Annual Appalachian Bat Count

 My dad and I counted bats for the Pennsylvania Game Commission since since the 1990s.  Dad died in 2006, but he always enjoyed sitting out in a lawn chair at dusk counting them as they emerged from our attic, or the porch roof, or the shed.  I have continued in his footsteps.

In 2008/2009 Pennsylvania bats were devastated by a disease called “White Nose Syndrome.”  ln some areas over 90% of little brown bats died, and our own bats suffered something close to that.  The numbers have gotten better, however, and here is a copy of my report for this year.

I’ve enclosed the sheets for the three locations.  As for the house, I think it would be safe to remove that from the data base in future years.  We have not had any bats in the attic for years, nor above the house porch.  HOWEVER, we did have two bats IN the house in June and July.  The first one had the largest wing span of any bat I’ve seen around here, and I assume it was a big brown bat.  The second one, a few weeks later, was a little brown bat.  Both were let out safely after we opened doors to the outside  I don’t know how they got in, but sometimes we leave the cellar door open, and they may have come up that way.

In March a roofer “bat proofed” the Kibler School.  He said he would not guarantee his work.  The problem was that the growing colony of bats in the school were starting to leave a layer of bat crap in the attic.  Anyway, when I went over in August just to check, I counted 21 in an area below where the roofer worked.  The recount the next evening was 29–I think I had a bad angle the first night. 

We had moved the bat house that was on the north side of the school to a dead tree about 20 feet away with a southern exposure.  Unfortunately, no bats have ever gone into the house, so we now moved it to the shed next to an existing bat house.  

As for the previously existing bat house on the shed, we definitely had bats earlier in the year, but in August I did not count one bat coming out of that house.  We did have individual bats in the shed itself judging from little piles of bat guano at two spots on the floor.  I also left open the door to a small shed where we once kept goats, but no bats are using that.  Hopefully, next year the large new bat house will attract some residents.