Bamberger’s Folly – Huh?

I’ve forgotten just when this happened, but it’s all true…

When our bat cave was about finished, we held a big event at the site. We invited every bat scientist we knew of as well as TV, radio and newspaper writers. They came in droves. This event was in 1998. It was the first time the word “chiroptorium” was ever used; it being authored by my son, David K. Bamberger, and my wife, Margaret C. Bamberger. Here’s how they arrived at the name. In science bats fall into an order called “chiroptera” (it’s pronounced KI-rop-tur-ah) which means hand wing and of course “auditorium” which is a big place to see a show. We have submitted it to three well-known dictionaries and expect that it will soon be an accepted word.

Here is the chiroptorium as it was just before the application of the gunite. The framework was of iron rebar rods – 20 tons of them, welded and tied together then covered with metal lath forming 8,000 square feet of surface area. Scientists at the time thought that our man made habitat would hold one million bats. Photograph taken by Susan Sander.

Shortly after the big scientist and media event, gunite was blown onto the steel framework. This was the only part of the construction that we contracted out ~ this was done by a company that builds swimming pools. The black bottom was of tar painted on to prevent moisture from weakening the structure. Photograph taken by Susan Sander.

As the picture illustrates, we had covered the structure with earth. Bat biologists told us that “seeding” bat houses by capturing bats and introducing them had never ever been successful, but they thought with a structure of this size it just might work. Two attempts were made bringing bats, each time but to no avail – they left that evening and never returned. Over a two year period, we witnessed one hundred or so bats that found our chiroptorium on their own, but they didn’t stay long. Upon investigating I found numerous dead bats on the floor below an observation room window. Further investigation revealed that they had crashed into the window and I made an erroneous assumption. I thought that the bats’ echolocation was not working off the glass. . . . It was a long and anxious wait, but then a bat biologist from England, Allison Walsh, paid us a visit in 2003 and after two days of scientific study determined that there was a streak of light reflecting off the wall creating an effect on the glass that to the circling bats appeared as an opening to them. She said, particularly in small spaces (our main dome is forty foot wide and 20 foot high), bats use their eyes as well as echolocation thus they slammed into the window, injuring themselves and therefore finding our chiroptorium very unfriendly . . . . Within days we covered the three observation windows with cardboard – and now comes a series of events I call “Bamberger’s Folly – HUH!” Photograph taken by Lorraine Benini.

It’s late in the summer of 2003 when a very diligent reporter for the San Antonio Express News calls – “Mr. Bamberger, I’m doing a follow up story on your chiroptorium, how many bats do you have?” I’m a bit embarrassed as at the time the number is small, say maybe 100, so I try to be funny ~ “I can’t tell you exactly how many, but they cost me $5,000.00 each” ~ “You don’t have any bats then, so I’m going to do a column on Bamberger’s Folly” and so the story comes out, Bamberger spent as much on a bat house as he did on his own house - the chiroptorium is Bamberger’s Folly.

But wait ~ This was at the same time that the bat biologist, Allison Walsh, was here and within days of us covering the windows with cardboard a migrating group of bats – my estimate was 20,000 – found our cave and moved in. I called another of our media event guests who was from Channel 12, a San Antonio television station, who promptly sent a film crew up and this spectacle shows at 6 and 9 p.m. on the nightly news just a few days after the Bamberger’s Folly story. . . . completely exonerating me and putting egg on the face of the hapless reporter. Photograph taken by Lorraine Benini.

Scientists from Boston University have developed a infrared computerized camera and an algorithm that can process its images to count the bats as they swarm out of our cave. They visit us the first two days of every summer month. A few days after they have been here with their equipment, they call us and tell us how many bats we have. This year they were not able to do the October census. Now at then end of this summer the population has swelled to what I believe is 200,000 Mexican free-tail bats and a small number of another Hill Country species called Cave myotis. The emergence is awesome! Sometimes lasting twenty-one minutes. They come out and form a serpentine column. Scientists believe this is a defense behavior for protection from the hungry eyes of red tail hawks and owls. Photograph taken by Lorraine Benini.

