“Riddle me this. Riddle me that. Who’s afraid of the big black bat?”
Or in this case, the big BROWN bat(s)…
If you have been reading the Coach Jeff Blog for the last year, you may recall the stories I wrote last spring and during the early part of the summer about a small colony of big brown bats that moved into the recessed area near the roof of our house. This location is next to the attic vents by the eaves on the west side of the house.
According to my quick search of the archives, I posted at least three times about our visitors.
Here are links to those three posts:
- http://jeffdgary.tumblr.com/post/22299477314/driving-us-batty
- http://jeffdgary.tumblr.com/post/24910963121/to-the-batpoles
- http://jeffdgary.tumblr.com/post/25973105218/au-revoir-mes-chauve-souris
After their babies were born, the bats flew away. Still, they stayed in the neighborhood most of the summer. Lisa noticed a remarkable decline in the mosquito population in 2012. We were so happy about this that we erected a bathouse at the edge of our woods to attract them to consider returning to our neighborhood in future years.
I haven’t noticed any activity around the bat house in 2013 but I sure was hoping our flying friends would return.
Then, on Friday night, we invited a guest over for dinner. As he was leaving for the evening, Lisa turned on the outside lights of our house to make his exit safer. As we were saying our goodbyes on the front walkway, I saw a number of les chauve-souris swooping and banking around those spotlights.
Our friends, the big brown bats, are back!
I’m not sure where they hibernated all winter but it sure was good to see them back in the neighborhood. Tonight, at dusk, I confirmed they are indeed still around by repeating the same activity with our exterior lights. Just as they did 48 hours ago, they were back in earnest - flying around the top of our house near those lights.
I’m not sure where they are staying - probably somewhere in the woods behind our house - but their presence is devastating news for both good and bad bugs. As for us, we’re glad to see them. Like Batman himself, it feels as though they are protecting us with their evening flights.
They’re good neighbors to have; just don’t want to have them as uninvited tenants.
JG
Originally posted 4/7/2013
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