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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Anyone had a unique experience with Bats at all (1 Viewer)

P

Peewit

Once a bird lover ... always a bird lover
While staying at Stirling a few years ago, I had a wonderful experience with Bats (Pipistrelles) in one our our many deserted outbuildings o:)

They where amazing. I remember going outdoors in the evening/dusk, and standing in the middle of the yard area and listening to these bats moving around past my head. I could hear them moving around. It was really quite spiritual, and to feel their presence was a wonderful experience o:)

The popular myth about them getting tangled in your hair is so untrue. They seen to know I was there and moved around my body.

I will never forget this experience at all.

Anyone had a similar experience o:)

Peewit
 
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In Japan I had a bat living a the end of a balcony of an apartment building where I lived for a month. When I came along the balcony it would fly out. Once it misjudged the distance slightly and sort of just lightly bounced off the top of my head. Maybe saying that it skimmed it is a better description.
 
I'll never forget the first time I saw Noctules, these are the biggest species of bat one is likely to encounter in the UK and have a wingspan of about 28cm (swift sized)

They also have quite a powerful call?, so much so that when they were close enough I was quite ''rattled'' by it...

Also used to do a lot more cycling than I do these days, cycling home from the local farmland late in the evenings in summer I would often get buzzed and followed by hunting Pipistrelles along the warm country lanes.

Matt
 
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hi Carless

Oh dear how big was that bat? Must have been quite large to have bounced of your head. :eek!:

Did you ever find out the species?

hi Matt

You have had similar experiences too.

So how big where these Noctules in all. They sound very frightening to have flying around your head. What type of noises would they make?

Pipistrelles seem to manage to avoid objects very well, and can live along in harmony with us so much better. Maybe it is to do with their size?

Peewit
 
Peewit said:
hi Matt

You have had similar experiences too.

So how big where these Noctules in all. They sound very frightening to have flying around your head. What type of noises would they make?
Click to expand...

Well, to be honest I only know the wingspan from looking in books ~ but they do look very impressive in flight, even when they are high and quite distant.

I'd describe the call as a type of very high pitched/shrill cheep?, not sure what the correct terminology is for bats but I have very sensitive hearing and can even hear the smaller pipistrelles!

Matt
 
We used to live in a converted farm cottage (two knocked into one). One night I'd gone to bed early while my wife was in the bathroom at the other end of the house. The living room was in the centre of the building and after a while I heard her enter the living room and switch on her hair drier.

Seconds later there was such a scream. I dropped my book and jumped out of bed thinking she'd had an accident, electrocuted or something. I ran into the living room to find her, hair-drier in hand, gazing in horrified amazement at a pipistrelle that was flying circuits of the room. God knows how it got in, but we had a repeat the following night when we returned home, put on the light and found the little blighter flying round the kitchen.

I evicted it again, and we've never had a repeat performance to this day (over 20 years).
 
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I've had very memorable experiences with Greater Horseshoe Bats.. their call on the bat detector is not like any other.. more a flying saucer like warbling as opposed to the usual clicks and taps from other species.
As they only project the echolocation straight ahead and for a short range, you know when the detector picks one up that it is heading straight at you!
I often find myself ducking for cover, or feeling the gust as one whizzes past my ear seemingly inches away! One of these days I might get the opportunity to study one for more than half a second!
 
And coincidentally another more bizarre experience:
We've just had a bat flying up and down our road at 1pm on the sunniest/hottest/brightest day of the year!
Luckily was able to grab my bat detector and identified it as a Common Pipistrelle. Needless to say I got very good views!
 
I removed a Pipistrelle from net curtains in an hotel room in Yugolslavia. It bit me and it was the worst bite I have ever had.
 
She may not appreciate this, but once my sister stepped out of the shower, onto (what I assume to be) a little brown bat. It gave her the fright of her life! :-D
 
tim.birdboy said:
She may not appreciate this, but once my sister stepped out of the shower, onto (what I assume to be) a little brown bat. It gave her the fright of her life! :-D
Click to expand...

hi there

Lots of stories, and views here on this thread.

