Townsend's Big-eared Bat

About ten years ago we purchased an old homestead in the Agua Tibia Wilderness area of San Diego. It is a very remote location... basically 45 acres in the middle of 30,000 acres of wilderness. The old house on the property had two large colonies of Bats living inside. California Myotis, and Townsend's Big-eared Bats were roosting both in the bedroom and living room. As we were going to rebuild the house to live in, the Bats had to be relocated. I built two large Bat houses that were mounted outside of the house. We then took the house down to the frame and rebuilt it, the Bats stayed and watched while we worked. Once the house was back together we chased all of the bats outside (not as easy to do as it sounds). The California Myotis moved into the Bat houses right away and have thrived.... about 200 live in the house now, but the Townsend's disappeared completely. Townsend's are a bit more rare and are sensitive to their location and the presence of humans. After some years, they have finally returned. Last night I was able to photograph three individuals drinking from the small pond that I dug out of a stream near the house. Nice to have them back!

D800
170mm
f/18
1/160
iso 400
Multi flash trigger setup

This is close to full frame