With Halloween days away, it seems fitting that this is National Bat Week. Blanco State Park is a seasonal host to hundreds of bats, thanks in part to the bat house located near the parking lot for the Caswell Nature Trail. In fact, the new interpretive park ranger at Blanco State Park, Kate Boysen, held the first official Blanco Bat Count on October 3 with the help of 13 citizen scientists ranging from children to adults. These citizen scientists counted between 395-495 Mexican free-tailed bats as they emerged from the bat house for the night. After the bats emerged, the group went on an exciting night hike along the Caswell Nature Trail using a bat detector to listen to the bats as they flew overhead. The bat detector is a special machine that converts the echolocation calls of bats to a frequency audible to humans. Along their hike, this fearless group saw glowing eyes at the end of the trail and heard some pops from the bat detector, and although they could not see the bats, they knew they were there. Look for the next exciting Blanco Bat Count to be held in late March or early April when the bats return from their winter stay in Mexico. The data collected from the bat counts will be used to compare the number of bats in the bat house each season.
Ranger Kate has another park adventure scheduled in November that involves geocaching. Kate will be leading a high-tech scavenger hunt to reveal the stories left in stone by the Civilian Conservation Corps Company 854. This hands-on program will teach participants how to use a GPS unit and then test it out on the park’s CCC-inspired geocache course. The geocaching adventure will be offered on November 22 and again on November 29. For more information, check the park’s website or call the park office. Make plans now to attend this event and learn what the geocaching craze is all about.
The bat count and the geocaching adventure are just two examples of some exciting new programs that Ranger Kate is working on for Blanco State Park. Kate is from Olathe, Kansas, and attended Kansas State University, where she studied park management and conservation. She has worked seasonally as an interpreter and educator for the Army Corps of Engineers, North Carolina State Parks and Wilkerson Nature Preserve. Some of the programs that she has offered at other parks include owl prowls, frog and toad calling programs, canoe programs, and micro fishing lake studies. Kate hopes to provide programs at Blanco State Park that engage adults and children as well as encourage them to interact with nature through hands-on activities. We are very excited to have Kate join the excellent staff at Blanco State Park. All of the park staff works hard to help make our community an exciting and fun place to live.
Speaking of park programs, the Dinosaur George program was a huge success, judging from the response of the audience assembled on the banks of the Blanco River on a misty Sunday earlier this month. Dinosaur George and his side-kick Chip had the crowd in stitches as they talked about and showed fossils from dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Dinosaur George even offered photo ops in the jaws of a saber-toothed cat to members of the audience!
Upcoming events:
Naturescape Activity Center Volunteer Workday, October 31, 9 a.m.
Birds at Breakfast – November 1, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Volunteer Workday on the Caswell Nature Trail, October 14, 9 a.m.
Stars in the Park, November 14, 5:30 p.m.
Fishing with a Ranger, November 15 (check park website for time)
Nature Walk – November 22, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Stories in Stone Geocaching Adventure, November 22 (check park website for time)
Stories in Stone Geocaching Adventure, November 29 (check park website for time)
Blanco State Park’s website: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/blanco/park_events
This monthly column is brought to you by the Friends of Blanco State Park, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and protecting the park’s natural beauty. It is easy to become a member of the Friends group. Just pick up a membership application at the park office, join us at one of our events, or call the park office at 830-833-4333.
Did you know…….? An estimated 100 million Mexican free-tailed bats live in the Hill Country. The bat house in Blanco State Park is most likely used as a stop during their spring and fall migrations, and is also used as a roost after the juveniles are flying in August and September.
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