Walker Nature Center
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BRANCHING OUT
Nature Notes SEPTEMBER Reston Has Bats, Man By Pam Findley
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Eastern Box Turtle eggs hatch. Partridgeberry and Winterberry shrubs have red berries. White-tailed Deer bucks rub velvet off antlers. Black Gum tree leaves turn red.
OCTOBER • • • •
Songbird and Monarch butterfly migrations are underway. Dogwood leaves turn red while Hickory and Tulip Tree leaves turn gold. Black Rat Snakes and Northern Water Snakes seek hibernation dens. Brown-eyed Susans are in bloom.
NOVEMBER • • • •
American Hollies have bright red berries. Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes return. Redbud trees have long seed pods. Frogs and turtles are burrowing.
By Susan Sims
Fast, furry and a folklore favorite, bats are unique to the mammal kingdom. Sometimes called flying mice, they are not related to rodents but are part of the order Chiroptera meaning “hand-wing” in Greek. They are the only mammal that truly flies. During this time of year, they are getting ready to migrate or hibernate. Bats use flight along with their ability to echolocate to hunt insects at night, capturing their prey with their wing or tail membranes and eating it in flight. This feat is impressive since some species fly up to 40 mph! That’s like a human eating a buffet while leaping from a trapeze. Bats serve an important ecological role because of their insect consumption. In the United States, bat control of agricultural pests is well documented and has an estimated value of $3.7 billion.
Research into their impact on mosquito populations and public health are on-going. While part of their diet, mosquito control by bats has sometimes been overstated, based on the study of bats in confined laboratory spaces. While it is possible for a bat to consume 10 or more mosquitoes per minute, there’s not much nutritional value in skeeters. There are “meatier” catches like beetles, moths and wasps. Some bat species prefer nectar, pollen or fruit and act as pollinators in the western United States, Latin America and Asia. Studies, which look at bats in the wild and have been published in peer-reviewed literature, find that mosquitoes constitute about 1-3% of their diet.
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Fall | 19 | Volume Twenty One