The Bernie Update

We successfully radio tracked Bernie for nearly two weeks. Last night the weather was cold, wet, and windy, so Matt and I just sat in the car by Bernie's day roost the whole time because he didn't leave. The tiny radio transmitter batteries die after about two weeks, so we knew we wouldn't be able to track him much longer.

From what we've seen, Bernie has a pretty regular foraging routine. The picture of the map below shows a typical Bernie night. His day roost is marked with an X along with other night roosts. The pen lines in between are approximately the paths he's flying.



We start each night with one car waiting near his day roost and one car waiting up the road. When the person at his night roost hears him moving, they radio the other car to tell them he's on his way. Then he usually flies back and forth along the road for most of the night with some breaks and side trips.

This afternoon when Kerry went to check on Bernie at his day roost, she made an exciting find- Bernie's transmitter! He must have lost it late last night after we stopped tracking him. The battery was still working so Kerry was able to find it. It's quite a big deal to recover one of these because they cost at least $200 each. It will need a new battery, but it's still perfectly useable!


Imagine trying to find this on the forest floor. You can kind of see where some of Bernie's hair is still stuck to it.

Now that we're finished tracking Bernie, Matt and I get some time off until November 20 because Kerry won't need our help until we start trying to catch bats again. Tomorrow we're going to visit Kerry's family on their dairy farm, and then we're going to spend some time on the coast. Hopefully, it will be sunnier, warmer and drier than here!

Carrie