Native Bats of Anza-Borrego 

This program has two components – a lecture on Saturday afternoon and a field trip that same Saturday evening. There is a two hour break in between to allow participants to eat dinner. You can choose to sign up for just the lecture or both the lecture and field trip. More information about each follows below.  

LECTURE 

Date: Saturday, April 13, 2023 

Time:  3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. 

Location:  Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center (401 Tilting T Dr, Borrego Springs, CA 92004) 

Cost: $15 Non-Members 

          $10 ABF Members 

          $5 Students 

         (Cost is for lecture only. If you opt for the field trip, the lecture is included in that cost.) 

Join us for our lecture and field trip series, Anza-Borrego: In Focus. Our presenter, Don Endicott, will begin with a primer on bats that covers their distinguishing features and physiology including their exceptional echolocation capabilities—“seeing with sound” in complete darkness.  Don will discuss his research in Anza-Borrego assessing bat populations and recovery trends after a human-caused fire on January 18, 2020. This fire burned many of the native California Fan Palms in the core of Borrego Palm Canyon’s First Grove and it was suspected that resident native bats, particularly Western yellow bats, were likely killed while in their palm frond day roosts. Through the use of acoustic monitoring techniques, it is possible to identify species present and quantify bat activity levels. Don will discuss the survey methodology and over two years of data and lessons learned from the acoustic survey of bats captured by a professional grade ultrasonic bat recorder positioned in the heart of First Grove. 

Please register in advance.  Register here for the lecture only.  

FIELD TRIP 

Date: Saturday, April 13, 2023 

Time: 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (end time is approximate) 

Meeting Location: Anza-Borrego Foundation Administrative Office: 587 Palm Canyon Dr. #122, Borrego Springs, CA, 92004 

Note: This location is different from the State Park store, but in the same shopping center. The office is next to Kendall’s Café, here’s a link to a map. We’ll carpool and/or caravan to the field sites.  

Cost: (includes Lecture + Field Trip).  

Student – $25.00 

ABF Member – $50.00 

Non-member – $60.00 

This field trip will be an extension of the earlier lecture (though it’s not required that you attend both), held as an interactive and hands on excursion to visit native bat habitat. Participants will caravan to various locations in the Borrego Valley to view bats, listen to their sounds using Don’s acoustic monitors, and learn more about this fascinating but lesser-known animal. The exact end time will depend on bat activity and participant interest.  

Limited to 20 people.  

Please register in advance.  Register here for the Lecture and Field Trip.  

About The Presenter, Don Endicott: 

A retired civilian research engineer and executive in the field of Navy Communications and Network Technologies in San Diego, Don discovered a second career as a volunteer naturalist. He is a Certified Interpretive Guide, a long-time hiker and explorer of the remotest portions of the Park, a Volunteer Naturalist, Archaeology Technician, and Archaeology Site Steward for the Colorado Desert District. Closer to home in San Diego, he is a Mission Trails Regional Park Trail Guide and public educator for the San Diego Natural History Museum and the San Diego Humane Society as a member of Project Wildlife’s “Bat Team”. Don contributes full spectrum bat echolocation call recordings to the San Diego Natural History Museum and to Wildlife Acoustics, a bioacoustics monitoring systems company. He is a field contributor to herpetofauna surveys at Cabrillo National Monument and monitors nesting Peregrine Falcons for the National Park Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service. Don is co-author of 50 Best Short Hikes San Diego (Wilderness Press, 2018) with the late Jerry Schad. He was recognized as Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s volunteer Naturalist of the Year in 2018 and received Anza-Borrego Foundation’s second annual ABF Achievement Award in 2015. 

Cancellation Policy:  

Notification must be received at least 7 days before the first day of the event if you need to cancel and wish to receive a refund. For cancellations made after the 7-day deadline, we cannot issue refunds for any reason. We understand that unforeseen or emergency circumstances may arise, but our nonprofit organization operates on a limited budget and, while inconvenient, this policy enables us to sustain our programs even with last-minute cancellations. If ABF cancels a program, we will issue a full refund or credit.