While most all of our guests observe the evening emergence very few have ever witnessed the bats return. However our good friend and volunteer, Chris Johnson, was on hand to witness this extraordinary event. He is adding it to this blog posting.

Thanks, David. Chris Johnson here, just to add a few relevant links. However, let me begin by saying that I’ve been waiting ages for someone to post photos of the chiroptorium’s construction to this blog, but just before I was going to start a formal campaign of nagging David, he came-up with this post. Wonderful. However, having seen one of David’s slide shows about the chiroptorium, I’m fairly sure there are even more photos that’re worth seeing. So, post comments asking about those photos and you might get lucky. (David, I’ll scan the slides for you, if necessary.)

Now, those links I mentioned.... First, there’s a high-definition (720p) movie I shot of the bats returning to the chiroptorium on August 14, 2010. A search of YouTube for "Bamberger chiroptorium" turns-up a number of videos, but this one seems to be unique in showing the return of the bats, and is unusual for being high-definition. (See my associated blog post for further details.)

Second, for those of you with QuickTime installed on your machines (that’ll be all Mac users, and some Windows users), there’s a QuickTime VR spherical panorama I shot inside the main (first and largest) chamber of the chiroptorium back in December of 2007. The chamber has changed a bit since then, as more bat boxes were added to the ceiling in February, 2008, but this panorama is still pretty much the best and only way for most of us to get a good look at the inside of the finished chiroptorium, as access is tightly restricted both to avoid disturbing the bats, and to avoid disturbing the various ongoing studies of the developing ecosystem inside the structure.

More details on that experience, the chiroptorium, and the challenges associated with that panorama, are available from the relevant post on my blog.

Finally, there’s this aerial view of the chiroptorium from March, 2009, which was obtained with the help of my good friend Jerry Gatlin who happens to be a pilot. Jerry did the low flying and aggressive banking, while I rattled around in the back of the plane shooting the photos.

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There are so many, many good causes that need financial help. Preserving the earth itself is important. So, if you would like to help us with a donation, we are a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation and gifts are deductible to the extent of the law. You can send your contributions to: Bamberger Ranch Preserve, 2341 Blue Ridge Drive, Johnson City, TX 78636 or donate through your computer by using PayPal.

Aeroecology – The Next Frontier

I’d make a bet that you who follow my blog have never seen this word. Neither had I, so I looked in my trusty Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary and wasn’t at all surprised that it wasn’t there! What was there was a number of words that will give you a clue – such as aerodynetics, “a branch of aviation that has to do with gliding” or aerodynamics “relating to the force of air in motion.”

Now – I’ll quote from a paper written by Boston University professor – Thomas Kunz, Ph.D:

“Every so often in the history of science and technology, empirical discoveries, theory, and technological developments converge, making it possible to recognize a new discipline. Past examples include astrobiology, biomechanics, sociobiolgy, and more recently, macroecology, bioinformatics, and nanotechnology – disciplines that are now well established in the lexicon of modern science and technology. Aeroecology is a new discipline of ecology that embraces and integrates the domains of atmospheric science, earth science, geography, ecology, computer science, computational biology, and engineering. The unifying concept that underlies this emerging discipline is its focus on the planetary boundary layer, or aerosphere, and the myriad of airborne organisms that, in large part, depend upon this environment for their existence. The term aerosphere is derived from the Greek aero, meaning air, and sphere referring to planet Earth. In contrast to continents and oceans, which are interrupted by one another, the aerosphere is the only environment in the biosphere that is truly circumglobal.”

So – What’s This Have To Do With Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve?

In past blogs, I reported that “research” was a part of our mission. But at the time we thought of this as being on plants, insects, birds and animals, the natural environment of the ranch. What’s going on here at our Preserve for three weeks in June/July is mind-boggling.

The researchers are funded by grant from the National Science Foundation and Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Boston University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, the Center for Ecology and Conservation, Biology, and a corporate donation from FLIR, Inc., the company that donated the mobile research laboratory for housing the high resolution thermal imaging cameras. This custom built trailer is used to transport the high tech equipment developed specifically for this research project. Photograph taken by J. David.

The object of the research is to learn how bats, birds and insects can fly in groups. You’ve probably noticed the ups and downs, the individual and group flight behavior of bats – more to our lifetime. Curiously, Roy Bedichek, author of Adventures with a Texas Naturalist, described these maneuvers as “a travesty of flight!” Photograph taken by J. David.

Nathan Fuller, graduate student, Ph.D. Program in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Department of Biology, Boston University, is holding a device used to calibrate three thermal infrared cameras for exploring and describing the movements of bats in three dimensions as they emerge from our Chiroptorium. Photograph taken by J. David.

These highly specialized cameras make it possible to characterize the flight of individual bats within groups (or so-called collective behavior) as they emerge nightly from the Chiroptorium. This research is being conducted by Professor Thomas Kunz, Director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Boston University assisted by graduate students Nathan Fuller (Biology) and Diane Theriault (Computer Science), research assistant Jaclyn Aliperti (Biology), and undergraduate student Leslie Pepin (Biology). Photograph taken by J. David.

Trailer with a DeTect vertical profiler radar used to explore the behavior of bats, birds, and insects in the lower atmosphere. This equipment is being deployed as part of a “radar aeroecology workshop” being conducted here on Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve in early July. Photograph taken by Lois Sturm.

Paul A. Heady III, Research Technician, Central Coast Bat Research Group, Aptos, CA and his wife, Winifred E. Frick, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Boston University along with the youngest scientist ever to be here doing bat research – their eight month old son, aptly named “Darwin.” Photograph taken by J. David.

There are another twelve scientists with us now. Too many to photograph. Besides, like bats they sleep all day and stay out all night!

I have seven copies of Dr. Kunz’s lecture, “Aeroecology: The Next Frontier” in a pamphlet form. It’s very interesting stuff. I will gladly send it to the first seven people who respond with your name and snail mail address.

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There are so many, many good causes that need financial help. Preserving the earth itself is important. So, if you would like to help us with a donation, we are a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation and gifts are deductible to the extent of the law. You can send your contributions to: Bamberger Ranch Preserve, 2341 Blue Ridge Drive, Johnson City, TX 78636.

Birding Workshop held May 17 and 18

Selah staff members Steven Fulton and Colleen Gardner put together a new workshop to teach some of the basics of birdwatching. Justin Duke, the newest addition to our staff was involved in many aspects of the workshop, and in his 4 1/2 months here he has learned a lot about birds, including identification.

Eleven participants gathered in the Center for a delicious dinner before an evening of educational talks, pictures. and a night hike. There are lots of bird characteristics which help a birder identify the group a bird belongs to. They include beak shape and size which helps us know what that bird eats. For instance a Heron spears fish with a long sharp bill, a Warbler grabs insects with a small pointed bill, a Cardinal eat seeds with a strong stout bill, a Hawk tears meat with a hooked bill, and a Hummingbirds sips nectar with a long tubular bill. Feet and legs tell us whether a bird wades in water, catches and kills prey with its talons, or grips tree limbs.

Steven shows examples of bird characteristics, key markings, feather structure and bird silhouettes.

Suzanne and her sister-in-law Shy tackle an activity about bird beaks and food preferences.

Outside they listen for birds and discuss the importance of learning bird songs and sounds as a way of identifying birds that are difficult to see.

The group took a short break from birds to watch a bat emergence of Mexican Free-tailed bats at the Chiroptorium.
Hand-Colored-Lino Cut, by Margie Crisp

Upon returning to the Center, the group heard a fascinating talk by Sallie, a birds of prey rehabilitator. She told us about raptors and owls and the many things she has learned about them in her years of taking care of injured or orphaned birds. 

During the hike on Friday evening, Steven used his amazing ability to mimic a Screech Owl, and in response an owl flew to a branch within 20 feet of the group. I guess that the owl whose territory we were in wanted to find out what owl has invaded his area!
Pyrographic art by Kathleen Marie

I want to show everyone reading this blog some of the wonderful birds we see around the ranch. Since I collect nature art I decided to show examples of artwork done by friends and family. A volunteer at the ranch and good friend Kathleen Marie let me include some of her beautiful pyrographic art. My daughter Margie Crisp agreed to let me use some of her hand colored prints. Frances Sharp, my youngest daughter did a very nice set of painted wooden birds, and her Golden-cheeked Warbler is in the blog too. I also included an illustration that I did for the book about Selah, "Water From Stone".

