[Closed] Is any one lucky enough to have Bats in their garden ?

Regularly. I like bats. They eat midges.

Nearly every night in the summer when it's not raining here

yeup - mine go squeak - but not everyone that visits can hear them, I have even been accused of making it up - but they do go squeak!

They do, I hear them also.. I love the little things, I am so glad they are a protected species.

yep here to, go out on any nice evening in our drive/yard and we have a few, and yes we have heard the squeak

Yes we have them. I love watching them at dusk. Fast buggers aren't they.
I once had one smack me in the face just as I was coming back from a ride.
Obviously not looking where he was going 🙂

Hope you realise you cant do anything to disturb them , like knocking down or altering a building, but fantastic beutiful creatures, try to get a pet one to hang on your hand, and you see intelligence in their eyes, a very underestimated creature, that dont harm anything except flies.

It tried to eat your 'helmet' ?

outside the window most nights here.
do they live in trees??

Lots of trees around here, quite possibly so..

there is a huge fir tree nextdoor, they are in and out all the time at dusk.

Yep. As said before, they eat midges which I hate. Really nice to see.

If you think that's cool, how about one of [i]these[/i] on your window ledge?

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is that a Mink ?

stuffed for sure.......... 😉

[i]Well[/i] stuffed after eating peanut butter sandwiches

The word 'bat' comes from 'Bird' and 'Rat' put together. They're flying rats.

GET THEM OUT OF MY HAIR GET THEM OUT OF MY HAIR!

Calm down, Calm down...Oh, that the Steven Gerrard thread is it not... 😉

neverfastenuff - Member

is that a Mink ?

Pine Marten

Nice, we have Mink around here, I have often seen them...

ive got bats in my garden my dad nearly wets himself when they come out of hibernation and ive also got mink traps 😉

Taka, pull the 'Otter' one.. 😉

They do make an audible squeak. I used know a guy who's duties included opening up a 16th century castle each morning. It still had the enormous 16th century lock on the door and he had to carry the huge key around with him. One morning he puts the key in the door and theres a squeak. He thinks - I'd better oil that - pulls out the key and theirs a little bat squashed on the end of the key.

I also got home from a long drive back through the highlands once, with the bike on the roof of the car, to find I'd collected a little bat head tube badge en route. Poor wee mite.

I had some in my loft until I killed them. 😆

😉

I built an ornamental Doocot at the bottom of the garden, it's first and only occupants are Bats.

Bats are brill. As mentioned above, they eat midges. We have bats here, I just wish we had more as there is plenty of food for them.

Yup, had bats everywhere I can remember, they're remarkably common (some of them!). Love bats.

Yep, I've always been [i]hugely[/i] impressed by bats. Specially how they manage to fly.

[img] [/img]

I've nearly had a bat strike on a twilight descent out of the woods. Often watch them collecting insects on summer evenings outside my living room window.

we used to get loads every summer as the fallowfield cycle loop runs right along behind my garden creating a tree-lined channel ideal for them to hunt along, but GMPTE chopped all the trees down in january in preparation for the metrolink extension (which isn't even going to run past my flat for another few years and is dependent on funding), so this year i've only seen a couple of them.

They have a bat house in Chester Zoo. The lighting is very subdued, some form of blue, and the bats are flying around all the time. They fly right at you and only move away at the last minute. Spooky at first, but once you get used to it it's a great experience. Big things they are - fruit bats I think.

barely any at the current house, but lots at a previous
the squeaks will be more audible to children and some adults can hear them depending on how their sense of hearing has developed and the species of bat as they squeak at different frequencies - the main way to identify them in flight with a bat box

they can nest almost anywhere you could stuff your thumb, come across them quite a bit at work in barns and trees

if you handle them regular, you're eligible for a rabies jab!

Bats live in the old barn next to us. A common sight in the garden on a summers evening.

There was a green woodpecker on the lawn this morning too 8)

We have one that flys up and down our line of houses, we call it Boris. Best bats I've seen were in Malta, sat on the roof of where we staying, looking over the bay towards Valleta, as they swooped in and around the trees. Oh and there were some rather large fruit bats on the island we stayed on in the Maldives, wing span of 3 ft, were flying during the day, people kept saying look at all those big birds, they went a bit funny when told they were bats.

