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Camera Roll Reveal – Summer Bat Surveys

Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

by Meaghan Lyon

The CWF team chose some of their favorite photos taken during their summer bat surveys to share. Enjoy this visual journey into the field to see what a night of mist net surveys looks like.

The CWF Team, Meaghan Lyon, Leah Wells, and Sherry Tirgrath, deploy the mist net at sunset. The long yellow poles are used to raise the net up to 5 meters high.

Leah extracts a bat from the mist net with the assistance of Meaghan. Sometimes crochet hooks are used to help remove the fine netting from the bat. Thick deerskin gloves are always worn to protect from sharp teeth!

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An Exciting Catch- the Hoary Bat!

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022

By Meaghan Lyon

As mentioned in the previous weeks, there was one special bat that made its way into the top of our net during the 2022 bat field season that left us overjoyed! One juvenile, female hoary bat (Aeorestes cinereus) was captured during our last week of surveying. This is only the second time this bat has been captured at this site in the Pinelands. Even though the hoary bat is not an endangered species, this is a rare capture for our team because the species is generally flies high and our nets only go as high as 5.5 meters. Additionally, the habitat we survey is more suited to the Northern long-eared bat which like densely cluttered forests, whereas the hoary bat typically is found on the edges of open fields.

Biologist Leah Wells holds a hoary bat.
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Special Guests During Bat Survey Nights

Wednesday, August 10th, 2022

by Leah Wells

The Bat Team setting up a mist-net in the Pine Barrens

Surveying for bats means staying up late and spending a lot of time in the dark. Our evenings begin a few hours before sunset, giving us just enough time to set up for the night. We start off by scouting locations to set up our mist-nets which we use to capture bats. These fine nets, ranging from 8 – 30 ft across and 16 ft high, are attached to tall poles stationed along corridors which bats often use to forage for food. With our nets ready to be deployed, we use the last of the daylight to set up our work station where we will process the bats we hopefully catch.

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Summer Mist Netting Surveys for Northern long-eared bat Come Up Short Handed

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022

by Meaghan Lyon

Biologists Leah Wells and Meaghan Lyon banding a Big Brown Bat

Since 2018, CWF has partnered with the USFWS New Jersey Field Office in completing summer mist netting surveys for bats in the Pinelands. The goal of these surveys is to capture the federally threatened Northern long-eared bat and track these bats to maternity roosts.

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Pine Barrens Bat Surveys Provide Insight into Bat Fidelity

Friday, July 8th, 2022

by Meaghan Lyon

Biologists Meaghan Lyon, Leah Wells, and Sherry Tirgrath each hold bats that were captured in nets and processed at camp before being released.

CWF’s team of biologists, along with several USFWS biologists from the New Jersey Field Office, specializing in bat surveying have been at it again for their fourth year of mist netting in the Pine Barrens. Mist netting surveys for bats starts at sundown and continues for five hours through to the early morning. The nets are set up across travel corridors through the woods with canopy cover and wetland foraging grounds nearby. As the bats head to and from their roosts and foraging grounds, they funnel through the corridors and into our nets. The bats are quickly and carefully extracted from the nets and then walked a short distance to our ‘camp’ where they are processed. Processing bats includes identifying bat species, sex, and reproductive status, as well as taking wing measurements.

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