Bats in Trouble

by Pamela McDowell

  Orca Book Publishers is proud of the hard work our authors do and of the important stories they create. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or did not check it out from a library provider, then the author has not received royalties for this book. The ebook you are reading is licensed for single use only and may not be copied, printed, resold or given away. If you are interested in using this book in a classroom setting, we have digital subscriptions that feature multiuser, simultaneous access to our books that are easy for your students to read. For more information, please contact digital@orcabook.com.

  Text copyright © 2017 Pamela McDowell

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 Kasia Charko

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Bats in trouble / Pamela McDowell ; illustrated by Kasia Charko.

  (Orca echoes)

  Issued in print and electronic formats.

  ISBN 978-1-4598-1403-5 (softcover).—ISBN 978-1-4598-1404-2 (pdf).—ISBN 978-1-4598-1405-9 (epub)

  I. Charko, Kasia, 1949-, illustrator II. Title. III. Series: Orca echoes

  PS8625.D785B38 2017 jc813'.6 C2017-900842-0

  C2017-900843-9

  First published in the United States, 2017

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017933012

  Summary: In this early chapter book, Cricket and her friends rally the town of Pincher Creek to save migrating bats being killed by newly installed wind turbines.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Edited by Liz Kemp

  Cover artwork and interior illustrations by Kasia Charko

  Author photo by Ellen Gasser

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  www.orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  20 19 18 17 • 4 3 2 1

  For Tessa, who is always up for adventure.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  “The second time Angelica went up the stairs, she heard the music again. She crept slowly, stepping over the hole in the fourth stair. Her heart pounded. Fa-thump, fa-thump, fa-thump.” Tyler paused and leaned forward to poke the logs in the fire pit.

  “Don’t stop now,” Shilo said. She squished closer to Cricket and grabbed her hand. “Did she see the ghost? Was it there?”

  Tyler nodded, his face serious. “Angelica held her breath and listened. Creak-creak. Creak-creak. It repeated over and over. Creak-creak. Creak-creak. She tiptoed down the hall, following the beam of her flashlight. Spiders scurried out of her way.”

  “Ouch, don’t squeeze so tight!” Cricket said.

  “Sorry. He said there were spiders.”

  “It was colder at the end of the hall. The creaking got louder. Suddenly Angelica’s flashlight flickered and went out. She froze. The hall was completely dark. She would never find her way back down the stairs. She had to go forward.”

  Crack! A log in the fire popped and sent a shower of sparks up in the air. The girls jumped. Shilo gasped.

  “Creak-creak. Creak-creak. The sound was coming from the room at the end of the hall. Light began to glow from a crack under the door. The air in the hallway was cold. Angelica took a deep breath and peeked through the door. But she leaned in too far—the door swung wide open and she fell into the room!”

  Crack! Another log popped. Something dark flew over the girls’ heads.

  Cricket ducked. “What was that?”

  Small dark bodies zoomed past.

  Shilo screamed. “Bats!”

  Cricket’s grandpa stepped out onto the farmhouse porch. “Everything all right down there, Tyler? Cricket?”

  Tyler was laughing. “Yes, Grandpa. I just scared the girls with a ghost story, that’s all.”

  “No you didn’t! Something flew at us. That’s what made us scream.” Cricket narrowed her eyes. “Did you throw something at us, Tyler? To scare us?” She knew her older brother liked to play pranks. But Tyler laughed and shook his head.

  “Those were bats, Cricket. I’m sure of it,” Shilo said. She still had her arms over her head as she crouched down low.

  “Could be. We see lots of bats out here this time of year,” Cricket’s grandpa, Mr. McKay, said. “They keep the bugs from destroying our crops, so we’re happy to see them.”

  Cricket and Tyler’s grandparents lived on a large farm near Pincher Creek. The wide, rolling hills were very different from the rocky forest where Cricket and Tyler lived, in Waterton Lakes National Park. Every summer, the kids visited the farm for a few weeks, and this year Shilo, Cricket’s best friend, had joined them. They were all looking forward to participating in the Pincher Creek parade with Grandpa McKay.

  Shilo groaned. “You didn’t warn me about the bats, Cricket!”

  “I didn’t know about—” Cricket started to say, but it was too late. Shilo was running full speed to the porch.

  Chapter Two

  “What are you girls up to today?” Grandpa McKay poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “We thought we’d go for a walk,” Cricket said. She finished her last bite of toast. “Maybe out toward the back pasture this time.”

  Grandpa nodded. “Do you need a pail for crickets?” He winked at Shilo.

  Cricket rolled her eyes. “No, Grandpa. We don’t do that anymore.” Back when she was five, she had collected hundreds of crickets, hoping to start a cricket zoo. She let them go eventually, but by then Grandpa had started calling her Cricket. The nickname stuck.

  “Will you be back for lunch?” Grandma McKay asked.

  Cricket nodded. “Yup. You ready, Shilo?”

  “Yup.” Shilo grabbed her red ballcap. “Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. McKay.”

