Hanging Around at the Homeless Shelter

Our boy came in from a walk at dusk late last week, as the days and nights grew warmer and warmer, and reported that there were a lot of bats flying around Tony's house. Understandable, because there are bright lights on the telephone poles there that attract the flying insects and the bats that eat them.

During the summer after I stumble out of bed every morning and submit myself to the Inquisition...

I usually open the door leading down the stairs and turn on the light to see if there will be a guest spending the day. Periodically throughout the summer, a single bat will swoop in through the open garage and up to the top of the stairwell and cling to the drywall throughout the day. It will leave at dusk and not show up again for several weeks.

Even though is still rather early in the season, I did take a look a few days ago, but the bad news of the several days excess calorie consumption flew right out of my head when I looked up and was very surprised to see this tiny little guy only a few feet above my head:

 

We go down to the garage a lot during the day -- Richard especially -- and the floodlight to illuminate the stairs so we don't kill ourselves coming and going is only about a foot away from the smoke alarm. I am surprised that it chose this spot.

I was pleased to see it had a nice pink nose.

I imagine quite a few people would not let a bat roost in their stairwell, and if we suddenly had a colony of bats wanting to roost in our stairwell, then we indeed would do something about it -- probably close the garage doors at night. But for an occasional bat needing a nice place to rest its weary wings - it is fine with us if it wants to hang out.