Marg and Gord Woollard
We thought you might like to see that, although reports of widespread destruction of the brown bat in North America due to the so-called white nose fungus periodically are featured in the media, we here in Northwestern Ontario like to think that we have some of the little fellows hanging on to what appears to be a healthy lifestyle.
The Fort Frances Times printed one of Joanna Loney’s columns last year where she highlighted our little brood of bats.
We had so much fun watching these little fellows carrying out their daily routine of grooming, wing stretching, jostling, and shuffling around on the window screen.
And occasionally having one (who we fancifully presume to be the matriarch or patriarch) detaching themselves from the mob, as it were, and moving over to the other window for what we think is some peace and quiet.
It also is fascinating to sit on the front porch at twilight and guess when the first bats will fly out to do their feeding frenzy.
As the summer progresses, the time of first flight advances a few minutes to adjust for the coming darkness.
Twenty minutes is about the normal time for our bats to do their feeding and then they are gone—not necessarily back to the window but, we feel, further into the forest behind our cabin.
We think that our mob must be able to hibernate close by and not make that precarious flight south, where they are liable to be exposed to that dreaded fungus.
