Bats in your belfry | Saturday, November 05, 2005 |
If you've read any of these entries, you'll find quite a number of posts on the local wildlife. This one is about our blood-sucking friend, the Bat.
Except here, or at least in my bit of here, it's not so much "I vant to suck your blood" as "I vant to steal your figs". The Botanic gardens as one might imagine, contains a healthy number of native trees, all bursting with pollen and fruit and being it seems the favoured food source of the local bat (or flying fox).
Pteropus poliocephalus, as they're know to their friends are for someone from the UK who's used to our diminutive native bats really, really impressive - think a small cat with a wingspan like a gull.
Not to shabby.
Then add thousands of them, leaving the botanical gardens just after sunset in streams reminiscent of a Peter Cushing movie and you get the idea. Just add castle for full effect.
Apparently this point of year marks that start of when they're at their most obvious and soon they'll be with young too. Pictures of the bat-swarm are hard to get because of the darkness, but our most recent effort was better than the first, so watch this space. There is some video, but I'm trying to work out how to make the filesize a bit more manageable.
Except here, or at least in my bit of here, it's not so much "I vant to suck your blood" as "I vant to steal your figs". The Botanic gardens as one might imagine, contains a healthy number of native trees, all bursting with pollen and fruit and being it seems the favoured food source of the local bat (or flying fox).
Pteropus poliocephalus, as they're know to their friends are for someone from the UK who's used to our diminutive native bats really, really impressive - think a small cat with a wingspan like a gull.
Not to shabby.
Then add thousands of them, leaving the botanical gardens just after sunset in streams reminiscent of a Peter Cushing movie and you get the idea. Just add castle for full effect.
Apparently this point of year marks that start of when they're at their most obvious and soon they'll be with young too. Pictures of the bat-swarm are hard to get because of the darkness, but our most recent effort was better than the first, so watch this space. There is some video, but I'm trying to work out how to make the filesize a bit more manageable.
