We are having the gentlest October I can remember in a long time. Sunny days hovering around 20C (70F), not a breath of wind, and lots of yellow leaves gently drifting down.
The weather gods are obviously trying to apologize for the dismal drenching we got in September. When camping on the Aug 21 weekend, we had no idea it would be five weeks before we could get back out to the lake.
Every weekend in September was cold, windy and very wet. Mushrooms sprang up all over our yard, and the furnace in the house was on more than it was off. (Our miserable September did however, produce an excellent number of migrating birds in the yard, as the bad weather grounded them for days at a time).
We finally made plans to go to the lake the last weekend of September. It was supposed to be sunny, and it was also the last weekend we had the site available, and we had to bring the trailer home.
We left with high hopes on a sunny Saturday morning, and arrived at the lake 1 1/2 hours later. The plan was to install our new furnace so we could stay the night, then leisurely pack up and return home on Sunday.
Well, it may have been sunny, but the wind was just howling when we got there. There were very few birds around, and the western grebes in the lake were making me seasick watching them bob up and down in the waves. Peering closely to see if their bills were orange or yellow – one of those silly things birders do to identify Clarke’s vs western grebes outside of breeding season…
I was reading in the trailer late Saturday afternoon (and wondering why were were out there), when my husband came in to start supper. We had been in and out of the trailer all afternoon, and I was therefore more than a little surprised when a bat suddenly flew out from behind the curtains.
He never sat still long enough for a good picture, but look at those little claws!
Bat encounter number four for the year. ( Bats #1 & #2 here, bat #3 here.)
With the wind howling and the sun still shining, I would have been more than happy to share the trailer with this bat until dusk, but he was very agitated, and frantically walking back and forth along the walls of the trailer. Finally he got close enough that I could pick him up in my bat towel, and I took him outside.
Before I let him go I had a good look at our visitor. He was most definitely not pleased with the situation and kept hissing at me like a cat. Impressive little rows of teeth he had too! I was intending to put him in a tree for safety, but as soon as I opened the towel, he flew away into the gale.
As the temperature started to drop after supper, we were still undecided whether to stay the night or not. The new furnace had been installed that afternoon, and we decided it might be a good idea to test it. Said test was carried out, said furnace did not work.
OK, that was the last straw. There were no birds left, the wind was howling and it gets dark a lot earlier the end of September, so we decided to pack up and go home.
Clearly, not our smartest move. To start packing up at 7:00 pm, from a campsight where we had been for 5 months, is not a quick job. What was supposed to be a leisurely packing up on Sunday turned into a frantic “throw it in the truck and move on” mentality.
One of the first things my husband turned his attention to was the woodpile. As he was putting the wood into the truck, he found another bat, nestled deep within the pile. This wood had been untouched for weeks, and the poor bat probably thought he had found the perfect safe spot.
I went charging out of the trailer, camera in hand, to discover the tiniest little bat I had ever seen. This was not the same species as previous bat encounters this summer. His back was covered with silver fur, and he was decidedly not impressed when I gave him a little pet. He didn’t move either, other than to hiss at me – the little guy really did not want to budge. After I got home and did some research, I discovered he was a silver-haired bat, which was a species I had never heard of.
He was so tiny my husband was positive he had been born that day. Wrong, but he really was quite small – likely a youngster born earlier this year. After his photo-op, I carefully picked up the two pieces of wood he was sitting on, with the intention of moving the bundle under a spruce tree. He didn’t care much for that idea, and flew away. When he took to the air I thought wow, that’s quite the wingspan for a little bat. As I learned later, silver-haired bats are known for their wingspan, which can measure up to 12″.
Not only was that bat encounter number 5 for the year, it was also a new mammal species for me. I don’t remember the last time I added a new mammal sighting, so that was a real treat.
Our manic packing resumed, and by the time we were ready to leave, this was our view.
A slightly ignoble finish to a year of camping, but considering everything else that had happened to us out there over the summer, it seemed rather fitting. Oh, and the furnace finally came on when we were nearly finished packing.
Our summer camp spot racked up a count of 65 bird species, including one lifer – an Eastern Phoebe. It also provided excellent views of pronghorn, American badger, little brown bats and yes, a new mammal species. I wish I had also kept track of the number of pictures I took out there over the summer…
Once we got back home, unpacked and had the trailer tucked in for the winter, the weather improved dramatically in southern Alberta. Go figure.