Took a moment to stop and view the area in route to the Gorman Cave here at Colorado Bend State Park.  Connie and Jason standing on the rocky ledge that looks down to Dog Leg Canyon. Quite steep and very rocky.

Wednesday evening/night we had a chance to occumpany our host Ranger Jason to Gorman Cave to…”Count Bats.” Along a very bumpy 4 wheel drive road, then a 10 minutes hike down to the cave. We had to walk along the top of the cave on a ledge to get over to where we could get down to the “main” cave entrance and set up point.

We found out that we don’t actually count the bats, but video them as they exit. Jason will then analyze the video and attempt to get a ball park number of bats in the cave. Jason shared that he didn’t expect many tonight because they migrate to Mexico about this time of year.

The first thing to prepare was the white screen (a regular bed sheet) that serves as a back drop for the video as the bats fly out.
Next, we (Jason) had to seal off the other cave entrance to deter the bats from coming out there. The idea is to have the bats all come out the cave where we set up the count.
Then back to the “main” entrance to set up the night vision camera.

All and all it was a fantastic experience, but did not see a lot of bats.

Many other trails to walk and exciting things to see and do…as well as get in a little work around here. Walking the trails, looking for liter, counts toward our hours too.

We only need 20 hours to fulfill our obligation. It really doesn’t take much for our hours to add up and we will generally put in more hours than needed. The park folks are very flexible, and very appreciative of us being here to help.