  The girls stepped outside, and Cooper, an old border collie, jumped up from his snooze. His ears perked up and his tail wagged hopefully. When Cricket nodded to him, he yipped and spun in circles. Cooper was so smart, Cricket’s grandpa used hand signals and whistles to tell him to bring in the cows. As the girls walked through the pasture, Cooper raced ahead, zigzagging back and forth.

  “What’s he looking for?” Shilo asked.

  “Ground squirrels, probably. He likes to chase them, but he’s never caught one.”

  The girls were being watched as they walked through the crunchy brown grass. Little brown heads popped up from burrows. Brave ground squirrels stood up on their hind legs and squeaked at the girls. They scurried back down their burrows when they saw Cooper coming.

  “Wow, I didn’t know your grandpa had one of those huge windmills!”

  Up on the ridge in front of them stood five white wind turbines. One was inside the pasture. The arms spun slowly, even though Cricket couldn’t feel a breeze.

  “I didn’t know either. It reminds me of an airplane—you know, one of those giant white ones.”

  As the girls got closer, they could feel vibrations through the ground.r />
  “Do you hear that hum?”

  “Barely,” Shilo said. “What’s wrong with Cooper?”

  The dog was sitting motionless, staring at the turbine. He watched the girls continue closer but refused to move.

  “That’s weird.” Cricket held up her palm, and Cooper lay down. “I guess he doesn’t like the vibrations or something.”

  As the girls got closer to the turbine, they saw the ends of the blades were moving much faster than they had first appeared to be. The base of the turbine was huge. If the girls held hands with five friends, they still wouldn’t stretch all the way around it.

  “Ew! Look, Cricket.” Shilo pointed to something in the grass near her foot. “Is it a mouse?”

  Cricket crouched down to have a closer look. The furry brown body was smaller than her fist. It looked a bit like a mouse, but it had small ears, and its front legs were different.

  “I think it’s a bat. See that dark skin there? I think that’s its wing.”

  “Ah! Don’t touch it! You can get rabies from bats.”

  “Poor little guy. I wonder what killed it.” Cricket looked up at the turbine blades cutting through the air above her head. “Do you think he ran into the turbine last night?”

  “It does look pretty deadly, but don’t bats have super good vision in the dark?” Shilo walked around the turbine, keeping her eyes on the ground. “Here’s another one!”

  The second bat was a bit smaller. It was on its back, and its wings were spread out.

  “It doesn’t look injured,” Cricket said. “Wouldn’t it look injured after hitting those blades?”

  “Yeah, kind of like running into a bus, I would think.”

  “That’s really weird. I wish we could take it home and show Grandpa.”

  “No way! You’re not picking that thing up.”

  Cricket stood up. “Okay, but let’s see if there are any more.”

  Chapter Three

  “Seven dead bats does seem like a lot,” Grandpa McKay said, nodding. He was flipping through a field guide while the girls finished their lunch. “Especially for only one turbine.”

  “There are dozens of turbines on the hills out there,” Shilo said.

  Cricket frowned and nibbled on the crust of her sandwich. “That’s a lot of dead bats.”

  “Did they look like any of these?” Grandpa McKay asked.

  The girls studied pictures of different species of bats he had found. Cricket pointed to a gray-brown bat with a yellowish face. “Its face was kind of flattened, like that one’s. And it had the same ears, with black around the edges.”

  “But its fur was different,” Shilo said. “It looked silvery.”

  Grandpa McKay turned the page. “Like this?”

  The fur on the bat’s back was tinged with white, giving it a frosty appearance. The fur looked soft and thick.

  Both girls nodded. “That’s it,” Cricket said. “With the yellow face.”

  “Look how big its teeth are, Cricket!” Shilo shuddered.

  “That’s a hoary bat. It’s the largest bat in Canada,” Grandpa McKay said.

  “I wanted to bring one back to show you—” Cricket began.

  “But you can catch rabies from bats, right?” Shilo interrupted.

  “Rabies is pretty rare nowadays here in Alberta, but it’s best not to touch any dead animal. It’s strange you couldn’t see any injuries. You’re sure these bats ran into the turbine? Their echolocation should have helped them fly around the turbine, just like they fly around trees and houses.”

  “Their what?” Shilo asked.

  Grandpa McKay propped his reading glasses on his head and looked at the girls. “Bats use echolocation to fly at night and catch moths and other insects. They make high-pitched sounds that humans can’t hear. When the sound waves bounce off an object, they can tell where it is and what it is and whether to eat it or fly around it.”

  “That’s like dolphins.” Tyler walked into the kitchen, carrying his fishing rod. “Did you find some more bats?”

  Cricket nodded. “But they’re dead. It looks like they ran into the turbine by mistake.”

  Tyler looked over Grandpa’s shoulder at the photos. “Maybe the turbine was turning too fast, and echolocation didn’t work.”

  “But how come there are no dead bats under the windmill at the dugout?” Shilo asked. “The turbines are huge compared to the windmill. It should be easier to avoid them, shouldn’t it?”

