In just a few short days, my internship will be over, and I will fly to Washington, D.C. Last night, I went to the local park for an evening program and bat mask painting for the last time. Children from around the neighborhood came with their friends and dogs...
The night before Junior Ranger Day, the Natural Resources division decided to put on our first-ever live evening Bat Chat. This meant that twelve hours before Junior Ranger Day began, we set out into the night in two teams: one team waited at Skull Cave...
This was an exciting week for flying creatures, big and small! Early this week, Emma and I hiked out to the Bald Eagle nests that we’ve been monitoring. After an hour of slipping on pine cones and trudging up the side of a massive butte, we were disappointed to find...
Everything at Lava Beds is deceptively calm this week. The offices and the Visitor Center have been quiet and even the wildlife seems subdued: when Emma and I went to check on the Bald Eagles, all the birds were napping soundly in their nests. Maybe it’s the summer heat,...
Question: What’s scarier, giving a presentation about bats to a group of fidgety kindergarteners or climbing down a rocky trench and into a massive cave? Answer: Neither! Both are fantastic opportunities that will enrich your life and give you newfound knowledge about how beautiful caves are, how curious children are,...
This week was full of exciting firsts for me. My first time creating a splint, my first time wearing fake blood, and my first public outreach event! We had a Wilderness First Aid course this week at Lava Beds and employees came from all of our departments to participate....
If four bat skeletons, three stuffed animals, two coloring pages, and one aggressively friendly smile can’t convince visitors to talk to you about bats, nothing can. I stock my Bat Chat table with all these props and more, hoping to lure people over from the Visitor Center. The steady...
“Did you know that, in movies, they rarely use the actual call of a bald eagle?” After hiking through pines trees, down a cave, over a trench, and up one of the tallest buttes in the park, I barely understood the question. I was much more...
Lava Beds National Monument has over twenty developed caves for visitors to discover, but, if a cave contains bat maternity colonies, then the cave is shut. The caves are shut for the bats’ protection because, like birds, bats are at their most vulnerable when they are caring for...
Hello! My name is Zoe Flores and I am thrilled to be a Mosaics in Science intern this summer! I am a rising senior at Cornell University in New York, but this summer, I will be on the other side of the country in Tulelake,...