Events

Bat Talks

Bats About Our Town members give talks about bats at places like the public library during the school year.  These will be announced below a few months before the date of each talk.   You can also request a talk for your group.  The topics included in a typical talk are:

• Basic information about bats
• Our local bats
• Bat Houses:  how to position them successfully

Please contact us to request more information about talks or to request a special talk for your group.

Bat Walks

Bats About Our Town members lead bat walks at Capitol Lake late May through August.  You can also request a special bat walk for your group. We gather along the Deschutes Parkway at sunset for a talk about bats and to see early arriving bats.  Then we walk along the lake, using bat detectors to hear the large number of bats arriving in the hour after sunset. Finally we return to a viewing spot where a video camera and a monitor permit us to see bats feeding above the lake.  Read A Night at Capitol Lake for a description of typical summertime bat activity.

Bat walk schedule:

• Saturday June 12 at 9 PM
• Saturday July 10 at 9 PM
• Saturday August 14 at 8:40 PM

NOTE:  The bat walk will be canceled if there is steady rain, because most bats stay at home if it rains.

Location of bat walks:

• Deschutes Parkway on the west side of Capitol Lake on the sidewalk half way between Marathon Park to the south and the 5th Avenue Bridge to the north.  Look for the crowd!

Reaching the Bat Walks from I-5:

1. From I-5 use exit 105 and follow the signs to State Capitol, not the signs to Port of Olympia.  You will go under an overpass, and come to a light on Capitol Way.
2. Go right on Capitol Way and follow it north to 5th Avenue. Make a left onto 5th Avenue.  The previous street will be Legion Way.
3. On 5th, stay in the left hand lane.  You soon will be passing Capitol Lake and a park on your left. 
4. Stay in the left hand lane, which curves to the left and becomes Deschutes Parkway. The right hand lane is a ramp up to a bridge, don’t take it!
5. Follow instructions above for Deschutes Parkway.

Bat Detectives

Are you interested learning to operate bat detection equipment, and becoming a Bat Detective?  You then could help us survey bats year-round to answer questions like these:

• What kinds of bats are living in someone’s home or property, and what might people want to do about them?
• Are there other flyways not yet discovered bringing bats to Capitol Lake? No one has studied the areas to the south of the lake.
• What bats are found in the forests and along the streams of Thurston County?

Please contact us to let us know you want to know more about becoming a Bat Detective.

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