A Simple Creature

Not long after we moved into the house we currently live in, I found a simple project that I could do with my son while also providing a habitat for flying animals. I’m not talking about birds here, our daily companions tweeting and singing songs as they twit and flit about. No, I’m talking about that mammal upon which is based a famous comic character and had a whole franchise built around. I’m talking about the humble, nocturnal, bat. For some reason, I have a special place in my heart for bats, I think they are one of the coolest creatures that exist, a mammal that flies at night and uses echo-location to find its food and navigate through the darkness. As the owl who sleeps by day, so too does the bat reside in darkness as the sun blazes above while the rest of us are out and about and it emerges just as the sun is disappearing beyond the distant horizon. So years ago I found a design, bought a full size 4 foot by 8 foot piece of plywood and build 2 bat houses with my son. It was a simple design, would provide shelter for these awesome nocturnal mammals, and help mitigate the mosquito population in our backyard. 8-9 years on, they are still hanging from the peak of our house and the bat population has grown.

Last night as I looked out the window of our kitchen, I saw our yard bathed in a weird orange glow, emanating somewhere from far above. Intrigued, I moseyed on out our back door and looked up to what was a brilliant light show above. The clouds were being bathed in a brilliant orange light from the setting sun and casting it downward into our yard. As I stood there watching, the clouds slowly shifted as did the colors to a deeper orange, flecks of deep purple interspersed with bright white clouds and as the sun set farther, pinks and lavenders emerged. (Pictures above) Then my son, who is now a teenager came out and for a few minutes we stood side by side in awe of clouds and the mutating light show above. After a few minutes, with darkness creeping down the trees around us, the ground deepening in hue and longer shadows being cast everywhere, my mind went to those bat houses perched just a few yards away facing the setting sun. I had a hunch that the bats would soon be waking and taking flight for the night so I walked over and urged my son to follow. Not two minutes after we walked over and began watching the bottoms of the bat houses did the first bat fly out.

“Wow” I said, “Look at that!”

“So cool”, my son mumbled in reply.

As we proceeded to watch, one after another after another bat flew out, both bat houses being occupied, until a total of 6 bats emerged for the evening feast. It was one of the coolest sights I have witnessed in a long time, and it happened so quickly if my son wasn’t there to confirm it, I might not have believed my own eyes. I could never tell how many bats we had living in our yard, at most in the evening I had counted 5 flying around simultaneously. Almost immediately after they flew out of their houses, they disappeared into the darkness of the understory to begin abating their hunger.

I don’t know how many bats will eventually reside in those bat houses made almost a decade ago, but I hope that we get a few more. After last night’s show, I immediately contemplated building a few more bat houses, but decided, at least for now, to let the two bat houses be the only ones. They are functioning, providing a habitat for a local flying mammal, and keeping me happy. Anything we can do to offer a place for animals to live these days, increase a habitat for them, we should do. Too many of their natural homes are being destroyed in an effort to build more and more. This is the natural progression that we have put into motion, but we can help little creatures and critters along the way and increase the biodiversity around us in the process. I will always have a fascination with bats and their navigation system, their zigs and zags through the evening sky in search of food. And I know at some point, I will build more bat houses. But for now, I will enjoy the evening show they perform and hope we get a few more around our yard.