Another bat-counting season has come to a close, but plans are afoot—or shall I say awing—to have volunteers get involved with the bat count next year.

Have you…

• Seen 5 or more bats flying around your property?
• Seen any emerging at sunset from their roost—roof, siding, tree or rock crevices?
• Noticed an accumulation of guano nearby?
• A desire to sit outside in a lawn chair and go into a Zen state where you count bats for about an hour?

If so, you may be interested in a volunteer opportunity to register your roost site in the BC Community Bat Program, counting the bats at sunset to help us better understand their numbers. Check out this video that describes the reasoning behind conducting bat counts in BC.   

Remember to watch for dead, sick, or active bats this winter, and report this information or questions to the Mayne Island Conservancy. We are the local first point of contact within the BC Bat Program: Report your bats | BC BATS.

Becoming a Certified Bat-Friendly Community

You may have seen us discussing becoming a certified bat-friendly community at a Saturday market. The key components to becoming certified are:

1. Protect and create habitat.
2. Provide information about bats.
3. Promote learning.

Our executive director, and bat-conservation enthusiast, Michael Dunn, wrote an article that goes into more detail about what this certification means.

Take Action: If you want to add your name to the list of people who support this certification for Mayne Island, please send an email to info@mayneconservancy.ca

These are the current certified bat-friendly communities listed on the BC Bat website:

• Dawson Creek (since 2016/17)
• Peachland (since 2019)
• Richmond (since 2020)
• Port Moody (since 2022)
• Comox (since 2023)            

Listening to Bats

Bats generally vocalize outside the range of human hearing. To help identify the species present on Mayne Island, Conservancy staff use a special electronic echometer plugged into an iPad. This converts bat vocalizations to a form humans can hear and see. The following sounds of echolocation were collected by an echometer on Mayne Island.

Eptesicus fucus, Big Brown Bat

Lasiurus cinereus, Hoary Bat

Lasionycteris noctivagans, Silver-haired Bat

Myotis lucifugus, Little Brown Myotis

Myotis californicus, California Myotis

Myotis volans, Long-legged Myotis

Myotis yumanensis, Yuma Myotis

Now we just need a DJ to make some bat beats…

Bat Events in October

Below are a couple of bat-related events coming up at the library this month.

Bat Art Show – Call for Artists

Bat Week: Kids Craft, Storytime & Games