by PYoungbaer » Mar 6, 2013 2:55 pm
There are several issues here that make this an oddball story:
First, any bat, Indiana or otherwise, out on the landscape now raises a red flag about possible WNS. That wasn't even mentioned.
Second, there are no babies this time of year, so that was just wrong.
Third, the USFWS spokesman - besides not mentioned either of the above, at least not that we heard, - seems to no know about the new USFWS Indiana bat survey protocols that require acoustical monitoring, not mist netting. These are very controversial, by the way, as acoustical monitoring has issues positively identifying certain species - the Indiana bat being one of them. The various bat call detectors have a terrible time distinguishing between Little Browns and Indianas.
The timing - potentially costing an entire construction season - is awful.