First the bees, then the bats

Truthout: Healthy bats, like the one above, hibernate in winter.

In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter as reported by Truthout.

I love bats. I love watching them fly over the desert sky at night, symbols of the dusk.

I fell in love with bats while cave diving. I would float in the cenotes in Mexico, waiting to descend. All around the edges were bats, hanging upside down and watching with black eyes. I could float very close to them sometimes. We would watch each other with a cautious air knowing one could fly and one could descend if either got too freaked out.

My desert bats signal warmer weather and the view of turquoise skies behind their nightly forays. I always stop to watch them 'scoop' the sky this time of year. I hope the 'White Nose' death does not get to to desert. And I hope New York finds some cure for the malady currently killing their night flyers.

Simply Recipes' "Smoked Salmon and Gruyere Grilled Cheese Sandwich"

Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark.When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.
-Isaac Bashevis Singer, Writer, Nobel laureate (1904-1991)