Eastern Bluebirds live near our house in nestboxes so we see them frequently.
Hand-Colored Lino Cut, by Margie Crisp.

Black-capped Vireos live in areas where there are shin oak thickets.
Hand-Colored-Lino Cut, by Margie Crisp

Great Blue Herons are seen in shallow areas of Miller Creek and along the edges of tanks.
Hand-Colored-Lino Cut, by Margie Crisp

Golden-cheeked Warblers nest where there are both Ashe Juniper and Spanish Oak. Woodwork & Painting, by Frances Sharp (website is about her goat ranch)

Painted Bunting(s) in Texas Madrone Tree, are seen here, and it is always a thrill to see such a beautifully colored bird. They look like escaped pet birds from the tropics.

Pyrographic art by Kathleen Marie

Carolina Wrens build nests in nestboxes and other places near the house so we see them often. They are small and their perky tail is so cute!
Pyrographic art by Kathleen Marie.

I keep a feeder full of thistle seed so a frequent visitor in my yard is the Lesser Goldfinch, which nests here in the spring and many of them stay here year round.
Pyrographic art by Kathleen Marie

Inca Doves can be heard here singing their mournful "no hope, no hope".
Pyrographic art by Kathleen Marie

The male Vermilion Flycatcher is an amazing orange-red, and in spring-time they do a fluttering dance in the air, which shows off their brilliant plumage in order to attract a mate .
Water colored pen and ink illustration by Margaret Bamberger, for "WATER FROM STONE".

The workshop group woke up before sunrise on Saturday morning in order to be out early to hear and see birds. The following list is most of the birds seen between 6:45 and noon. They are in the order they appeared on the list that I copied from one of the birders. Bold indicates that a picture of the bird is in this blog.

Indigo Bunting, Painted Bunting, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Lark Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Berwick's Wren, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Turkey and Black Vultures, Red-tailed Hawk, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Vermilion Flycatcher, Lesser Goldfinch, Purple Martin, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Redwing Blackbird, Cowbird, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, White-eyed Vireo, Black and White Warbler, Golden-cheeked Warbler, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Mockingbird, Cardinal, Black-capped Vireo, Titmouse, Caracara, Pine Siskin. A Chuck Wills Widow and a Screech Owl were heard on the night hike.

I've seen Eastern Bluebirds going in and out of bluebird houses, so they are here. Inca Doves and Carolina Wrens are here also but were not on the list from Saturday.

A few comments made by individuals attending the workshop:

Elaine said, "I especially liked seeing the Golden-cheeked Warbler."

Suzanne said,  "Sallie's raptors were amazing. Steve called an owl and he showed up!"

Darwin said, "I loved it - I'll be back!!!"

Susan said, "This was great! A weekend away from work & the clock was a real gift."

Sallie, our rehabilitator had a pair of hummingbird nestlings in her care, and because they needed to be fed every 15 minutes, she brought them out with her.  She is not allowed to use them to show the public. However, she did ask for my help in feeding them, and agreed to let me take a picture to share on this blog.

Birdwatching is gaining in popularity for good reason. It is a wonderful hobby, and takes one out into nature. you can find birds in the cities in tree lined neighborhoods, in parks and in the country. Avid birders often take vacations in foreign countries with birding tour groups such as the Victor Emanuel Nature Tours. There is the National Audubon Society and Audubon Chapters (Travis Audubon) in many cities, towns, and counties, that have newsletters, and regular birdwatching outings. 

Check it out - it is lots of fun, and birders are really nice people to be around. They are generally enthusiastic, fun, and very good sports. I've been out in freezing wet weather with a group to see a special Mexican hawk that was reported in Texas. We covered ourselves with black garbage bags to keep dry, and not a soul complained about the weather or how long we had to wait for the bird to show up.

College Students at Selah for Field Work

Trinity University students come to BRP for field studies.