Chatworthmusters,
I went to Chester Zoo recently and spent ages in the Bat enclosure, once you got used to the sme;; and your eyes adjusted there were great to watch, happened to have a couple of Bats of indeterminable size buzz me, so close you could feel the draft from their wings.. brilliant stuff.

We get them visiting us, love sitting out on summer evenings with a glass or two watching them.

We get them visiting us, love sitting out on summer evenings with a glass or two watching them.

Most summer nights at dusk and try to watch them at every opportunity, been making enquiries on how to photograph them.

Common opinion is pre focus on a likely spot and then use an infra red trigger to fire the flash
Not convinced and sure they fly far too erratically for any AF to lock on them

i thought i saw some bats,when i looked out of my window around dusk,i cannot be sure though?they kept dancing in the sky then divebombing,it might have been birds though!!!

Ambrose- put a bat box up this will encourage more.
We've put one up on the tree in the garden, hoping that this years young will find it when they get thrown out of their parents digs.

Once on a walk I saw a large butterfly, on closer inspection I realised it was a baby bat. It flew to a wall and slowly crawled up into a tiny crack at the top, all this in broad daylight.

Got some here too ,WILD WALES,had 1 in our bedroom 1 night ,had to chase it out before Mrs would let me back in bed.

Had some down cellar recently too,regularly see when out with dogs after dark.

bats in our front shed you can hear them scratching.

Yep, bats here also. Also a large colony of Natterer's Bats a few miles away - must go and see them before they hibernate!

I guess we have bats nearby. I have seen them flying around every now & again & the cat bought one into the house once!!

We thought first of all it was a dead leaf, until it unfolded it's wings and started crawling about the floor! Managed to get the cat out of the house & the bat then took off and hung itself from the rail that goes round our living room (tasteful (not) dado rail that previous owner put in).
It then started doing loops of the room before hanging from the rail again.
I had the computer on so got on the internet & found a bat expert based nearby (who'd have thought!!). I called them up, but they had settled down for the evening with a bottle of wine so were unable to come out & collect it. I explained that it was currently hanging on the wall & appeared to have a fairly large tear in it's wing.
The woman then proceeded to lecture me that it's an offence to hold a bat in captivity! I asked her if she would prefer me to give it back to the cat (the cat was well miffed we deprived her of her new toy!)

In the end she said it was probably OK to fly with the tear in the wing & to catch it and let it go. Catching it was difficult, but in the end we used a sieve. The bat seemed to be able to sense that something was there, but not exactly what & we managed to coax it into a box (which it did a few poos in).
I then walked it down the road to a large field & let it go.....it flew off & that was that!

Quite a fun evening!

Regularly see them zipping across our garden at dusk, you can only see them for a second sillhouetted against the sky they're so quick. I presume they live in the woods nearby.

One flew into my arm a few weeks back at the end of a nightride just down from The Cutting, twas a horrible creepy feeling knowing Id been touched by a bat. I love em flying about but dont want one tangled up in my sleeve.

can you encourage bats in surburban terraces? There aren't many trees down the back but i'd love to get some buzzing about

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/encouraging_bats.html

I've a juvenile Common Pipistrelle in my office at the moment, he's going home tonight.

I once went on an organised bat watch.
The park ranger took a group of us into the woods. Out came his special microphone to pick up their noises and a large bright light.
It was really amazing seeing loads of them flying around.
Then we walked down to a nearby lake, where we watched daubenton bats skimming across the top of the water catching all the insects.

I came recommend at trip out if you have ( older children), it's great fun.
Mine was at Lyme park, near Stockport.

Our cat also brought one in a few months ago. Sat watching TV and heard this funny clicking, after a quick search found it under the table. I caught it in a shoe box while our lass looked on the web to find out what to do. It said to ring the local 'bat man'. He came around 2 days later, we kept it in a shoe box in the spare room. He went in for it but it had got out, finally found it, bit him twice. He left but haven't heard anything since. Never seen one flying around near us though.

Maybe linked, when we got our planning permission through for an extention the only condition was to stop work if we found bats. I searched all the related planning applications in the area and none mentioned bats.

Saw plenty of these in Australia recently:

[img] [/img]

Grey-headed flying fox: don't fancy being hit by one while on the bike, would be like being hit by a flying jack russell with a 1m+ wingspan. But cool creatures.