Sitka Nature

It seemed like for most of the summer the small song birds were fairly quiet around the neighborhood. I have noticed that in the last couple of weeks I am hearing more calls from these birds again. My brother suggested that perhaps they were quiet while raising young and now they are out and about again. Another possibility may have been that there were better places for food than our neighborhood through the better part of summer, but that has changed.

For the last couple of weeks at least, we have noticed bats flying around our neighborhood. It is difficult to tell how many there might because of how quickly they fly and the relative lack of light, but I have seen at least three at one time. They are almost certainly a species of brown bat (Myotis). There are only a few different species of bats that are known to spend time in Southeast Alaska. It would be neat to get a better look at them, but I am not sure how that might be done. It would be interesting to figure out where they live. I have read about people building bat houses (like a bird house except for bats). With these that have shown up, it makes me tempted to try putting one up in the hope that bats would use it.