Initial Results of Bat Monitoring on Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and around Grayson County, Texas
With Bryon Clark and Margaret Avard
The Friends of Hagerman (FoH) National Wildlife Refuge was awarded the O’Brien Prize by the National Wildlife Refuge Association in July 2025 for their application titled “Music of the Night: Citizen Science Bioacoustic Bat Monitoring at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.”
The primary goal of this project is to help address key gaps in understanding local bat species and their distribution on the refuge and in Grayson County, Texas. Such information may then be used to inform refuge management decisions and contribute to broader conservation efforts for bats across the region.
Another major goal of the project is public engagement. Through hands-on educational programs and citizen science opportunities, this initiative aims to inspire both youth and adults to learn more about these often-misunderstood mammals and, hopefully, become bat advocates.
Bryon Clark and Margaret Avard serve as the project leaders and will provide an update on this initiative, discuss challenges encountered, and share preliminary results from acoustic bat monitoring conducted on the refuge and throughout Grayson County, Texas. To date, analysis of the acoustic data suggests the probable presence of at least eight bat species across area.
Bryon Clark and Margaret Avard are both nature enthusiasts and live southeast of Sherman, Texas. Their son, Gerald, is a master’s student at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California Santa Barbara. After retiring from Southeastern Oklahoma State, both have become active members of the Friends of Hagerman NWR and are certified Texas Master Naturalists. Dr. Avard served as a Professor of Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences and Dr. Clark was a Professor of Biological Sciences before moving to administration and retiring as the Interim President of the University.
Bryon has been interested in bats for almost 5o years and completed his master’s thesis and a post-doctoral experience on bat ecology. Margaret developed her interest in bats through the Texas Master Naturalists and listening to Bryon’s presentations. Together, they enjoy camping and often take their personal bat detectors along to record bat calls; needless to say, this activity has sparked some interesting comments from other campers. They have conducted acoustic bat monitoring in Texas, Iowa, West Virginia, Nevada, Utah, and California.
The O’Brien Prize awarded by the National Association of Wildlife Refuges has expanded opportunities for Bryon and Margaret to share their enthusiasm for bats with others. As project leaders for the Bat Monitoring Project at Hagerman, they hope to recruit others to become interested in bats and assist with bat monitoring efforts on the refuge and their own property. Bats play a critical role in the environment, and these collective efforts will help promote a greater understanding of this remarkable group of mammals.
Registration is not necessary—all are welcome! But if any of these programs spark your curiosity, signing up will get you a friendly reminder three days beforehand. You’ll also receive our once-a-month Featherless Flyer newsletter—no email overload, and it’s easy to unsubscribe anytime.
