Bats

I ended the day almost the same way it began. After dinner, I went out to the hammock. While I was laying there watching the clouds roll by, listening to the last of the birds, and wondering what that squirrel was eating, I noticed a bat flying in circles around the backyard. In the past year and a half, I've managed to increase the size of the yard by taking out some trees and overgrown shrubs. There's a lot more sky to see and plenty of room for bats to move around. I see a lot of them during the summer just before dark.

Tonight, it was just a single bat. Flying erratic circles and loops and figure-8 patterns. He'd swoop down every now and then to fetch some critter near the grass. About 5 minutes later, another bat joined him. The two chased each other round and round. Eventually the suitor (or competitor) disappeared. The hammock is attached to a flowering maple on one end. There were moths fluttering around the tips of the branches where the flowers are opening. The bat and I had a near miss experience.

Normally, I'm not a squeamish person, but being hit in the face by a bat isn't something that I want to experience. So I left him to his task of finding bugs and critters. I've been thinking about building a bat house for a while now. I need to do that soon. Maybe that will help get rid a few thousand of the mosquitoes in the yard every summer.