Bat crazy

At some point in my adult life, I began to really dig bats. It wasn’t until my mid-twenties that I realized that bats were flying all around me at night. I had never noticed them. Ever since, I get a little thrill every time I see a bat flying. It’s not just that I presume they are eating mosquitoes. Or that you likely won’t see them unless you make an effort. It’s something about how hard they need to be working to remain in flight. They seem so precarious in the air. There is something delightfully creepy about their whole existence.

So tonight, coming back from a dogwalk at dusk, I decided to lie down in the backyard and do some batwatching. They did not disappoint. In a fifteen minute span, I think I saw as many bats fly across my view as I’ve seen in my entire life. My heart began to race from the excitement. I started to feel something like fearful, but it was a yummy kind of fear, as if from a classic horror film.

This was my first night of dedicated batwatching, but I intend to do it again tomorrow night.

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