Monday, June 23, 2008

Bat Invasion

I seriously am not sure what I am going to do about the insanely loud bats that have taken over-- yes bats, as in blood sucking, freaky ass, nocturnal nuisances, and the particular breed around these parts has about a 6 foot wingspan-- no, I am fer real!

First place we encountered the bats was in the Royal Botanic Gardens-- apparently they hang there (literally) during the day, while tourist gawk and take pictures.


Yes, I was one of those gawkers.

Over the summer (that means December & January here) we went to the Open Air Cinema at Royal Botanic Gardens several times. The Open Air Cinema was amazing, sitting outside on chairs watching a movie, with the Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge in the background next to the screen. While watching the movie enormous bats started practically attacking the screen, it was crazy. We considered this our first real encounter with Australian wildlife, but little did we know our hood was about to be invaded.

About a month after the Open Air Cinema fright night, we noticed the massive bats started flying around our neighborhood every night as the sun was just about to go down.


I know it's hard to tell-- but those are big ass bats, and lots of um. By the way, I took this standing in my backyard.

Within the week we were scared to leave our house at night because there were probably about 100 bats in the enormous tree in our front courtyardy area-- which, by the way, resulted in the nastiest orange bat poop covered driveway you've never imagined... seriously, this is nasty stuff-- especially to walk in-- very slippery. Okay, I'll stop.

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later the flock moved to a big fig tree in our backyard (apparently these are not eating figs-- unless of course, you're a bat). So now every evening when they start circling the neighborhood (final destination-- our house), we must lock ourselves inside and hope they'll be gone in the morning-- which somehow it seems they are.

But here I am, it's midnight, can't sleep because they're all outside my bedroom window squeaking up a storm. I'm tempted to record the sound and see if we play it backwards there will be some demonic message telling us to move off their turf or suffer the consequences.

I'm so scared, goodnight.



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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the bats.

Their poop??? A whole different story. I'd be terrified.

Yuck!!!!

And what if they poop on your head?

Jill Stevens, Licensed Acupuncturist, Chinese Herbalist said...

omg omg omg. i love bats. i know i know i don't have them outside my window keeping me up at night. but really they are not so dangerous. they are cute little winged mammals. even the 6 foot long ones (well that is kind of insane). but anyway they were all over Columbus when i lived there- and you just get used to them- or of course you get a gun. hahahahha. no seriously i think that's what you do. in the meantime ear plugs do wonders.

Cecily R said...

Holy bats, Batman (yea, I know. I am L-A-M-E)!

I can handle a lot of critters, but NOT bats!! That's just too much.

Your play the bat sounds backwards idea? Hilarious!!

Laura said...

Dina & Jill- no wonder you are related you crazy bat loving nuts.

Anonymous said...

We've got a flock of flying foxes up here - they fly from one end of town to the other every night at dusk. Thankfully none hang out at our house, though if we had fruit trees that might be different. Don't blame you for being scared!

BTW, what's even worse than finding a load of guano (bat poop)... finding bats that have electrocuted themselves on the power lines, stuck there... for days...weeks... :eek: