Where has Carter gone?

Tonight was our third night in a row without a beep from Carter. When we got to Carter's favorite road on Sunday, he wasn't at either of his previously known roosts (or more precisely, we did not pick up a signal from his transmitter at the roost sites). We failed to pick up any signal at all anywhere in the area on foot or by driving around, but we did hear him foraging later Sunday night. Monday and Tuesday nights he also went to this unknown roost location and it was raining, so we were not surprised that we didn't hear him fly past his favorite spot. Bats will sometimes opt to stay in for the night if the weather is bad. Tonight, however, was clear. We still didn't hear him. At this point we suspect he may have lost his transmitter in a place where we can't pick up the signal (like at this unknown roost location). Tomorrow night we're going to stake out his two previously used roost sites to listen for bats leaving the roost, since he appeared to be the only bat in those trees last week. We'll see what happens. Hopefully he wasn't eaten by a morepork (NZ owl).

Tomorrow night will probably be our last night tracking (or trying to track) Carter. Then things get REALLY exciting. On Christmas Eve I'm going to Kerry's parents' house and then on Christmas Day we're going to her grandparents' beach house for their big family celebration. I get to experience a real Kiwi Christmas at the beach!

On December 26th I'll drive to Auckland where I'll meet up with two professors from Earlham, Bill Buskirk and Jay Roberts. They're doing a 13-day whirlwind tour of NZ because Earlham is launching a NZ program in Spring 2008! I am SO excited to see Bill because he is one of my favorite Earlham professors and he's writing my letters of recommendation for grad school. I'm going to stay at the Auckland Friends (Quaker) Center with them on Dec. 26th, then pick up Matt at the Auckland Airport at 5 am on my birthday (Dec 27th)! I think Matt and I will celebrate our Christmas together on December 28th. It will be a change to have Christmas and my birthday the other way around. Then we're off to Wellington where hopefully we'll be able to spend a little more time with Bill and Jay before they cross over to the South Island.

Carrie