Bill Ellis’ CD showed up unexpectedly in the mail today. I didn’t think I would see it for a few days. He gave me permission to post some of his photos online, so here they are for your viewing pleasure.
I have tried to add some information into the summaries of each photo as to what is going on.
Enjoy!
This last weekend was the annual hibernating bat count. A little background: the caving club, or ‘grotto’ as they are know, that I am a member of (and also secretary for), has been volunteering to count hibernating bats for better than 15 years for the state of New Mexico. There are about 8 caves in NM that are on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land that are listed as ‘hibernaculum’ for bats, and thus, closed for caving from November through March. As such, the BLM has had an ongoing project to count the number of hibernating bats each year to determine bat populations, locations, and etc. We do this at the end of January each year so as to get a good count near the end of the hibernation, but only every other year for each cave, that is, we alternate caves each year. Please note that these caves are OFF LIMITS during the hibernating period, the only way we can go in is by having a small group on a very special permit and by having a volunteer agreement in place to do this work.
That having been said, this year’s count went rather well. We did counts in two caves, Torgac and Fort Stanton. It was, as always, an adventure (but not like last year!). Read on for the whole story.
OK I usually resist the temptation to post on current events because I don’t want to clutter things up with junk, but I think I have two new heros. As you might recall, Cartoon Network’s terrorist plot against Boston was foiled the other day and the two men responsible for it were charged with a felony and a misdemeanor. Apparently they have been released from jail, and have put on a press conference. I thought it was kinda stupid at first, but then I realized, this is a brilliant way to tell the press and etc just how insanely stupid the whole situation is. Jailed for putting up light-up advertisements? And it took Boston police and etc 3 weeks to notice them and get all upset about it, and none of the other 9 cities they did this in even batted an eye at them. Bah.
I’m gonna quit talking about this before I get all up in arms. Post 9/11 world indeed. When will we realize that we can’t be ‘safe’ all the time unless we all want to live in little cells? Bah!