We have bats in our belfry! Lucky us.

As crazy as that may seem, we ARE NOT crazy (Oh, you want proof?) but we do have bats.


Backstory: Upon retirement a while back, we moved to our forever home (we hope) on a lakefront in North Carolina. When friends would visit, they marveled that we seemed to have no mosquitos, which we don't, thanks to a multitude of bats.

Bats are curious creatures to say the least. As fable has it, Count Dracula could morph into a bat and bite unsuspecting persons causing them to become zombies. Having seen lots of bats close-up and never, to my recollection, seeing a zombie in human or mosquito form, I figure those bats must be eating the mosquitos.

Bats are the only flying mammals, capable of true and sustained flight. They are nocturnal and incredibly adept at devouring mosquitos. In Austin, Texas, a popular tourist attraction is the home of 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge. At about dusk, as crowds watch, the bats venture out en-mass on their nightly quest for mosquitos, often ranging as far as 25 miles before returning home by dawn. It is an enormously interesting and beautiful sight.

Bats leaving from under the bridge on their evening search for food

Back to my story: So this morning, about 5:15, as my wife and I sat on our second story deck with a wakeup cup of coffee, we had our own bat show.  In the pre-dawn light we were treated to the dark shadows of hundreds of acroBATic creatures flying circus-like routes of loops, dives and swoops toward us as if for our entertainment, sometimes encroaching three to four feet into our space, for 45 minutes or so.

Bats leaving from beneath the bridge

While bats are not blind, they have a refined 'radar-like" sense that lets them fly with tremendous agility at great speed, avoiding obstacles, each other and us as they hone in mid-flight on mosquito after mosquito.

Then, at the sound of a bird's call, they just disappeared, figuring perhaps it might be a good time to go hang upside down for the day.

Isn't nature spectacular in every way?