I do not know when I first became interested in bats. Here is an early photo
of a Fledermaus in our garden:
These bats are regular visitors every summer and are easy to see against the twilight sky.
Their flight is quite regular, predictable and so I preset the focus for the gap in the trees and waited.. The date is probably June 2007 when I had just started digital still photography with a Pentax. NRW, Germany.
My next encounter that I recall was with Rory in Quetico at the east end of the portage from Russel Lake into Chatterton. Rory actually heard the bat and located it in a low hollow in a broken tree trunk. I do not know if we unpacked cameras to document it.
In May 1, 2011 Vicki and I observed a large brown bat from our balcony:
In 2017 we saw more bats in Yucatan - here just a few daytime examples:
These were taken in November, I was able to follow one to its roost in a palm tree:
I think it is eating a butterfly.
In 2018, during our stay in Killarney Provincial Park we met researchers from the University of Manitoba who were studying the effects of heating bat roosts:
The following year, 2019, a bat box was installed a few meters away from this cabin:
The next year, May 20, 2020 I saw a bat flying over the North River during early afternoon. The camera and I could not focus quickly enough, sadly:
Trail cameras have been used to "detect" bats in unexpected ways, for example:
From on high:
And in the dark:
These last 4 photos are from EL with my thanks.
The following is the best I could manage this year with a still new camera, the Nikon P1000, Hope some day to do better.
Still have floaters - probably moths -
But the "big stuff" might be bats?
Vicki was pointing the antenna and signally to me when there was a strong kHz signal, at which time I would fire the flash with focus on manual. There appear to be "angels" running! Well, maybe flying.
WOB
