look what I just found on a towel in the kitchen ...

[_angel_]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

What is this, the urban-have-a-nightmare thread. Yikes!!

 

[baldrick]

but it's so cute!

aww, i love bats

 

[feyr]

oooo its a cutie! we have bats in the building i work in, tis fun to bat spot while on night duty

 

[liberty]

How lovely

 

[Cloo]

Awww! I love bats, me!

 

[weepiper]

Aww, it's only a bat! (to the people going )

Our cats went through a phase of catching bats, once at our old house I was awoken at 3am by what turned out to be a bat screaming at the top of its lungs because tomcat no. 1 had caught it and brought it in - not a nice way to wake up! I had to get up, stagger downstairs in a t-shirt and catch the bat in a towel to take it outside. It was quite unharmed, just really pissed off I'm awfully glad it didn't bite me, but there wasn't much else I could do - I couldn't leave it where it was because the cat might have got it again, and there's no way we could have slept through the noise even if it hadn't! It flew off quite the thing when I let it go.

 

[Jazzz]

aww look at its little feet!

 

[pinkmonkey]

We have pipistrelle bats here, in Palmers Green. If you sit outside on a summers evening, they come swooping past, catching insects.

 

[Jazzz]

You should put any bat poo on your plants. Fantastic fertiliser!

 

[Funky_monks]

Cool Bat!

Last time we had a bat in our house, I just took it out and hung it in the nearest tree. It buggered off right enough.

 

[moose]

Awww - that's so gorgeous! Lucky you. Could ask him to come back in a couple of weeks, please?
[bat envy]

 

[votisit]

i want NATURE!!!!!

i bought derv some carniverous plants for his birthday - we're hoping to train them to eat pigeons

LOL I want one of those

 

[lizzieloo]

Nice towel

 

[beeboo]

awww, cute little bat!

Can I tell you all some bat trivia? yes? ok here we go...

the super high-pitched noises bats make for their echo-location are so loud, that if we could hear them they would be as loud as a jet engine.

So they don't deafen themselves with the noise, they temporarily disconnect the bones in their ears, and then reconnect them in time to hear the echo - they can do this dozens of times every second.



And cute and furry to boot - they're the best!

 

[i_hate_beckham]

If they are nesting in the house then you will have to put with this. IIRC once a bat has made its nest it is illegal to move them as they are protected.

 

[JTG]

Aww hes lovely! *goes to check towel* I want a batty!

Here you are m'dear

 

[mrskp]

muchos respectos for having the gumption to take a pic of Mike before he escaped. think i'd have been running down the street as fast as i could if i'd found one.

was in the news yesterday that some woman had to have a rabies shot cos she'd been bitten by one.

 

[MysteryGuest]

I say, how positively spiffing!


We've had a few bats in the back garden round here, but as yet none on a tea towel.

 

[MysteryGuest]

BAT UPDATE


On Friday night I got up for a wee. When I went back to bed I could hear something rustling round in the corner of the room. As I'm sleeping on cushions on the floor at the moment, I was pretty worried that there was a rat or some such similar lurking somewhere it shouldn't, so grudgingly I put the light on, to find - A BAT FLYING ROUND MY ROOM!!!!

It was fucking amazing - I watched it silently flitting about for a while, then it perched on one of my wardrobe doors. I could just see its cute little orrible face and pointy ears. Its wingspan was about 2ft or so when it was flying around, but it folded up into quite a neat little small thing. Then it started flying round again. I think bats are brilliant, and it was fascinating to get to see one so close up. I felt all gothic actually - wish I had a Sisters of Mercy CD to put on. In the end I was worried that the light was confusing it, so I switched it off, and eventually the bat, having climbed up the curtain, made it back outdoors under its own steam.


Yaaaay!

 

[MysteryGuest]

Shame tanky had to spoil things by being so childish.

 

[marco mark]

two old bats in one house?

3 + the dogs ekk shirl quick plan a long weekend away.

 

[D]

I love bats. We don't get 'em around here. Maybe there are some in Golden Gate Park.

I've always been envious of the fact that you get foxes and bats and other fun critters in (quasi-)urban areas.

All I get are flies and the occasional spider or cockroach.

 

[pogofish]

You can find you local bat group here:

http://www.bats.org.uk/batgroups/batgroups_list.asp

Handling them is restricted but there are a number of circumstances where an unlicenced person can handle a bat without risk of prosecution - full details are on the above link. The risk of rabies is low but any sort of bat handler should always wear gloves.

 

[Cadmus]

it's beutiful!

we were keeping 3 at one point in our school. they entered and couldnt find their way outso we took care of them and left the windows open each night so they could leave which they did after a few days. they are lovely animals.

 

[Schmetterling]

We have pet flies in here. We've trained them to fly round and round the light in the middle of the room

I have trained my flies to eat cat-shit. Especially on a hot summer's day.

 

[Ellie23]

That's fantastic, I'm so jealous! I've never seen a bat close up except at a zoo.

We have bats flying round our garden every evening and I could sit for ages watching them, they're amazing creatures.