This was the last place I heard bats.
I used to hear them easily as a child - as an actual sound - but now I have to check whether or not I am imagining that I can hear them.
Of course, I can only hear the lower register communication calls which lie underneath the machine-gun twitter of their echo-location to hunt insects.
Astoundingly, they communicate with each other at the same time as using a different sound to hunt. They can do both at the same time.
Nowadays I hear their low calls in much the same way as you might detect a distant explosion.
SPLUT... SPLUT... SPLUT SPLUT...
You have to concentrate, but once you have tuned-in it is easy.
There were bats at our old house for years, until it was noticed they lived in the little attic over the guest room. The louver was screened off and the bats upped sticks, to be replaced by swallows. I can remember the chirrups they made, but not exactly.
ReplyDeleteMust you be there on that hill to hear the bats?
Only there because it was the last place I sat out on a warm Summer night without the sound of traffic.
DeleteI love bats, We had them at the farm and i still miss them. As to hearing them - I remember hearing them years ago but being very deaf now I can only remember their sound.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky enough to have a lot of different bats in the Bath area.
DeleteI heard them tonight ..only the flutter of wings down the lance above our heads..like tissue paper flapping
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember that sound too. It's a bit louder when Dracula comes through the window.
DeleteI associate bats with our annual family camping trips up to NE California. The bats would spin and weave through the dark night sky. I like to think I could hear them, but I can't really remember.
ReplyDeleteSide note: my surname is Batz, so I grew up hearing 'Bats in the belfry! Haaha!' more than I care to recall.
I bet you heard them all - 'She's Batz', etc.
DeleteDingbats, where's your broomstick?, batty...you name it!
DeleteThere is a lot of magic in night creatures.
ReplyDeleteYes. Those lemurs with the huge eyes...
DeleteBats.
ReplyDeleteYou got it.
DeleteDo you think you're God?
ReplyDeleteYou are going to have to explain that question if you're expecting an answer.
DeleteI'll leave it at that until the next time and maybe ask you again when it arises.
DeleteIf it does require an answer then I would explain now. Why bother to wait if you want one? Or is it your famously misunderstood sense of humour as shared by the other 859,399 distant relatives of yours in Norfolk?
DeleteYes, that would be it, the ones with 6 toes and webbed feet.
DeleteI wonder why it is that communities of inbreds always seem to attract eels? The Northern banks of the Severn Estuary are populated in the main by close and distant relatives, many of whom depend on eels as their sole source of income.
DeleteOne of the most wonderful things about our house in France is the bats. They put on a fabulous aerial display and we love the moment when the swallows go to bed and the bat formation team comes out.
ReplyDeleteThey behave in similar ways, don't they? I blame the insects.
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