While walking at the National Wildlife Visitor Center (http://www.fws.gov/northeast/patuxent/vcdefault.html) on Saturday afternoon, we were surprised to see this bat apparently hawking for insects in broad daylight, over an open area next to some forest. I was afraid this might be evidence of the "white-nose syndrome", a relatively recently recognized disease that has decimated bat populations in the Northeastern U.S. over the last couple of years. Presumably caused by a fungus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18974316), this disease can weaken hibernating bats and cause them to emerge prematurely from their hibernacula. However, the species affected appear to be mostly those that roost communally in large numbers in caves. Red Bats are fairly solitary and roost in trees, so perhaps this one was just taking advantage of the warm afternoon to snatch some insects and boost its energy supplies? I hope so. It was a beautiful sight - quite a large bat (maybe 12" from wingtip to wingtip?) with a golden-colored coat. If you click through to the larger versions of the photos, it appears to have pale shoulder patches, and the upperside of the interfemoral membrane is also heavily furred (see the second photo) - both consistent with Eastern Red Bat, I believe? Please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this!
Other signs of sping included a couple of turtles basking on logs. We didn't get particularly good looks at either of these, but this one looks like and Eastern Painted Turtle to me:
...And this Northern Mockingbird was performing its goofy wing-lifting display:
