I spent the day going on several hikes around the island and taking a bunch of pictures. Late in the day the wind finally died down. The sky, which had been completely socked in by a high overcast, cleared for the first time. I hoped that this change in the sky indicated that the wind had done its work and would not be coming back. We started talking about leaving the next day. (The name of this island means “Leave If You Can” in Spanish).
Also late in the day two people hiked over from the other side of the island! They turned out to be bat researchers from University of Oregon. Dave Harry, who recently moved to Oregon, is also working at UO and they were able to find some common ground in their list of acquaintances! The bat people had time while setting up their camp to show me a “Bat Counter”. This is a small computer in a weather proof ammo can that they can leave on an island and come back for days later to collect the data. I asked them where you get a bat detector; can you get a Purina Bat Detector at the feed store? It turns out the answer is yes, sort of. There is a company in Australia that makes bat deterrent devices. At UO they buy these anti-bat devices and turn them into pro-bat counters. The bat people started setting up nets to catch and tag bats behind our camp. They worked well into the night and we saw their flashlights flailing around in the dark. They had one super-bright spotlight that I saw pick out a pelican flying over the island in the night. But in the morning all the nets had been taken down and put away. Being a bat researcher means working late nights I guess.