It's early in the season yet, but I usually start seeing them in mid May, both in town and out. Have seen few enough this year to notice they're not around, but have been seeing more and more chimney swifts(started seeing them last year) and am seeing nighthawks again this year for the first time in a long while-all three being bug eaters I can't help thinking it might be related. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a big drop in bats.

Another cool one I haven't seen in a long time(10+ years), is a black and yellow garden spider. Big, scary and mostly harmless. They can bite but without an allergy they say it hurts less than a bee sting.

Until your post I hadn't thought about it.  Due to all the flooding we've had up here in the NW part of the state the mosquito problem has begun.  We usually spend some evenings each week on the back patio, but haven't been able to do that yet this year.  We could actually watch the bats flying around through the back yards.  We have a bunch of these slingshot launched whirligig things that the bats used to attack when we would shoot them up.  Kinda fun watching them do that.  I have not yet seen a bat this year.  That being said, I did see a bat removal service truck parked in front of one of the restored 100+ year old houses in town last week.  Guess they're not all gone.

I'm pretty sure that if you check Booger's belfry you will find an abundance of the little winged creatures doing quite well there.  

It's not just me then. The only bats I have seen this year were in Howard County wheneb my father in law burned the weeds off his CRP ground...and even that was only a few

Saw lots of them at twilight while tent camping in linn county last month. Have to get that sweet spot of 20 minutes when the sky is still bright enough to silhouette them.

One of these evenings after it quits raining I'll have to go out and launch some of the little helicopter gizmos.  That should bring them out if they are here.

Sounds like fun. Maybe I'll bring some beer.

When I lived in Kansas, they used to be out at the golf course behind my buddies house when we would invade the course for night golf. Only bat I've seen since moving to Iowa was the one I removed from my girlfriends apartment last year.

Now that you mention it, it does seem like less than normal now.