This event will be both in-person and via zoom. Zoom link will be on our website closer to the date.

There will be live bats.

Join us for a fun and engaging presentation about the bats of Northern California! Learn how bats are the only mammals that can truly fly, how they use echolocation to "see" in the dark, and why their diet of insects—including mosquitoes and crop pests—makes them so important to people and the environment. Discover the special adaptations that help bats survive and the challenges they face today. Best of all, you'll have the chance to see live, native California bat species up close.

Mary Jean (Corky) Quirk, is the founder of NorCal Bats, an organization that provides care for injured bats and educational programs for libraries, school, nature programs, fairs and other events throughout the region. Corky has been working intensely with native bats since 2004 and has educated thousands of people. She works with injured and orphaned bats, returning them to the wild and keeps a captive colony of non-releasable bats for use in education. She is permitted through the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife and the USDA. Corky also is responsible for maintaining www.norcalbats.org

She is also an experienced environmental educator who got her start with Camp Fire Boys and Girls.  She has an undergraduate degree in natural resource planning and interpretation from Humboldt State University.   She teaches three days a week at Yolo Basin Foundation, a wetland education program in the Sacramento Valley, in addition to her work with bats.