Unexpected Pipe Smoking Benefit: First Bat of the Season

[shanez]

While sitting in my backyard and enjoying my pipe I saw my first bat of the season in the gloaming tonight. Just minding my own business and there went across an open patch at about the 2 story rooftop level.

I love watching these guys fly with their erratic swooping and twisting flight paths in a sort of Flight of the Bumblebee manner.

Even in a concrete jungle there's a bit of nature to enjoy. Especially if you have the good sense to smoke a pipe and just relax.

Tonight it's 78 degrees, 13% humidity, with a 2 mph breeze and perhaps a touch of serendipity.

 

[Hillcrest]

Your smoke was probably driving the bugs upward where the bats could feed on them ... pretty cool. There are 2-4 that fly above my place every night and feed. I read that they can eat up to 5000 bugs an hour ... handy to have around ! Nice evening !!

 

[AJL67]

While sitting in my backyard and enjoying my pipe I saw my first bat of the season in the gloaming tonight. Just minding my own business and there went across an open patch at about the 2 story rooftop level.

I love watching these guys fly with their erratic swooping and twisting flight paths in a sort of Flight of the Bumblebee manner.

Even in a concrete jungle there's a bit of nature to enjoy. Especially if you have the good sense to smoke a pipe and just relax.

Tonight it's 78 degrees, 13% humidity, with a 2 mph breeze and perhaps a touch of serendipity.

Here on the space coast and probably a lot of other areas of Florida we have “bat boxes” you see quite a few of them on the dunes along some of the beaches, bats are our friends.

 

[BCF]

Bats in our area took a real beating from the White Nose fungus a few years ago. Our resident bats seemed to have succumbed to it as well, but when they were around, they really kept the bugs at bay. We had a bunch of bats. Just read recently the bats are making a comeback, so I'll be grateful to see them again. Interesting creatures.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

We have a lot of bats here. We even see them in the winter some. I guess hibernating in the Deep South is more like a series of short naps.

 

[timt]

When we first moved into our house almost 20 years ago we found out that bats were getting in through our chimney. Before we fixed that issue I had to catch one that was flying around in the house. I boxed him up and drove him 5 miles away to set him free. The pest control guy I hired to seal up the chimney laughed when I told him and said the bat probably beat me back home. We have tons of mosquitoes in the summer and I’m glad to have the bats around…outside.

 

[LotusEater]

I’ve always wanted to watch the bats emerge from under the Congress bridge in Austin - my brother in law tells me it’s quite an experience

 

[cosmicfolklore]

When we first moved into our house almost 20 years ago we found out that bats were getting in through our chimney. Before we fixed that issue I had to catch one that was flying around in the house. I boxed him up and drove him 5 miles away to set him free. The pest control guy I hired to seal up the chimney laughed when I told him and said the bat probably beat me back home. We have tons of mosquitoes in the summer and I’m glad to have the bats around…outside.

I was catching a groundhog and driving it out ten miles into the wildlife preserve. Until I realized that I was catching the same one over and over. Now, I have some jasmine growing over it's grave. I know. I know... I am a terrible person, but I tried.

 

[Grangerous]

 

[Grangerous]

fight crime in a rubber suit - Google Search

 

[BCF]

@Grangerous, that awful in the best possible way.

 

[kcghost]

it seems strange for someone who has lived in the country as long as I have and not seen one bat. Damn!!

 

[mso489]

Those are interesting little airborne mammals. Though they can be disease vectors, on balance they do good, vacuuming up insects by the pound. Bat houses are a trend, as a natural insecticide. Probably not a good idea to try to help grounded bats, since that means sickness, and you don't want to get bitten by a sick bat.

I'm interested at the appearing inefficiency of their flight, the way they kind of rock through the air. It looks like energy and calories wasted, but they seem to thrive in the thousands where they live. On a smaller scale, I've always been interested in clothing moths, the way they teeter along through the air and are extremely difficult to swat because of that.

Close-up video and photos of bats shows clearly how mammalian they are. The big bats, flying foxes, really do look like their namesake. They have their echo-location sonar. Birds and bats have remarkable brain circuitry to adapt to flight, adjusting to take-offs and landing in wind and delicate navigation skills in all weather. A lot of brain activity from very compact brains.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Bats are NZ’s only native (well, non-marine) mammals