Friday, January 16, 2009

I'm OFF To Study Bats! (Not the baseball kind)

I borrowed this photograph (see left) of a Pacific Northwest bat from an old Seattle Times article. The caption read: "This rare Townsend's big-eared bat was a surprise."

Evidentally, a nearby homeowner, Dr. Trish Otto, realized it looked a little freakier than all the other bat species she has welcomed onto her property! Instead of running away screaming, she began erecting more suitable bat houses for it, hoping it (and all its distant family members) would take up residence.


I've got to admit I feel a little creeped-out by the way this particular critter looks. Even still I'm heading off to become a "Bat Ambassador" first thing in the morning. {Wish me luck, as I cross myself with garlic just in case any one of the flying rodents I happen to meet in class ends up shape-shifting into a real-life vampire or something.}

Below is a photo my son took last month of Doug and me hiking w/our dogs up near the Cedar River watershed. The pink hair has definitely faded (I'm blond again). Yet I sure had fun walking around with those neon-colored locks for a while. :D

{Happy Saturday}

8 comments:

Kashew said...

One of my daughters LOVES bats! She fell in love years ago when a fruit bat offered her a piece of fruit:) That one is pretty cool looking. And YOU look great...pink hair and all!

TheLubeFaerie said...

Love the pink hair! I heart bats. They are so cute. Watching the bats fly in my back yard is one of my favorite summer activities. I hope to get some bat houses up at some point.

becomingkate said...

We used to throw white socks to the bats when I was little. I don't mind them at all because they are such mosquito eaters!

Anonymous said...

sheBelfries, when the bells are missing, are a marvelous source of Nitrates, for the Brown Powder. Toast some Straw, add dry Bat Guano, stuff it down the muzzle of your black powder musket, and go hunting. Amazing, is the number of Mosquitoes a hunter needs. You've got to build an unbelled steeple.

What do bats eat, when Mosquitoes are out of season?

LearningLifelong said...

some time i am going to have to colour my hair. it just seems a lot of works since i'd have to bleach it too...

i'm not sure i'd want to have a job working with bats. flying rodents don't sound real appealing to me.

SunTiger said...

Kashew ~ Wow. It offered her fruit? (Fruit bats are of the cutest variety w/their longer noses).

TheLubeFaerie ~ Glad you like the pink hair. Here's a link for bat house designs (the rocket bat house was touted as the best at the seminar). http://free.woodworking-plans.org/bat-house-plans.html

BecomingKate ~ You threw white socks? Do you want to explain why?

Arawn ~ I'd heard that about black powder hunting from a Civil War reenactment. Thank you for reminding me!

Anonymous said...

Papa Bat: I think we'd better be careful, around Man; they're rather strange, and might have Rabies Endemis.
Baby Bat: What makes you say that, Papa?
Papa: I caught one sneaking around, headwards, stealling Our Stuff, and it made me think, if they don't like Mosquitoes, what would they like about Our Stuff?
Baby: Do they do anything, with That Stuff?
Papa: Well, after they steal Our Stuff, they're known to make Fire-Crackers, with loud noises.
Baby: That's very strange. I'd expect loud noises to blind them.

Along with a shared ministry of Economics, I think I'll also organize something, as a ministry unto the Worship Bound Gods.

SunTiger said...

headwards -- or w/head-warts.

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