Clean to the Finish

I had to postpone the Walker Mountain Grotto (WMG) bat count
in Hancock Cave by two weeks due to
a 2014 snowstorm. Fortunately that allowed Pete Hertl to join Matthew Weiss and
me.  I’m glad I had them along because
the shift in dates left us with just Hunter from WMG and Janet and Dan from
Flittermaus Grotto. A bat count is better with six in the group.
Hunter lived up to his name and found it easy to spot the
bats in the cave. We circled through the rooms that we explore on each bat
count and waited for the folks with cameras. We even forced Pete, Matthew and
Hunter to climb through the Comic Book Hole.

The bat count matched closely the numbers from our recent November surveys, but we only found live pips this time (no other species). I was very happy to
find no dead bats in the cave, and the bats all appeared healthy until the end.
Unfortunately the last bat we found hanging near the Toilet Bowls had definite
signs of white nose syndrome. Hopefully it’ll survive until hibernation season
is over.