Just a short post here, we didn’t plan any specific birding adventures this trip to Whidbey. As you know we’ve explored South Whidbey parks as well as Crockett Lake near Coupeville. On this trip we just planned to relax and do some swimming but sometimes nature happens! As we were taking the dogs out a bat dropped out of a tree right on the lawn next to us. So we thought it was a good time to talk about Whidbey Island Bats.
This is unusual as we usually only see the bats right at sunset when they come out to dive across Goss Lake snatching up mosquito’s and other bugs. This type of bat we believe is the Little Brown Bat. Bats are incredibly skilled navigators as they rely on their radar not eye site to dodge around and find their meals. They can get quite close to you but they will not touch you as they can detect your location. So one falling onto the lawn early in the afternoon was quite a shock!
After watching this little guy crawl around we realized something must be wrong. When you see a bat acting strange you should be concerned because they are known to transmit rabies. This is not something you or your pets want to get! It is only transmitted through their saliva but you still do not want to touch or handle them if they get in your house or somewhere you don’t want them. After watching closely I realized this bat had a tick attached to his right wing, and speculated that this is likely why it had fallen and seemed to be struggling.
Doing some quick research we read to treat the situation similar to how to handle a bird when it crashes into your window. In this instance we got a cardboard box with a dish of water. Wearing gloves I scooped up the bat with a small hand shovel being careful not to touch the bat even with my gloves and placed it in the box. Using tweezers I carefully removed the tick from it’s wing. We watched the bat actually climb over to the little glass bowl and drink the water! It gave us some squeaks and settled into an upside down position on the underside of the box lid. After about an hour it was ready to fly again and took off back into the trees.
Since we had to post about our bat encounter we included a few other photos of our summer visit. While lizards aren’t something I think of as common Western Washington wildlife we were visited by a nice sized Northern Alligator Lizard, one of the few reptiles that can be found in this region. We also did a quick visit to Ebey’s Landing which I highly recommend as one of the best year round hikes on Whidbey and for that matter in all of Western Washington.
Useful Links:
- Read our last post about our visit to Winthrop!
- Check out all our other birding and nature adventures here.
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- Don’t forget your bug spray! We recommend using something with DEET, trust us!
- Most of these shots were taken with the Sony a7 along with the Sony FE 200-600mm lens.
