I was walking up our road yesterday, taking my daily stroll, and I saw a bat flying alongside me. He was floundering, and you could tell not just because he was out during the day, but because he flew unsteadily. One of those enormous pickups came barrelling down the road from the other direction and caught the bat square in its front grill. I cringed and covered my face, fully expecting the smooshed bat to come flinging at me. I don't think the truck's driver saw the bat, so he really had to wonder what I was reacting to. It must have made a funny scene.

What's not so funny is that 2 years ago there were 10,000 bats up in early March in the Aeolous Bat Cave, a half mile across the valley from our house. One year ago, there were 2,000. This year there were 46. The bats are dying or are dead. The home of the largest population of bats on the US East Coast no longer has bats in it. They are gone.