I was going to post the following photo for Halloween, but figured it shouldn't wait, in light of the story in The Record today about Bergen's bat population dropping by 58 percent since last year.

   I have been counting bats for the state's annual bat count for several years, and this was the first year where I counted no bats, though I spent several hours total at three suspected roosts.

   I did see bats flying around at two locales, in Allendale and Upper Saddle River, but did not locate their roost.

   If you know of a roost in Bergen County, please let me know and I will try to do a bat count there next spring.

   Click to here to read the article by The Record's Environmental Writer Jim O'Neill.

   Click here for my previous posts on bats.