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Bats Birding

A Night at Valentine Well

Last night I went back to Valentine Well again, to try for some bats. Vikki Jackson and Mark Johnson came out too and Vikki had her bat detector. We learned a few things. One, there are apparently several bat species in the area that are not coming to the water, or at least not while I’m set up with photography. Most of what I photograph is Yuma Myotis and Pallid Bat. And that is exactly what happened again, last night. Also, it seems that the bats don’t echolocate when coming to water, the bat detector did not pick them up while they were obviously getting a drink and setting off the camera/flash. I only got a couple of good shots and both were of Pallid Bat.

Incoming Pallid Bat. I surely don’t need more photos of Pallid Bats, but it is still fun to capture images like this.
Another nice capture of Pallid Bat.
This was the star of the show last night! Just before Vikki and Mark left, we could hear a Western Screech-Owl, but did not see it. Shortly after they left, I heard it again and this time is was closer. I finally found it in the beam of the flashlight and could see something wriggling from its beak! I managed to get two shots before it flew off. At first I was thinking it had a small snake (small desert owls are known to put a threadsnake in their nest to control nest parasites), but as it turned out it was a large centipede. I have lots of photos of Western Screech-Owls but none are as interesting as this one!
Later that night I found this one too. Judging from the markings, this is a different owl, probably the mate.

3 replies on “A Night at Valentine Well”

Great photography Doug. Where is Valentine Well? I enjoyed meeting you a couple of weeks ago and I do plan to return to Ajo in the next year.

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