Dr. David O. Ribble of the Trinity University brought a small number of his students out for a field trip last weekend (April 4, 5, and 6). The class is studying Vertebrate Evolution, and the purpose of this field trip was to learn field techniques for collecting data on vertebrates, and starting a census of native animals here on the ranch.

David O. Ribble, Ph.D., is a Mammologist, and studied small mammals for this doctorate research.

Whitney McCarthy, Latoya Comer, Claire Edwards, and Rachel Johansen worked hard to trap small mammals. Claire is holding a Sherman trap which is used to trap mice and other small mammals in the field. They are "have a heart" traps for little mammals.

Claire and Rachel look for the traps that were set out with dry oatmeal as bait the night before. They set out 120 traps each night, so it was difficult to remember exactly where each one was placed.

Whitney and Latoya help look for traps too. If the door of the trap is closed the trapped animal is examined, measured and identified. If it is open it is left there to hopefully catch something later in the day or during the upcoming night.

When the animal is removed it is put in a plastic bag so it can be handled safely. People that handle wild animals get rabies vaccinations so they don’t have to worry about getting rabies.

Dr. Ribble weighs the mouse while it’s in a baggie. The weight of the baggie is subtracted from the total weight to get the mouse’s weight.

Mice can be held behind their head so they can’t bite or scratch you. This is a White-ankled Mouse (Peromyscus pectoralis) and we believe it is the most common mouse on the ranch. They even come in our houses and we trap them in Sherman traps which don’t hurt them. We release them in areas that are far from our houses.

Dr. Ribble looks at the specimen to see if it is a male or female.

The length of the mouse’s body and tail are measured on a ruler.

Length of its back foot is measured, as well as ear length. If all the information needed is collected in the field then the mouse is released.

Other native rodents that were captured in Sherman traps were one Hispid Cotton Rat (Sigmodon Hispidus) and one Northern Pygmy Mouse (Baiomys taylori).

Track plates which are sheets of aluminum with carpenter's chalk on them are put out with bait to see if larger mammals are out and about. The prints on this plate are fox size and most likely made by a Gray Fox. Some of the prints are quite clear.

As we were driving to a new site, Dr. Ribble braked, jumped out of the van and picked up a Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus). It is a tree or bush dwelling snake that is usually not far from water. They eat crickets, grasshoppers, larvae of moths and butterflies, as well as spiders.

On Friday and Saturday evenings Bat Mist Nets were set up over a creek to catch bats flying around that might be swooping down to get a drink of water or catch insects emerging from the water. Four male Mexican Free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) were captured on April 5th. Here Claire Edwards holds a bat.

In this picture one of the bats is held with its wings held so they can be seen.

The students went out early in the morning each day to listen and look for birds.
Seen and/or heard:
Mourning Dove
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Cardinal
Wild Turkey
Carolina Wren
Bewick’s Wren
Black-capped Chickadee
Field Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Rufous Crowned Sparrow
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Tufted Titmouse
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Black and White Warbler
Golden-cheeked Warbler
Black-chinned Hummingbird

All of the information gathered by a field trip like this one not only provides inportant baseline data for the ranch, but will also help scientists in the future understand how climate change is affecting known habitats that have data collected over a period of time. We have been talking with some UT professors about doing ongoing research of insect populations. Hopefully Dr. Ribble will continue to bring students here for vertebrate field studies.

The four students were good enough to write me some of their impressions from their short but exciting stay here at Selah.

Whitney McCarthy said, "I enjoyed the beautiful terrain of the ranch; what's even more amazing is all of the restoration of the grasslands that has taken place here. I enjoyed setting traps for mice at various areas and seeing what we came up with the next day."

Latoya Comer said, "I didn't know what to expect coming into this adventure, but I sure didn't expect the sprawling beauty, the silencing beauty, of the Bamberger Ranch Preserve. My purpose was to learn the trapping techniques of small mammals, but I found my pleasure in hiking and finding niches of paradise in the land. Thank you for the opportunity to "pause" this weekend."

Claire Edwards said, "This is an amazing ranch! There is so much to do and to see. I really enjoyed getting to see all the animals. We caught a lot of mice and bats. My favorite part was getting to held the bat and releasing it into a tree. It scurried up the tree and eventually flew off into the night. It has been a very peaceful, enjoyable experience."

