R: Mexican Free-tailed Bats!
Today we finally got to do something that’s been on our calendar for a bit now. We attended the Yolo Bat Talk and Tour in Davis. I had learned about this last year, but tickets had already sold out by the time I tried getting them. So I snapped them up for us early on this year.
We first attended a talk at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Headquarters, which is run by the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife. The woman who did the talk also was involved in rescue/rehab/reintroduction for bats, and she was awesome.
She showed us three different local bat species, the Mexican Free-tailed Bat (the most common Bat in California), the Big Brown Bat, and the Pallid Bat (our California state bat). Two of each were alive and just hanging out in the smallest contraptions. Often snuggled right next to each other, which apparently keeps them from drying out!
Using a fixed live camera, she handled them directly at the camera so we could all view each species on a huge projector. Which was SO COOL to see their faces so close up and their teeth and wings and tails and cuteasbuttons noses.
We learned so much! Like how bats aren’t blind. So very few are Vampire Bats. And how important they are to crops (by eating tons and tons of Moths).
And THEN we all caravanned to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area to watch them fly out for the night from under a highway bridge bypass thing. All seemed to be the Mexican Free-tailed Bat. And I had NO IDEA there’d be SO MANY.
We also got to see a raptor (which I later IDed as a Swainson’s Hawk) trying for an evening snack, but it didn’t seem like it was successful from what we could see.
And we were lastly treated to a brilliantly pink sunset, to boot.
Incredible time. Live Bats! And the best Bat Show you’ll likely ever see. Highly recommend!
