A Bat In The Hand!

I received and interesting e-mail yesterday inquiring about an image I uploaded to the stock.xchng more than many months ago. The image you see above is the image in question.

It reminded me of my experiences with bats. We have bats in Tampa and during the evenings when the sun has already disappeared below the horizon you can catch glimpses of them circling and diving in the sky. We were never able to get to close to them but we would throw small stones into the air and they would dive for them only to let them continue falling to the ground upon realizing they were not an insect.

The first time I was able to capture a bat I was visiting some caves in the Citrus Wildlife Management area due north of the city. My brother and I were exploring the caves when we came upon a little bat sleeping in a hole in the ceiling of the cave. We pluck the little blighter of the stone like a ripe banana. We then proceeded to drive home with him and let him go in the house. Bats in flight are amazing. They are completely silent and they never run into anything. They have sonar which you quickly discover if you hold them close to ear. You cannot hear it as well as you can feel it. We enjoyed studying it as it flew around the house and after a little while we released it in to the neighborhood expecting that it would meet up with some of the locals and help keep the mosquitoes in check.

The next time I held a bat is pictured in the image above. I took a friend to the caves to explore. I was able to locate and capture one to photograph. The little fellow was biting me for all he was worth but it felt like no more than a small lizard. We took the photos and quickly let it go.

I will report later concerning the e-mail I mention at the top of this little story, that is if there is anything to report.