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| Yes..time again for our annual bat count. | This time I got to do SW Oklahoma (the Jester Cave System) | Seems every year I flop between NW OKlahoma and SW Oklahoma... no problem ...enjoy the variety!! <grin> |
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| Jim came out to see us off! (Standing left in picture). Good to have a send off! | As it has snowed, sleeted, rained, and every kind of percipatation known to man this last month, we hiked to the cave! | Not that the mud would have stoped our vechiles, but the road is really bad! It was muddy and a bit icy from the left over snow. |
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| Should be a good bat count as it's been pretty cold these past couple of months! | We had a new counter this year...Jason's son joined us. | Him and JT and it finally dropped our average age of bat counters below 45!! <grin> |
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| Our leader and mentor...John... grew up in these parts and knows everything about the area! | ... | Getting harder to get bend over every year eh Dave? : ) |
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| Oops... this critter didn't get out of the cave safely!! | We entered the cave and had to get adjusted to the darkness before counting.. | Wow... all the moisture was seeping into the cave and SOAKING the bats! |
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| How they can sleep that wet I don't know! Deep sleep!!! Teach me how to do that!! | The cave temperature was about 48 degrees raising to 56 deeper into the cave... | They sure do look like wet rats hanging to dry! |
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| Ahhh...finally got some dry mats of bats! This is what we're used to!! | The remains of a bat... someone got eaten by a predicator! | Lil navigating around the water... |
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| Condensation on a pip... very neat sometimes how the moisture beads on the pips. | See...I actually cave!! Though I have no sense at all as I'm standing in 38 degree water!! Brrrr.. | But I have to teach my buddy how to count bats no matter what the cost! <grin> |
