Date: 08/31/2020

Number: 650

Big movement tonight - have dozens of roosts here in the acreage with some small and some large to very large...quit counting at 650 as there were too many still coming in! The air is just full of them...now too dark to see. Will try early in the morning and see what we find.

This roost formed yesterday evening (August 31, 2020) around 7:30pm.

My wife and I both counted "clumps" and the numbers in the clumps - and then the "many" strung out small groups of individuals. I arrived at 650 as a fair estimate, my wife said she counted more, but I would rather error on the low side to be safe. I then recounted this a.m. before 7 o'clock and really came up with the same estimate.

This acreage is surrounded on 3 sides by a native pasture - there are about 4 acres of goldenrod and asters in bloom right now...as well as 2 species of Liatris and False Boneset and 3 types of native sunflowers. There is also 23 acres of pasture behind us but it's mowed and bailed but I suspect there are goldenrods back there now also.

When we first found the roost , the temps were in the low 60's...this morning the temps were in the mid 40's (F).

The wind direction last night was from the NW...the roost was "inside" the acreage on the north and west side of our house. There is a barrier of trees on the north and west side of the acreage - the roosts were "inside" protected from any breeze. This morning the wind was under 3mph and from the S. (Had switched overnight)

Hartley, IA

Latitude: 43.1 Longitude: -95.4

Observed by: Bruce
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