share it along with some links with you here.

When I first moved to Loudoun, we had bats flying through our yard every summer night. I bought a bat detector so I could hear their echolocation and it was marvelous!  Now when I go outside to listen for the bats it’s radio silence – reminiscent of the folks trying to search for life on other planets, listening to nothing more than the hiss of the atmosphere. 

I hope we’ll see the return of the bats in our lifetime.  Here’s the information from BCI:

“As Bat Conservation International continues our fight against White-nose Syndrome, research being published in the journal Science predicts the outcome we feared: regional extinctions.

The study forecasts that the little brown myotis, until now one of our most common species and one that is often seen roosting in barns, old buildings and attics, could be reduced to barely 1 percent of its current population in northeastern states within two decades.”

Learn more about bats, white nose syndrome and what you can do to help our bats:
Latest news: http://batcon.org/index.php/what-we-do/white-nose-syndrome.html
BCI email newsletter: http://www.batcon.org/index.php/media-and-info/e-newsletter.html 
BCI Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bat-Conservation-International/144437204518?ref=ts 

Spread the news about the bats so more people are aware of what is happening and what we are losing. If you encounter people looking to exclude bats from buildings, Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy has developed some resources that can help both educate people on the situation and enable them to act humanely. BCI and Bat World are also fantastic resources. In times like these, we need to do everything we can to help bats, and part of that is learning to live with and appreciate them.

I came across a very well done video on bats and the white nose syndrome. It talks about not only bats and the fungi but also what is being done to try to address the problem before it’s too late. It also talks about the role that bats have in our ecosystem and the impact of losing bats and other species that may die as a result of the loss of bats. It’s really an interesting video.

This disease has presented itself in Virginia, so this is definitely relevant to our Loudoun bats. Here’s the link where you can find the video: The Battle for Bats.

Are you seeing bats this year?  From my own accounts, I’ve seen a few flying here and there but  the numbers seem low. We’ve asked Leslie Sturges of Bat World NoVa to do the lead article on the state of our bats for the fall issue of the Habitat Herald, but action is needed so I wanted to share a few things with you:

On Wednesday, NPR had an interview on the current status of our bats – you can listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112035629

Here’s the excerpt from the interview: Scientists are searching the forests of the Northeastern U.S. for bat colonies hit by a disease called white nose syndrome, but they are finding whole forests completely depopulated. Researchers now say the deadly outbreak is expected to reach as far away as Florida and the Midwest.

Your Action is Needed:

I received an email from Bat Conservation International talking about bills moving through Congress right now and the need for more funds so scientists can figure out the problem and come up with a solution.  I’ll include the text of that email here and really encourage you to send a quick note to your Representatives and forward this post to your friends and family to also take action:

White-nose Syndrome is the deadliest disease ever faced by North American bats, with mortality rates of 95 percent or more at some hibernation caves.  In just three years, it has killed a million bats in the northeastern United States and has now spread into nine states. Entire species are potentially at risk across the continent if solutions are not found soon. And Congress is doing little to help.

Please contact your Senator and Congressperson immediately and urge them to provide funds for WNS research before it is too late.

Last April, Bat Conservation International (BCI) asked you to write your elected officials to support WNS research, and you responded. Since then, BCI founder, Merlin Tuttle, and other leading bat scientists and conservationists testified in Congressional hearings about the ecological and economic importance of bats and the urgent need for research to stop the spread of this devastating disease. Unfortunately, Congress has disappointed us. The Appropriations committee has written a bill with very limited funding only to monitor White-nose Syndrome in specific geographic areas. The bill does not fund vital research into causes and solutions.  Simply monitoring the status of the disease and counting the number of dead bats will not solve this crisis.
That’s why we need your help.

Although the House has approved the bill, the Senate will not vote until early September.  We still have time to ask our Congressional representatives to amend the bill to include research funding. Attached is a sample letter you may want to cut and paste into an email to your representatives.

Individual Congressional email addresses can easily be found here:

Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Representatives: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#va 

With federal funding still uncertain, donations to the WNS Rapid Response Fund at www.batcon.org/wnsdonateare urgently needed to support BCI’s efforts to combat WNS. As always, contributions in any amount are greatly appreciated.

Please write your representatives.

To listen to more NPR interviews pertaining to bats and White Nose Syndrome, visit their website or right click on the files below to open or download:

Scientists Say Bat Disease Likely to Spread
Bats Plagued by Mysterious ‘White Nose’ Disease
Deadly Disease to Bats Spreads in Northeast
Bat Killing Disease Spreads to More States
Experts Identify Fungus Suspected in Bat Die-Off

Seven of us went out to Bles Park in Ashburn, Virginia on Saturday night for a fun night hike to look and listen for frogs.  This is just the second of such night hikes that we’ve done so far but they’re so much fun that we’ll definitely be doing more starting next spring when the frogs and toads are really out in force.

For our walk last Saturday, we started by gathering in the parking area, discussing the possible species that we would encounter and listening to recordings of their calls. Through past nature walks at Bles, we’ve identified at least six species of frogs and toads that are definitely at Bles, but due to the time of year, we were most likely to only hear three of them (Green Frog, Gray Tree Frog and Bullfrog).

So, off we went along the trail. Bill Roberson from the county’s Parks and Recreation dept came out as a resource for us in case of anything which was great since it allowed us to just focus on wildlife. The park certainly looks different at night but donned with headlamps and flashlights, we were able to spot all sorts of great creatures.

As we walked along, we encountered numerous (at least 20)  juvenile American Toads (toadlets) out hunting for dinner -  hopping across our path and hunting through the grasses. There were also quite a few millipedes out hunting along with some really interesting beetles.

We were hoping for a slight drizzle to get the frogs to call but it missed us and the frogs stayed pretty quiet except for a lone Green Frog that called from along the river. As we explored along the river, we saw a bat or two hunting over the water. By the size of it, I’m guessing a Big Brown Bat.  We’ll have to bring the bat detector next time. We also had Great Blue Herons flying over just as the sun was setting.

The big fun of the evening was spotting the many Pickerel Frogs along the river.  They would have been breeding in the early spring time so it’s no surprise that they were not calling out their funny snore but it was great to spot them and practice some night photography.

We wrapped up our hike at 9pm.