By Jon Kauffman As a child, I set foot on Stone Mountain many times with my grandfather and siblings. Riding up a narrow, steep mountain road in a well-recognized Jeep CJ. We would slowly work our way up the first ridge to the flat where our hunting camp sat for years as it hosted numerous hunters with their children and grandchildren. Through gaps in the landscape, I marveled at Big Valley below, seeing everyday life of the community as tiny specks. At that point, I did not have the knowledge that, each fall and spring, hundreds of migrating birds flew over the landscape where I spent time and at no point in my youth did I imagine that I would be visiting Stone Mountain every fall, not as a
by Gregory Turner Photos by John Chenger In celebration of Bat Week and Halloween, what can be more fun than learning about these fascinating mammals and some of the conservation efforts underway? Did you know that bats are the second most diverse group of mammals following rodents, and that close to one out of every four mammals on the planet is a bat? In fact, bats have evolved to live on every continent except Antarctica and exploit all sorts of food resources that include nectar, seeds, fruits, insects, and even bats that catch and eat frogs and fish. There are also several species of vampire bats in Central and South America that live off of the blood of other mammals and birds who have
