10 days ago, during the middle of the draining of Capitol Lake, the Woodard Bay bat count leaving the roost was 1,200, down from the prior week's 3,000 bats. Now, a week later it was back up to 2,000, about normal for this phase when the young are starting to fly, and moms and their pups leave for other locations around the region.

In the 7 years of counting at the Woodard Bay colony, there has never been a drop then a recovery in this phase of their maternity cycle. Yes, it could mean that some bats perished during the lake draining, and what we are seeing now are the young that make it through that period.

The colony at Woodard Bay is going through its annual shrinking of numbers, but this is later than most years. There was a drop in numbers last week which has recovered some this week, not at all the normal summer pattern. The draining of Capitol Lake in downtown Olympia, the primary foraging location for this nursery colony, could not have occurred at a worse time for these (and many other ) bats in this area. The sudden lack of feeding area may have caused harm to the local bats, and it could explain the concurrent drop in numbers--likely from abandoned young which probably would not survive a prolonged absence of 'mom.' Nursing mother bats have been documented to leave the young at the nursery colony when food is scarce--so at least one of them survives.