Most people probably don’t take much notice of them, but I actually miss seeing them. The bats that used to appear every evening at dusk.
Not everyone would have a chance to watch them, I guess. But a few years ago I used to live near an old barn. It had been converted to an apartment for a while, but then had fallen into not being used. At least by humans.
There were plenty of others in the neighbourhood who made use of it. Several raccoons had made a place for themselves in there. Possibly a few feral cats. And bats. Lots of bats.
Every so often at dusk I would go out and watch the daily takeoff. As the sun went down, hundreds of bats would come flying out, heading off to find food for the evening. Usually, if I was out watching, I would hope they would come my way because at that time of the day it was likely I would be surrounded by mosquitoes. So having the bats around gave me some hope that they might cut down on the number of flying insects in the area.
There were a couple spots where I might see bats as they headed out in the evening. Unfortunately, some of those places no longer exist. And worse for the bats, white nose syndrome arrived. It’s a fungal growth which has decimated the bat populations across North America, and the numbers around here have been reduced.
The numbers of bats in our area seem to have taken a pretty severe drop, although a couple years ago there was news that some colonies seemed to be recovering. Hopefully they will make a comeback.
In the meantime, I’ll keep watching the skies at dusk, waiting for the stars to appear. And hoping something flies by to eat all those mosquitoes.
Maybe not everyone is a bat fan, but I miss seeing them on a regular basis.
