Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Great Outdoor Challenge: Bats

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The University of Florida has recently finished building a second bat house, so Blaze and I went to see if it had any residents yet.

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Every evening, just as the sun is setting, people begin gathering near the fence in front of the bat houses to watch the bats come out.

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The bats fly en-mass to Lake Alice for a drink of water and then separate to do their nightly bug hunting.

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Blaze was excited to follow the bats across the street to the lake.

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I'm always careful to sit where there are tree branches overhead when the bats come out, because they fly next to trees or above them, not under them. Someone standing out in the open will undoubtably say something about feeling drops of rain, but that is not rain they are feeling.

6 comments:

Tammy said...

Holy moly that's a lot of bats. Do you think there are more this year than last year since there is another bat house now? Bats fascinate Kayla and me...I love your bat posts. :)

Crescent Moon said...

We did see some coming from the new house, so I think there must be more. I really like the bats! We haven't had any mosquito problems here and I think that's totally because of the bat houses.

angelina said...

ahh we lOVE BATS!!
THE bats here in australia are huge!

Cheryl said...

Wow, that must be a wonderful sight when they all pour out. We have a few bats that visit us each evening, but I don't think I could photograph them easily. Thank you for sharing the experience.

Amanda said...

I have always wanted to watch bats wake up... Thanks for the tip about the 'rain'!!!

Elizabeth said...

WOW! That is really cool. We have bats and mosquitos. I guess not enough bats! Thanks for sharing.

Crafty Crow