Bats

Thursday night I helped out Ruby with her bat inventory. We had previously set up 5 nets in the Transitional forest but left them closed so we headed out just after dinner at 7pm to open them up and start catching bats! 

The Transitonal forest is to the North of the reserve along the edge of the lake. Here is another beautiful sunset seen from the edge of the TF reflected on the lake.

The plan was to stay out until 12am or until we had caught 12 bats as we only had 12 bags. The first catch of the night wasn't quite a bat but still made for an interesting find.

A not so happy tropical screech owl 

We caught 10 Artibeus, 1 platyrrhinus lineatus and 1 sturnira lilium. These are all type of fruit and insect eating bats. 11 different species have been caught here so far by Ruby.

Bags full by 11pm we headed in early. I plan to leave the mist nets up to sample the bird species in the area in the next few days so watch this space for birdy photos.