Community Bat Programs of BC is looking for volunteers to help with its annual bat count in Delta.

The program has been monitoring bat roosts across B.C. since 2012 to track their populations, and barns within the Alaksen National Wildlife Area on Westham Island in Delta have been monitored since 2018.

This is the time of year when bat biologists and volunteers will sit outside maternity roosts for about an hour and count all the bats that come out during sunset. Female bats will typically have one pup in June and receive no help from their male counterparts, who roost elsewhere.

Last year, volunteers counted bats at 274 maternity roost sites across the province. In total, 888 bats were counted.

鈥淕etting involved in the counts is easy and helps collect valuable data at maternity roosts,鈥� notes a BC Community Bat Program press release.

The local count kicks off this Wednesday (June 5) at 8 p.m., and the Delta site requires a minimum of 12 volunteers to count bats exiting from various locations along two barns.

Anyone interested in participating is asked to contact Danielle Dagenais, Metro Vancouver-Sea to Sky co-ordinator for Community Bat Programs of BC, by emailing vancouver@bcbats.ca, calling 1-855-922-2287 (ext. 11) or visiting .

Volunteers will be sent detailed count procedures to review and a waiver to sign before attending.

Counters are asked to come prepared by wearing long sleeves, pants, closed-toed shoes (no sandals) and a hat, and reminded to dress for mosquitoes as there will be plenty before the bats emerge.

Optionally, volunteers can also bring a chair to sit on, bug spray, and a flashlight to walk from the count site to their car.

The City of Delta was by Community Bat Programs of BC in February of 2021 in recognition of Delta鈥檚 commitment to protecting and enhancing bat habitat as well as promoting learning and awareness about the value of local bat colonies in our natural environment, according a press release.

Delta was the second Metro Vancouver community to receive the designation after Richmond in 2020. Port Moody was certified in 2022.

Other bat-friendly B.C. municipalities include Dawson Creek (the first to be certified in 2017), Peachland (2019) and Comox (2023).

Delta is home to B.C.鈥檚 largest maternity bat colony, located in the attic of Burr House 鈥� also known as Burrvilla 鈥� in Deas Island Regional Park. The heritage home provides habitat for over 2,400 pregnant little brown myotis and yuma myotis bats.

Metro Vancouver has been monitoring bats on Deas Island since 2016 and has detected nine different species to date: yuma myotis, little brown myotis, California myotis, long-eared myotis, long-legged myotis, big brown bat, hoary bat, silver-haired bat and Mexican free-tailed bat.

In Delta, other bat habitats 鈥� roosts and foraging sites 鈥� are found along the banks of the Fraser River, including on Westham Island, in Burns Bog, over farmland and in the city鈥檚 green spaces.

鈥� with files from Thomas Eley/Black Press Media

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