Hirshes and Bats

We have returned from Mike's mother's family's Thanksgiving shin-dig. I had been wondering how many people actually read my blog, and now I know how popular I am!! I have learned that there are two things I should clarify. Ben asked about the bats. Mike's grandmother, Mike's mother, and Aunt Tina all asked about my family.

My mother's name is Janet, my father's name is Richard. I have a sister, Clara, who is 3 years and 3 months younger than me. My family is more closely tied with my father's side than my mother's. My family is scattered all over the country -- St. Louis, Salt Lake City, New York, Boston, Chicago, North Carolina. I think that does it. Christmas is the big family gathering. We don't really do Thanksgiving or Easter or anything. My grandmother died in May 2004, which was the first time we had all gotten together in a few years, since the Carolina branch hasn't made it to Christmas since they moved from St. Louis. It is from this occasion that I have the most recent pictures.

Here is me with all of my couisins. It wasn't posed. We were all just sitting on the steps, when my mother said "oh, that is a nice picture." My sister is on the rightmost side, hugging my cousin Rachel. My father is in the background with my uncle Don.


Here is my father with his siblings: Libby, Richard, Don, and Eloise.


Here is my mother and father talking to my aunt Lisa.



And now, onto the bats. Every job interview I have had, after the person has read my resume, they ask about the bats. The bats are called Tadarida brasiliensis (Tah - DARE - i - dah). Every year, they migrate to Texas from Mexico, and they form huge colonies, containing millions of individuals. Maybe tens of millions, we're not sure. These bats are about 12 grams, and they eat about 8 grams of insects a night. So, 8 grams times millions times the six months the bats summer in Texas is an awful lot of bug control. So, we were trying to census the bats. We did this by setting up infrared thermal cameras outside of the cave.



I did this work at Boston University. My advisor was Margrit Betke. On my birthday, we went out to photograph flowers, and we got caught in a rainstorm. We were photographed when we got back to the house:


Bats are cool!