Oh dear Tim. Seems that your sister had a bad fright here. I hope that she is not too put off by the experience.

The thing is bats are harmless, and are put in such a bad light by 'vampire' movies. :eek!:

It just seems to shed a bad light on bats in general.

To me they are lovely animals, and need to be seen as such.

Peewit
 
Peewit said:
hi there

Lots of stories, and views here on this thread.

Oh dear Tim. Seems that your sister had a bad fright here. I hope that she is not too put off by the experience.

The thing is bats are harmless, and are put in such a bad light by 'vampire' movies. :eek!:

It just seems to shed a bad light on bats in general.

To me they are lovely animals, and need to be seen as such.

Peewit
Click to expand...

Bats are known to carry the rabies virus...EBLV. Although it's different from the classical rabies virus, you would not want to catch it.

Handle all Bats with great care.
 
Peewit said:
hi there

Lots of stories, and views here on this thread.

Oh dear Tim. Seems that your sister had a bad fright here. I hope that she is not too put off by the experience.

The thing is bats are harmless, and are put in such a bad light by 'vampire' movies. :eek!:

It just seems to shed a bad light on bats in general.

To me they are lovely animals, and need to be seen as such.

Peewit
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree, bats are wonderful animals. My sister just dreads "creepy crawly" critters. ;)

We have also have had the occasional bat get through an open window, and swoop around the house. The bat was probably more frightened than we were!:-O
 
Bubbs said:
Bats are known to carry the rabies virus...EBLV. Although it's different from the classical rabies virus, you would not want to catch it.

Handle all Bats with great care.
Click to expand...

hi Bubbs

I am going to ask a really silly question here (so excuse me, but I am curious!!)

Does the rabies apply to all bats, certain species of bats, or bats from other countries other than GB? - (as GB are more or less free of rabies as a rule). We are so strict with this problem, well more than most anyway?

Tim: I agree here that the bats is more afraid of us, than the other way around.

Peewit
 
Peewit said:
hi Bubbs

I am going to ask a really silly question here (so excuse me, but I am curious!!)

Does the rabies apply to all bats, certain species of bats, or bats from other countries other than GB? - (as GB are more or less free of rabies as a rule). We are so strict with this problem, well more than most anyway?

Tim: I agree here that the bats is more afraid of us, than the other way around.

Peewit
Click to expand...

Good question.

http://www.bats.org.uk/helpline/helpline_learn_bats_rabies.asp

John.
 
At our previous home we had pip Bats in the roof and springtime was bliss whenever I stayed up to listen to the Dawn Chorus. At the same time as listening to the Birds the Bats were flitting all around making that high-pitched call of theirs. To watch and listen to them was magical, some used to cling to our stoney wall for brief seconds and I was often SO close to them. I really do miss them so much, but we had no choice as the house was pulled down due to 'concrete cancer', I often wonder what happened to our beloved Bats.

I used to be terrified of them as a youngster, Moths too, now I adore both, strange how we change.

Sue.
 
A few years back there was construction where I was livening. A Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) somehow got in my bed room. I didn’t know it was there until I was ready for bed. It scared the hell out of me. I’m sure it was scared of me as well. I gave up on trying catching it. I wasn’t that brave and I was tired so I decided to just go to sleep. lol! When I turned off the lights he was still on the upper part of the wall so I guess that’s where he stayed. I didn’t hear him flying around. In the morning the construction workers managed to get him out of my room. I didn’t get rabies nor did I have the desire to drink human blood so everything worked out. :-O They are wonderful creatures, a bit scary when they are so close though. B :) B :) B :)
 
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We used to have bats in the ceilings of an observatory I worked at, and occasionally they'd do laps around the control room in the middle of the night, flying at about knee-level.
 
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