Bats

Alfred said:
Just saw a few Bats flitting about here in the UK, Dorbenton maybe nice to see.
Central UK Stafforshire location.

Is there a thread on this?
I did search. If so please merge
Click to expand...

No thread about bats? That's...... bats!

I saw one zipping past while I was walking home the other evening at twilight. No idea what species. It went by so fast! First one I've seen in my area in the 34 years I've lived here (South Herts).
 
I often see a few bats flying around in the car park to where I live, usually at dusk. There's quite a few Elm trees and plenty of seriously over grown shrubbery around the car park like Buddliea, Elderflower, Privet, Bayleaf, etc. It's nice to see the fleeting glimpse of them in the semi darkness.
 
We used to have them living in our garage roof when I lived in rural mid Wales. A couple of my friends there were very involved with the Bat Conservation Trust and would go out on surverys and stuff so I used to hear a lot about those fascinating creatures.

I haven't seen any since I moved back to East Anglia where I'm from originally but there again I've not been out at dusk much! However when I was a young teenager I had a character forming encounter with one.

It happened when I was cycling home at dusk, peddling like mad down a hill by a wood to get up speed so as to make it to the top of the hill without having to get off as our neighbour had insisted she'd seen a ghost there. Already in fear mode you can imagine my state of mind when a bat came from nowhere and collided with me!! So much for their efficient sonar but I guess I was just going too fast for it and the poor thing was probably as alarmed as me.

Anyway I couldn't give into the fear with the possibility of a ghostly encounter coming up. Needless to say I didn't meet said ghost but an important lesson learnt. :)
 
Years ago while walking through a wooded area at dusk I had a bat fly in to me. It clung on to my shirt for some minutes before flying off. It was very soft and very small and didn't seem to realise I was another living creature.

So much for the 'sonar' of bats.
 
It's probably not going to be warm enough for them to be out tonight but on this day in 2023 I took some photos of Pipistrelles over my garden.
These were the best of many attempts!

Pipistrelle bat C63A9241.jpg
Pipistrelle bat C63A9242.jpg
 
Just thought I would bung this pic on here. @Swifty posted it on the thread about the Jersey Devil back in December 2021. It is a pretty little critter called a hammer-headed bat. They have them in West and Central Africa. They eat figs apparently. I hope their mothers love them.

Screenshot_20240709-091550_Chrome.jpg
 
It's about 35 minutes since sunset and I was surprised to see a bat when I put the food out for the badgers and fox. There is light rain and I wouldn't have thought there were many flying insects for the bats to catch.
 
I was sitting with a Canadian guy somewhere on Mt Talau around 4.00pm on an overcast day.
From the woodland behind us flew several fruit bats, in groups of two or three. As we sat watching, one of them started hovering overhead, came closer, gave us a good looking over, then flew off.
 
Alfred said:
In the twilight, 20 mins ago two, maybe bats back garden flitting about doing their thing, batting!
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I like that as a verb to describe the flight of bats : batting. Nicely coined, @Alfred.

But if batting is what bats do, and badgering is what badgers do, and beavering is what beavers do... what do dogs do?
 
Ace, thanks @char
Many questions?
I could say Batting is Cricket, badgering, is a cull, beavering, is a study upon many things to create a dam, naturaly, and we (humans) have seen that power, and built from them. Dogs well? ive have my time with dogs 20 or so years they do most of the things you ask.
Im in my eclipsed 48 zone, within that minus 16 Years, my cat was alive and treated like him a king.
Hence my Av.
Anyway dont make me cry, it still hurts not having him around.
---
Bat's also can be heard in my early day's you can hear the high fequency, these days i can just hear the clipping, or 'Batting' thats what alerted to me post this thread in the first place.
 
Erinaceus said:
It's probably not going to be warm enough for them to be out tonight but on this day in 2023 I took some photos of Pipistrelles over my garden.
These were the best of many attempts!

View attachment 79323View attachment 79324
Click to expand...
Whenever I heard bats flying around I could rarely see them. And when I did they were so fast I could barely see them at all. So those photos are very good.
 
Today has been 'flying ants day' around here (yuck!) - and tonight seems to be 'flying bats night' (hooray!). Standing at the kitchen sink with the curtains open and there are at least two bats zipping around all over the place out there in the twilight. Don't see them often around here. I feel privileged.
 
Bat survives trip to Glasgow, it was lucky to encounter a Glaswegian who'd seen a bat before.

Baby bat returns to Highlands after hiding in holiday suitcase​

Tracey Jolliffe A baby bat found in Glasgow after being trapped in a suitcase
Tracey Jolliffe
Baby bat Raspberry became disoriented and found its way into a suitcase

A baby bat has been returned to its home in the Highlands after hiding away in holiday luggage. It was discovered by Alex O'Neill when he arrived back in Glasgow, after he and his partner stayed at a cottage on Kinlochmoidart Estate in Lochailort.

The tiny bat, which has been named Raspberry, survived tucked away for four hours on the 150 mile (240km) road trip last week. After being handed into the care of a bat expert, Raspberry was helped back to full health and released in the Highlands on Saturday evening.

Tracey Jolliffe Bat flies around ceiling
Tracey Jolliffe
Rasperry gets back to fitness by flying around the ceiling

Alex told BBC Scotland News that he found the bat after he felt something moving in his bag while unpacking.

He said: "We see bats here in Glasgow sometimes. Lochailort has a lot of them so it wasn’t likely to freak me out. I took it out, threw something over it keep it dark, and then looked on Google for what to do with a bat. It was calm, it wasn’t agitated or anything. It was just a case of dropping a tea towel on it and scooping it up to look after it."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgkvkzl5m0o
 
Yithian said:
Bats can swim!

https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1888304504459665803
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Maybe not the place for this but it makes me wonder whether pterosaurs could swim. There are often depictions of them over water but not in it. It looks as if bats can't take off from the water as some birds can which must be a factor in why we don't get "duck bats" or AFAIK duck pterosaurs. However the early birds Ichthyornis and Hesperornis are seen as aquatic the latter being flightless the former theorised as having webbed feet. Was the ability not only to swim but to be able to take off from the water a factor in bird evolution?
 
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