h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I only get delicate little insect-eating bats around here, which suits me just fine - and I don't even see them that much now that I'm not hanging around outside smoking.

Awwww; now who could possibly hate a fruit?????

http://www.baysoundings.com/wint03/photos/bats.jpg

zdt

Two summers ago I was surprised by the sudden appearance of bats flying into my living room. The first time it happened I thought it was just a fluke thing, but when it *kept* happening I began wondering WHY. Well, as one would . . .

Turned out I had a bat nest in one of the broken open bricks outside one of my livingroom balcony doors. And the ones that kept flying into my livingroom were baby bats that missed the small opening (just about two inches wide) when 'coming home'.

One evening I actually had two of them flying around in the living room and managed to shoo one out the open balcony doors, but the other one then bashed into a wall and went - plop! - onto the floor and was unable to move.

Suddenly my three cats went - hey! snack! - and raced towards the wee thing. So I had to toss them all out of the room and close the door. And I was amazed at how tiny this bat was. When they were flying around their wings were about a hand-width span, but when I saw this one all crumpled up on the floor its body was actually no bigger than the first joint of my thumb. And sooooooo cute, with its little ears and all.

I would have just picked it up in my hands but then remembered that some bats can carry rabies. So instead I got a piece of cardboard and a glass. Put the glass over the bat and slid the cardboard underneath. And waited until it looked like it wasn't so kerfluffled. Then I took it over to the balcony and let it go . . . afraid that it might just fall. But it made a couple of trial swoops and then finally made its way back 'home'.

Then I spoke to a bat expert - a biologist. He is locally called Batman. He told me that this particular species of bats don't tend to carry rabies (though I'd already got my cats vaccinated just in case, especially after one day Azar had actually trapped one!) And he quite unnecessarily told me that bats are considered an endangered species in Spain so I wasn't allowed to kill them (as if!). So my only option was to live with bats flying into my living room on almost a daily basis until the baby bats grew up.

Later on, once the nest was empty, we filled up the opening with plaster so it wouldn't happen again. But it was actually quite a nice experience that summer.

I'd never been so close to a bat before. They actually look like tiny little mice with wings. Quite adorable, really.


az

It's so great reading about your different experiences of living in all these exotic places. Last night I dreamed about parrots and roses and cockies and choughs.

At the same time, I'm feeling more than usually appreciative of the melodious dawn chorus with which my local songbirds greet me every morning!

One of these days I'll hear a melodious dawn chorus. Around here, it's more like a gang of cockatoos going 'wrrrraaAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHhhhh', which isn't quite the same.

Tell me about it Ivan

For those who don't understand the exact problem: the BBC uses the sound of cockatoos as the sound of pterodactyls and things like that when they need dinosaur noises. They're loud, and not at all melodious.

I went outside to close the shutters the other night & there was a horrifying noise in the sky; i squealed & dragged viking from his perch "You are French; tell me what the hell is that???"

"Oh, it's just a flock of flamingos migrating, see, told you winter is horrible here, they are depressed as hell & off to Africa, i want to go with them!"

"cockies in the trees" indeed; bah; humbug, you should be so lucky!is this a variation on "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?"

zdt

Terri: I think I'll file that under 'imponderable'.

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Now, I think the time has come to retire this thread. It served its purpose admirably. Thank you all for dropping by... I'm hoping to start a cheerful journal thread one day soon.

Good