I like superhero movies. Kev and I have financially contributed to all of the Spiderman box office records. We got hooked on the X-men series by accident and now I've seen each film maybe 10 times (thank you HBO). I LOVED the new movie Iron Man (best summer movie so far and I've seen Sex & the City already). And like most gen-Xers, I've watched various Hollywood leading men take their turn wearing the iconic rubber "bat suit" on the big screen as well as on Nick-at-Nite.
Maybe that's why when this little guy showed up on our back porch overhang last summer, it was obvious to me his name should be Bruce Wayne. What else would you name a bat? Bruce doesn't bother anyone. The only mess he makes is a few guano droppings on the deck that I wash off every other day. He's a loner, which seems to be unusual for a bat based on what I've found on the Internet, but Bruce Wayne has superhero work to do at night, so he doesn't need the baggage of other bats.
The cool thing is, Bruce went to roost for the winter in October of last year and this week, he suddenly showed back up. Ok, so I don't know if it is the exact same bat, but I'm pretty sure it is. It looks like Bruce. He's hanging in the same place. What other bat would know of the entrance to our back porch bat cave?
He leaves his roost around 8-ish in the evening and returns around 9 or 10a, crawling way back onto the post where you can only see his little bat bum until around 3p. Then he comes out for an afternoon sunbath. Well, it's still in the shade, but he hangs out for the world to see him. Maybe he's surveying for potential crime that needs fighting? His little fuzzy chest, tiny ears, little nose and small eyes are really adorable. We can get very close to him and he doesn't seem to care.
For the crazy animal lover in me, it is so tempting to reach up there and touch him. But I do have a profound fear of needles, so cooler heads prevail. Imagining myself having rabies treatments is enough to remind me to just appreciate my friend Bruce at a distance, who has chosen my back porch as his personal summer retreat. Does that make me Vicki Vale?
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10 comments:
How cool!!! Our garage provided a temporary home for a family of wrens one summer. It was a lot of fun to see them hatch and grow up to be adult wrens.
Jen
Wow!! Your very own superhero to guard your house. I've never seen a wild bat close enough to consider touching him. I'd be tempted to scratch his little belly too. Do you think a superhero like Bruce would harm the keepers of the bat cave?
Oh, you are so lucky! I think they are so neat, and just think of all the good he's doing for the mosquito population in your yard. Please tell us more about Bruce. He's quite a cutie!
we have flying foxes out our wazoo. they don't hang with us. ha ha ha... no, really. try the shrimp. they roost by the creek near us. they eat our crabapples and lillipillis. they're hilarious. bitchy, squawky, nag nag nag. drives the dogs nuts. and they taught me not to leave sheets out. i've had a few that have been guanotstrafed.
i like them. they're funny.
LMAO, Bruce is so cute! He looks like he's posing and looking into the camera on that first shot! aren't they blind?
Buy a pair of metal gloves or something and pet that cute beast! :-)
Meant to ask, what do the "girls" think of Bruce!?
D - I think the girls know that Bruce is there, but they don't seem to mind him. At first they would go over and look up at the post, but now they don't even pay him any attention. He doesn't fly off when we are outside. He'll wait until we go inside, even if it is past his hunting schedule.
Limo would be traumatized by someone like Bruce, LOL! His lil hands are so cute in that last pic!
He looks so cuddly:-)
So cool! I'm with Denise, get some metal gloves and touch that cute critter. For several years, I had barn swallows nest in the eve to my front door. It was horrible! Everytime a visitor would come, they would swoop down and terrorize them! They'd come back year after year and nest. I finally had to eradicate them, mostly because I feared for my own safety. They would dive bomb me while doing yardwork. Once, one flew into the house and flew around the living room, around to the kitchen and back and forth. I grabbed the broom and swooshed it out the front door! Chelsea, my Himalayan cat I had at the time, just stood there, frozen. She didn't know what to think of that - a bird right there within reach and in her living quarters! It was too funny!
Enjoy Bruce while you can! He seems harmless enough and he is, no doubt, helping with the mosquito population!
After hearing fluttering noises in my son's home in Hamilton, MA, it was discovered a whole generation of bats were living in the attic.
YUCK!!!! I hate to say this; BUT, the exterminator was the superhero in this case!!!
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