This past week my children and I learned all about bats. If you are unfamiliar with the Sonoran Desert, you might not think that bats are important here, but they play a big part in pollination. They also eat annoying insects like mosquitos. Arizona actually has more species of bats than any other state. Last week my children learned all about bats by reading picture books and visiting the Bat Cave here in Phoenix, Arizona. As usual, we learned a lot and had a lot of fun learning.
The Bat Cave
The Bat Cave is a summer home to about 10,000 Mexican free-tailed bats. They live in Mexico, but migrate to Phoenix during the summer to birth their young. They do not actually live in a cave, but rather an old storm drain. The bats live in this “cave” from May until October. Every night at sunset, they fly out and fill the sky with their fluttering wings. It really is something to see thousands of bats fly out.
We went in mid-September when the sunset was around 6:38. It was warm. I think the high was 98 that day, but for September, that’s not too bad. The bats didn’t start flying out until a few minutes after sunset.
There is no parking specifically for the Bat Cave, but there are some businesses along the canal, which is where the Bat Cave is located, that have available parking. Reading Jana’s post about the bat cave post from Phoenix with Kids was helpful. I followed her advice about parking near Chelsea’s Kitchen. I put Chelsea’s Kitchen into my GPS on my phone. Then we parked in one of the business plazas right before Chelsea’s Kitchen. We ended up parking near Sunflower Bank.
After we parked, we walked down 40th Street till we hit the canal, turned right, and then walked about 10 minutes of so. I had the Bat Cave on my GPS so I could see us inching our way there. After a while, there’s a paved path to the right that leads you to the storm drain. Surprisingly, there was a crowd of people there all waiting to see the bats fly out of the cave. We could hear some soft bat squeaks as we waited.
The bats don’t fly out exactly at sunset, but perhaps about five or ten minutes after. Once they do fly out, they fill the sky. We watched them for about ten minutes just flying into the sky. My youngest one was fussy, so we didn’t stay the whole time. I’m not sure how long the bats take to empty out. As we walked back along the canal, we could see the bats scattering in all directions.
It’s a stroller friendly walk. I would recommend wearing closed toed shoes. Considering that you need to come in the summer to see the bats, September seems to be the best month, especially with little kids.The sun sets earlier and it’s a tad cooler.
Picture Books
Learning about bats wouldn’t be complete without a booklist. These books aren’t specifically about Mexican free-tailed bats, but they are great books to read to your children. There is a picture book about Mexican free-tailed bat, but I didn’t like it. It was one of those books that left me feeling sad (because the mother bat was eaten). I try to find picture books that are good, full of hope, and are about the content I am teaching my children in the Sonoran Desert Nature Study. It’s not always easy to get that in one picture book. Here our list of picture books we read prior to visiting the bat cave.
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies
Bats the Library by Brian Lies
Brian Lies has written a few other bat books.
NightSong by Ari Berk
Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats by Ann Earle
I love the picture books, poems, and songs that are part of a Charlotte Mason inspired nature study, but nothing beats observation – seeing the animal you spent reading about. Learning through picture books is one of my favorite ways to do science/nature study. However, I have noticed when it’s combined with an outing or an observation, the learning sticks more. They remember it because they actually saw it in action. It’s like the cherry on top of an ice cream Sundae (I actually don’t like cherries, so maybe a blueberry for me).
Also, one of the interesting things about making a nature study about the Sonoran Desert is that I thought the summer season would be hard to find things to study. It’s actually the opposite. Even though it’s 110 some days, cicadas still come out of the ground. Dragonflies still fly around. Ants still carry crumbs to their colony. Palo Verde beetles come out at night. And bats soar through the night sky. There’s a ton to observe. It’s kind of an unexpected surprise for someone like me who assumed everything died in the summer. Enjoy the rest of the summer!
Carly from DesertHomeschoolDays.com