I have bats
Nobody believed me, but I got a shot of one of the bastards last night.
He's a big one (7 - 8 inch wingspan). I measured the approximate distance and came up with 40 feet.
He will dive bomb you!
The closeup could show two wing beats, or one wingspread. Scary either way!
Just eating your mosquitos.......[SIZE="1"]until they can find your jugular.[/SIZE]:unsure:
Very hard to photograph after dark... good job, NBN.
Cool trick -- when they fly in your direction, toss a pebble in the air. They'll often confuse it for an insect, lock in on it, catch it with a swoop and release.
I was fishing out on a lake after sunset and kept feeling these 'strikes' on the line -- it turned out to be bats swooping down and confusing the line for bugs.
Our old neighborhood was infested with bats, they were as common at night as birds in the day - and 4-5 times a year we'd have one in the house. I fucking hate bats in the house. Imagine sitting in your living room, quietly reading a magazine, glancing up, and seeing a bat dive bombing you. Bastards...
Cool shots though.
We've got them under our roof, but I kinda like the little fellas.
Are they protected where you are? In Britain, if you have bats in your attic, you're not allowed to disturb them, and fined if you do.
(If you have bats in your belfry, that's a different problem altogether :3eye: !)
My family and our contractor are building bat boxes for our homes to encourage them to move into our yards.
We have many in our neighborhoods.
Please do not shoot any more, they are needed.
If they are in your home I can get you instructions on how to get rid of them harmlessly.
In theory, getting a bat out of your house is simple; just open a door or window and they'll find their way out. In practice though, or my experience anyway, any bat that is smart enough to find their way out won't fly in by mistake in the first place - so you're either dealing with a total dumbass, or a criminal mastermind that is staging a coup. Either way, you end up with all your doors and windows wide open, sweating your ass off under a blanket with a bat circling overhead while your husband runs around with an oven mitt and a badminton racquet screaming like a woman.
My neighbor discovered that her husband has a bat phobia when one "attacked" them during dinner one night. He screamed, leapt up from the table, ran from the house, GOT IN THE CAR, and drove away. She had to call another neighbor in for help....
...any bat that is smart enough to find their way out won't fly in by mistake in the first place - so you're either dealing with a total dumbass, or a criminal mastermind that is staging a coup.
Or a rabid one. Austin has
tons of bats (our hockey team is even called the IceBats), and we get rabid-bat outbreaks every so often.
It is amazingly rare for a rabid bat to bite a human, they don't last long. They have very fast metabolisms.
Basically the human has to be messing with the bat.
Vampire bats will die if they don't feed every other day. If they can find a buddy that will share half of what he ate, then they both must feed the next day, or die.
If a bat flies into your house, I'd say your window screens are too course. ;)
while your husband runs around with an oven mitt and a badminton racquet screaming like a woman.
You wouldn't happen to have pictures of this, would you? :D
No.... but that would have been fantastic blackmail material... bummer...
while your husband runs around with an oven mitt and a badminton racquet screaming like a woman.
I would have thought you'd have grown quite used to that sort of thing from LJ by now. One spliff too many, huh? :D
Did he eat a Spanish Fly?
Looks like an illustration of the term "Onanism" to me.
Did he eat a Spanish Fly?
LOL
Cool trick -- when they fly in your direction, toss a pebble in the air. They'll often confuse it for an insect, lock in on it, catch it with a swoop and release.
As kids in Bellingham we lived in an area that was huge on Bats. I did the very same thing to attract them.
Extremely beneficial creatures. Extremely scary. Great shots!
Bats in the house can have a nasty side besides the obvious, they pee when frightened. If bad urine all over your walls and carpet isn't bad enough it effectively aerosolizes the rabies virus (if the bat is infected) and will pass it to everyone who walks into the area.
OK, it's NOVEMEBER, as in bats going away for the winter or sleepy sleepy no insects see you in the spring.
One frigging bat didn't get the memo. HELLEAUX? we're havin dinner here, can you go fly around someone else's living room?
Custom G (aka SWMBO) saw it first, inchling was very curious and a little spooked, picking up on our excitement.
Eventually we trapped him in the parlor and I made a giant net out of some mosquito netting and pvc pipe. (seemed more efficacious than running around with an oven mitt and a badminton racquet screaming like a woman though that did cross my mind)
Now the house is slowly warming back up after ahving all the windows open in the 20 something degree weather.
asshole bat.
I live about 2km from the largest fruit bat colony in the southern hemisphere. We see lots of bats. One flew into our pool fence a couple of nights ago. He didn't feel very well. After a while he flapped his arms and off he went.
My neighbour once got arrested for shooting fruit bats. Actually, he got arrested for carrying .22 around the front yard. That was pretty funny. He was just protecting his bananas!