Yes, I discovered bats accidentally, which is always a bad way to discover bats.
I had just bought a patio umbrella for our deck. I had closed up the umbrella for the evening. The next day when I opened it up, these fuzzy brown things flopped out of it and clumsily flew away.
I screamed. But since I’m out in the forest, no one heard me scream.
Olympia has lots of nature and wildlife. In fact, you don’t have to go hiking in the mountains to run into deer, bobcats, birds of prey and lots of other woodland creatures. Watch this video to see the animals we’ve observed in our own yard:
Bats are a beneficial and fascinating animal to our environment. If you live in the Olympia area, you are lucky to have two vantages to observe bats.
You can see bats in downtown Olympia at Capitol Lake. The other prime location for bat-watching is at Woodard Bay. At Woodard Bay, there is a colony of bats living under an old railroad trestle and during the summer, you can see them flying out at night looking for bugs.
Be sure to check out this terrific site, Bats About Our Town for more information about bats and viewing locations in Olympia:
Francine, your video made me smile! Love all those creatures. And the link, Bats About Our Town is interesting. Can it be updated? In 2009 there was discussion about what to do with Capitol Lake. What was the decision?
Thanks so much! Bats About Our Town was a website I stumbled upon and I don’t manage it so I can’t update it. For the lake, The Olympian reported this past spring that the final recommendation will be to convert it to an estuary. We’ll see if that recommendation is implemented. More to come on that!