Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Town of Marana want to know if your hummingbird feeders mysteriously drained during the night this past summer and are looking for bat watchers.
Most of Arizona’s 28 bat species eat insects, but two species drink nectar and eat pollen and fruits from plants such as the saguaro, agave and your hummingbird feeders. The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with cooperation from the Town of Marana will be commencing our 2015 Nighttime Hummingbird feeder bat monitoring project and are looking for volunteers.
The Department is asking people who enjoy watching wildlife and sitting on your porch during summer evenings to consider volunteering their time.
Volunteers will:
Monitor their feeder two or three times per week beginning in June and continuing until the bats leave, measuring the level of fluid in the feeder just before it gets dark and again when they rise in the morning.
They will input their data on the bat website or print hard copies of the data sheets and return them at the end of the season.
If you are interested in participating in the hummingbird feeder monitoring project this year, please visit the official website sponsored by the Town of Marana, http://www.maranaaz.gov/bat-study. The website allows participants to sign up as volunteers and to download information about this year’s monitoring protocol.