This Little Brown Myotis was radio-tagged at the large Woodard Bay colony. Right away this bat flew 8.5 miles (13 km) to Capitol Lake, and spent the entire night feeding there. The miniature radio-tag weighs only about 1/3 of a gram (1/80 of an ounce) and is gently glued to her fur using a medical adhesive. Although I can sometimes hear it up to a couple of miles away on my tracking radios, when they are skimming the surface of the water feeding on midges and caddis flies, the range is only several hundred meters.

Capitol Lake video
August 2003

Poster presentation of the 2003-2004 Myotis bat 
commutes to Capitol Lake (2.4 mb pdf)

More Photos of Bats in Wash. & Oregon

LINKS to Bat Detectors and other Bat Sites

Our own BAT RADAR images showing 
foraging bats at Capitol Lake, Olympia, WA

 The "why do we need them?"  link

Bats About Our Town website... superb!

 "Living with Wildlife"  (WDFW)

October 2002 Seattle Times article
(about the Woodard Bay colony)

Washington State law protects bats

http://www.batsandwind.org/