Montana, July 2008

---

Wow, I can hardly believe another month has gone by! I spent the 4th of July with some friends, playing music and watching fire works. It was a really wonderful break after returning from our first survey in Idaho.

Since then, I have conducted two more week-long surveys. Our second survey was in and around the southwest area because my work partner Tim injured his spine and had to be within a 45 minute-or-less drive from the local hospital. We were fairly unsuccessful with finding bats during that week. We ended up spending night after night bored out of our minds because the silly bats wouldn't fly.

It turns out that the temperature on two of those nights went all the way down to 0 degrees. Although bats can fly and be active in the cold, their energy reserves are so small, that it is a huge risk, especially for mothers and their young. That could have been the reason we saw very few bats that week.

All of the surveys we did that week were in the middle of high-altitude desert so you can imagine how hot and how cold it gets! But as usual, the sky in the desert is the most magical thing. Here is a stark, brown ladscape in front of you, and up there, a velvet sky with the brightest stars twinkling like the eyes of a billion happy children.

After our Dillon-area surveys, I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a friend's car and drive up to Jackson Hot springs. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to drive into the middle of nowhere and suddenly find these spectacular hot springs. Soaking in the hundred degree springs on a cool evening in the mountains is my idea of a good time. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't wipe the grin off my face all the while I was there. After soaking for a good couple of hours, I treated myself to a fancy dinner (by Dillon standards..) of herb-basted chicken with mashed potatoes and caramelized green beans. I drove back to Dillon that night stuffed and terribly pleased.

On my second day off, I drove to Bannack, Montana's best preserved ghost town. I happened to visit on the day that Montanans were celebrating "Bannack Day" when people relive the good ol' days of the gold rush. Bannack was the first town in Montana where gold was found, so in the 1800s it suddenly became a hub for fortune-seekers. But by the late 1800s no more gold was found and of course people were finding it elsewhere. The last person left Bannack in the early 1900s and it has been a ghost town since then.

Bannack Day had people dressed in their old west outfits with cowboy boots and hats and spurs. Women carried pretty umbrellas and wore lavish hats. It was too hot so I just threw on some jeans and a t-shirt 😊 There were horse and carriage rides and various activities like candle-making and gold panning. I found 3 flecks of gold so small that I couldn't even take a picture of them. But I did find some garnet which was quite thrilling.

The following week I headed up to Glacier National Park for a week of bat surveys. For those of you who don't know, Glacier is known for its grizzly bears and has had many grizzly-related maulings and deaths. So as you can imagine, I was scared stiff about going there. We had to have an extra day of bear-training so that we knew how to store food and interact with a bear should we have found one.

Our first survey at Summit was the hardest. We had to hike a mile to the site carrying all our equipment. The hike was extremely steep and my share of the equipment was so heavy that I had to make 2 trips. I ended up re-injuring my right knee (see Panama entries for the first time I injured my knee) and then injured my left. To top it all, it was the coldest night that month and there were no bats to be found. I spent the night frightened of the bears, cold, hungry and in pain and beautiful as the place was, I wanted so badly to be back at home.

But our next 5 nights turned out to be fantastic. Once the sun rose and we got out of Summit, our luck seemed to change instantly. The weather warmed up, we found sites close enough to the road so we didn't have to hike, we found a cabin to stay in and most importantly, we found bats! Lots of them!

We found many different species every night including silver-haired bats and hoary bats (see the pictures). The nights seemed warmer and I really do think that encouraged more bats to fly.

During one of our survey-scouting sessions we saw a bear. But he was far enough away that we were not too afraid. Had he charged us, we could have jumped into our car and driven off. It turned out that although the bear was a cinnamon-brown, it was not a grizzly but rather a black bear. Phew.

We came back to Dillon absolutely exhausted but happy that our Lady Bat-Luck had smiled on us and given us some interesting survey results.

For my time off after the Glacier surveys, I visited some friends in Missoula. Laura and Anuj are from Austin and I met them recently through mutual friends. It was so much fun hanging out with them, cooking Indian food and helping with their newborn baby! They were extremely good hosts and I was almost too sad to leave on Sunday and get back to Dillon.

But now I am here and ready to begin my next survey. I will be surveying with a retired biologist named Lewis Young, who has had quite a bit of bat experience. We will be surveying more of the Dillon area and I hope that we find some interesting bats around here!

Until next month,
Alisha

---