  “And where are the bats coming from?There aren’t any caves around here,” Tyler said. “It seems like there’s more bats than usual.”

  Grandpa McKay nodded. “That’s true. Some bats hibernate here in the winter but not hoary bats. They must have started their migration already, going south for the winter. That might be why it seems like there are more bats around.”

  “I still don’t understand why they don’t look injured,” Shilo said.

  “I think I know how we can figure it out.” Cricket smiled. “I’ve got a plan.”

  Chapter Four

  “Okay, I think we’re ready.” Cricket lifted her backpack onto the kitchen table and filled it with flashlights and snacks. Grandpa McKay handed her a small first-aid kit. “Are you guys coming? Tyler? Shilo? I want to get out there before the sun goes down.”

  “Did you remember the snacks?” Tyler asked.

  Cricket rolled her eyes. Food was always a priority with Tyler. “Grandma packed us—Shilo! What are you doing?”

  Shilo walked into the kitchen wearing an old white hockey helmet.

  “It’s perfect, don’t you think?” Tyler grinned. “The bats can’t fly into her hair, and she can’t get lost. I put a glow-in-the-dark sticker on the back. We could see Shilo a mile away.”

  Cricket’s mouth was open, but she didn’t know whether to laugh or get mad at Tyler.

  Grandpa McKay smiled and shook his head. “Bats don’t purposely fly into your hair, Shilo. They’re just chasing insects. If they swoop too close to you and get tangled, it probably scares them as much as it scares you.”

  “Terrifies, you mean,” Shilo said.

  “Yes, well, if you braid your hair and wear your ballcap, you should be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Grandpa McKay nodded. “Honestly.”

  She unsnapped the cage and lifted the helmet off her head. “Good, ’cause it’s way too hot to wear that thing.”

  The three kids and Cooper reached the wind turbine just before the sun slipped behind the mountains far in the west. The wind had picked up speed and was blowing the tall grass almost flat to the ground. Once again Cooper sat down when they got close to the turbine.

  “This is close enough for me too,” Cricket said. The kids watched the blades of the turbine beat the air, spinning much more quickly than they had the day before. The steady hum was louder too, and the air made a whooshing sound as the blades spun.

  Tyler was fascinated. “When it’s spinning like that, the tips of the blades are going over two hundred miles an hour,” he said to the girls. “It’s the opposite of a fan. A fan uses energy to make wind, but a turbine uses wind to make energy. It’s really cool.”

  Shilo was impressed. “Do you think it makes a lot of power?”

  “Maybe two megawatts,” Tyler said. “Enough to power seven hundred and fifty houses—about half of the town of Pincher Creek.” He shrugged. “Or something like that. I looked it up on the Internet this afternoon.”

  Cricket made a face. Tyler loved researching stuff, even when he wasn’t in school.

  Cooper wagged his tail happily as the kids settled onto the grass beside him. The sky gradually turned from pink to gray-blue to inky black.

  Shilo pointed. “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”

  “Cool,” Tyler said, lying on his back in the grass. “But I thought we’d see lots of bats by now. Have you seen any?”

  Cricket shook her head and la
y down. “I haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “Wow, the stars out here are amazing.” Shilo pointed again. She didn’t seem to be worried about the darkness as long as Cooper was snuggled beside her. “Look, there’s the Big Dipper.”

  “Uh-huh. It’s in the constellation Ursa Major, or the Great Bear,” Tyler said. “And about twenty-five degrees to the east is Ursa Minor and Polaris.”

  Shilo turned and looked at Cricket. She shrugged.

  “Where? How am I supposed to know how far twenty-five degrees is?” Shilo asked.

  “Just hold out your fist, then stick out your baby finger and your thumb. That should measure about twenty-five degrees,” Tyler said as he demonstrated with his right hand. “Put your baby finger on Ursa Major, and your thumb will point to Ursa Minor.”

  Shilo raised her hand. “Hey, I think it works! Polaris is really bright, right?”

  The sky was completely clear, and all the constellations twinkled.

  “What’s that?” Shilo asked. “See the one that’s moving? It’s really bright, and it’s not blinking.”

  “It’s not a shooting star,” Cricket said.

  “Nope, I think it’s the International Space Station. It orbits the earth a few times a day. Of course, there are lots of satellites too, and sometimes they look like shooting stars.” Tyler sat up and dug into the backpack for a snack.

  A low, mournful howl echoed over the hills. Cooper stood up and whined. His ears were flat against his head.

  Shilo scrambled to her feet. “Was that a coyote or a wolf?”

  “I dunno, but I think it’s time to go.” Cricket passed her a large flashlight that was more like a spotlight. It lit up the ground all around them.

  “I haven’t seen a single bat, have you?” Tyler asked. “Maybe they fly so high, we can’t see them.”

  “Or maybe it’s too windy for them.” Cricket pulled the straps of the backpack over her shoulders as another howl echoed over the hills. “Let’s get out of here!”