Rachel Johansen said, "It is very comforting to know not only there is such great natural beauty in Texas, but that there are genuinely great people trying to preserve it. Personally I really enjoyed the wonderful birds and their beautiful songs. I definitely think bird watching might become a new hobby of mine."

We enjoyed having you at the ranch. It is not only exciting that you all see and learn about the ranch, but we are getting good documentation of the animals that live here and where they are found.

Thanks to you Dr. Ribble, and to your students!

More About Bats, and Selah Winter Bird Count

A Little More About Bats

Illustration by Margie Crisp which is part of a larger illustration used on a T-shirt.Note the "free-tail" that reaches beyond the membrane.

This illustration of a bat-wing shows the arm bones and finger bones and how, with a membrane stretched across them, they form a wing. (Adapted from Bats, by M. Brock Fenton).

Photograph by M Bamberger, cropped and manipulated to bring out details in the wings

Recently, researchers who went into the Chiroptorium informed us that the wooden boxes inside the cave were full of Mexican Free-tailed bats. We knew there were bats in them, but assumed that they were Cave Myotis, another species of bats that share caves with Mexican Free-tailed bats, that frequently stay in Texas during the cold months. This is very interesting, and we are wondering if the bats have a source of food. Dr. Kunz told us he would like to come back soon and try to find out what, if anything the bats are eating. I'll include such information in a future blog when and if we find out.

The image above is a close-ups of part of an image that was in the most recent blog of January 11. Chris Johnson suggested that there might be information in the digital image that could be brought out with manipulation. So I tried, and now you can actually see bones of their fingers- which are the reason that bats belong to the order Chiroptera which means "hand-wing". Their fingers hold and shape their wing membranes, most clearly in the bat at the upper right of the picture. I am surprised by this, and excited because it was late afternoon when I took it, the light was poor, and they were flying by very rapidly. You can also see a little tail extending past the membrane between their feet, which explains Free-tailed as part of their name. Many species of bats don't have any portion of their tail extending beyond their feet.

Winter Bird Count Spots a Total of 42 Species

We held our Winter Bird Count today, which is one of three counts we hold each year and have been doing so for 7 years now. The weather is usually cold in January and we frequently get low numbers of species, especially when we have a stiff wind and/or rain. This year it was cold and windy, but clear.

The volunteer birders are led by Marsha May who is an excellent and avid birder. She is president of Travis Audubon Society, which is a big job and I have heard that she is doing an excellent job. Marsha is the person who communicates with our volunteers to let them know when bird counts are scheduled. We invite those that are interested to arrive the night before, bring a dish and join in the "pot luck" dinner, followed by a night hike, a slide show, or just sitting around the fire chatting. Bunks are available for our overnight guests in the dormitory wings of The Center.

The adventure starts at dawn, and the groups are out on their area when the sun comes up. Each group has a person who knows the ranch roads, a very good birder that knows birds by sound as well as sight, and one or two people interested in learning more about birds. We drive to interesting areas, and frequently walk to good sites. We bird until noon, when we return to The Center.

The "count-down" determines the total number of species seen and if a new species to the ranch was observed. A representative of each group indicates whether or not a bird was seen when Marsha reads the list out loud. We had five groups out on Sunday, which cover a large portion of the 5500 acres of the ranch. We look for birds in broad valleys, along creeks, lakes and tanks (Texas speak for ponds), open fields, canyons, brushy hillsides, and the flat remnants of the Edwards Plateau which are our "hill tops". Thus most of the different habitats are checked. Without exception, no one group sees all the birds that are identified during a bird count.

Below is a photograph of most of the participants, and including the two that didn't go with a group. (Margaret and J. David showed up for the count-down).

Birders for Winter Count, January 20, 2008

J. David Bamberger and our new employee in Education at BRP, Justin Duke.

Marsha May conducts the Count Down for the day.

