Bracken Cave Preserve
The Bracken Cave Preserve was the evening field trip scheduled for the NPSOT symposium. Space was limited. And the Preserve is normally closed after September. So it was special to get in. The Mexican Free-tailed Bats are the main attraction!
It got dark and it was very hard to see. Then I used my thermal imaging scope to see what really was going on.
Then a hawk swooped through for a meal!
Here I changed the colors on the camera. Additionally I slowed down the mp4 to 10 percent. In total there was three birds of prey that zoomed by.
Then in calm and quiet voices folks gave this visitor a wide berth. Because everyone was using really quiet voices the recorder did not pick up the sounds. If you could have heard the sound, Liz exclaimed very very quietly, “it brushed my leg”. Everyone was very happy, no spraying! 🙂
And while we never got to see the bat-nado, it had been a special occasion! The bats that had emerged from the cave did so after it was too dark for see. To learn more about Bracken Cave Preserve click here.
Thanks again to Alan and Catherine for sharing the weekend at the NPSOT Symposium!
How Bat Breath and Guano Can Change the Shapes of Caves
We May Have Found Where Modern Humans And Neanderthals Became One
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
How wonderful. And lucky you the skunk didn’t spray. But it had no reason to. Fun
So clever of you to take the night vision scope – could really see the hawk! Funny how the skunk was not deterred by all the folks sitting around.
Thank you for your awesome report! Your night vision scope is a great tool. I haven’t visited Bracken Cave yet but it’s on my list.