We got up a little later than usual after the late night last night. I took out the plug in the Toddy Cold Brew System to start the concentrate draining then went about my normal morning routine. I only got 21 fl oz (621ml) of coffee concentrate instead of 24 fl oz (710ml) like I did in the first batch. I processed three images for the blog then started to work up a blog entry.

I had lunch around 12:30 then finished the blog entry. I took a nap from 2:20 to 4:00.

Bat Photo Tour

I went over to the Portal Café around 4:30 to meet with Tim Snow, the head bat biologist, to get some help ID'ing the bats I photographed at the pond/pool. On the way over, I saw some nasty dark clouds to the west and the wind was blowing too much to catch bats. The bat in the image on Day 2 was a Big Brown Bat, and yes, that's its real name, not a generic descriptor. The bat in the image on Day 3 was a Southwestern Myotis — the first time I've photographed that species.

The rest of the folks started trickling in around 4:50 for dinner. I had Chicken Enchiladas and J had Cheese Enchiladas. We finished up around 6:00. The weather was looking much better and the wind had calmed down a lot.

We left around 6:30 and went to the flight tunnel. When we got there, conditions were just about perfect for catching bats: it was calm, and clouds to the east would block the full moon as it rose. :) We set up our gear and waited for some bats. We started photographing around 9:10. First up was a Big Brown Bat. He was a good flier and we got some nice images (below left). Next up was a Pallid Bat, and he was a good flier too. Then we photographed a California Myotis. He liked to fly, but he liked to circle in the flight tunnel, so it took a long time to get some shots of him coming through the exit. Then, after he exited the flight tunnel, he would usually keep flying around the exit tent and it would take a long time to recapture him. (Most bats just land on the wall of the tent or on the floor.) One time, the California Myotis landed on a client's baseball cap, and he remained quite calm until the bat was taken off of his head. The California Myotis also landed on J's pant leg, and she said it was freaky. Finally, we photographed a Canyon Bat, formerly known as a Western Pipistrel. He wasn't a reliable flier either, so it took a long time to get some good images of him (below right).


After we finished flying all of the bats, we did some portrait work with the Pallid Bat and Canyon Bat. My favorite image is of the Pallid Bat eating a large moth that we fed him (left).

We returned to the RV around 1:20. I downloaded the images I took then downselected them first in iView then in Capture One (C1).