Birds seen on 1/20/08 that had been seen on other Winter Bird Counts:
Wild Turkey, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, American Coot, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Ladder-backed Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Western Scrub-Jay, Common Raven, Carolina Chickadee, Black-crested Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Bewick's Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Spotted Towhee, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Meadowlark, House Finch, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch

Birds seen that had not been seen on previous winter counts: Crested Caracara, American Woodcock, Pryrrhyloxia

New bird for Selah: LeConte's Sparrow

Photographs taken by Margaret Bamberger on 1/20/08.

Crazy About Bats!

Bats, the Chiroptorium, and bat researchers.

The Chiroptorium is our man-made bat cave. Chiroptera is the order for bats in the family of Mammals, which is the origin for the first part of the name Chiroptorium. The second part of the name "torium" comes from the end of auditorium which is a large place for a gathering. So, Chiroptorium is a large place for bats to gather. In March each spring, Mexican Free-tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) arrive in large numbers from their winter homes in Mexico, Central and South America. Because our cave is a nursery colony, most of the bats are pregnant females. They leave each evening as the sun sets to find food, which is lots of flying insects, especially moths.

In the middle of June one baby is born to each mother bat. The babies, naked, pink and flightless, are deposited in a contiguous area on the ceiling or wall of their cave. The heat generated by all the close bat-bodies (up to 400 per square foot) help to keep them warm. Mothers leave their babies in the cave when out hunting for food at night. Each mom relocates her baby by calling to her pup when she returns. As she gets close she can also smell her offspring. Her milk is rich and high in fat, and her baby grows quickly, and within a month the pups are nearly as big as an adult, furred and ready to fly and feed on their own.

Dr. Gary McCracken on the left in the above photo, has done a lot of research in Texas, which has increased our understanding about Mexican Free-tailed bats, how they live, what they eat, and how important they are to agriculture. Using weather balloons with echolocation sensors on them, he was able to find out that free-tailed bats find and fly into clouds of migrating moths that they love to eat, and which provide them with important nutrition. These moths lay their eggs on corn, cotton and other crops, and the caterpillars eat the developing plants. Therefore having bats eat lots of moths before they have a chance to lay their eggs is beneficial to farmers.

The huge colonies of Mexican Free-tailed bats in Central Texas live mostly in caves, but are also found under bridges like the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, and in culverts. When an continuous stream of bats emerge in the evenings for many minutes, and even hours, it is hard to imagine how many bats are flying in front of you. Until the last few years there was no way to accurately count the numbers, until Dr. Tom Kunz, from Boston University, on the right in the picture above, developed a method using infrared video photography and computers. A continual infrared image of the bats emerging from the mouth of a cave, in which the warm bodies of the bats appear like little white dots moving against a dark background is read by a computer and the total number calculated.

One of Dr. Kunz's post-doctoral students, Dr. Nickolay Hristov, shown with his new Belgium sheep-dog three month old puppy, Coda, and another graduate student, seen below, Louise Allen came to The Bamberger Ranch in 2004 and conducted a count. The next spring they started a regular once a month count of our bats during the time the bats are in Texas. I remember the early counts were below 10,000 bats. However, we were thrilled when we realized that there were babies in the cave, which meant that even though the numbers were small, we had a nursery colony. Each year since then the numbers have increased dramatically and this year after the babies were flying the number reached 121,000.

Louise Allen-Hristova, who is now married to Nick, had also been researching the effects of stress on the growth of young bats. She has finished collecting information for her dissertation, and is now writing it. She will be awarded her Ph.D. soon.

Another doctoral graduate students of Dr. Kunz that has worked on our counts is Jon Reichard, seen above with his wife Jen who is an 8th grade science teacher. That's J. David Bamberger smiling on the right.

The research by Dr. Kunz's team has included counts on many of the Central Texas caves as well as Carlsbad Cave in New Mexico. This has added an important chapter to our knowledge of bats. We certainly thank them for their work here at Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and for their friendship.

Bat Conservation International (BCI), whose headquarters are in Austin, has a great deal of information about bats in Texas that is available to the public, both on line and in books that are for sale from their bookstore, which is also on line. In the months when there are nightly emergences from the Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake, there are specialists from BCI there to tell you about the lives of bats and how important they are to humans. It is a wonderful show, and I recommend that you get out and see it.