Bat House Forum

[Richathome]

I traveled back to Two Rivers WI last week for another month of salmon fishing on Lake Michigan. The Two Rivers salmon derby was Friday, Saturday and Sunday and every day the lake was socked in with fog and I mean heavy fog. Radar on the boat saved us from gettting close to other boats but we were not the only ones using radar. Sunday morning we were 2 miles off shore and out of the fog comes a little brown bat at 6:30 AM circling our boat. The little guy made a dozen or so trips around the boat then into the cabin and out the side window. After a few in one window and out the other then in the back of the cabin and out the window a few more times he lit by the winshield and crawled to the corner on my side the boat for a rest. Again he flew out of the boat then back in the side window and finally settled down for a serious rest. 5 Minutes later here comes bat number 2 for the same flight pattern then it landed at the front window and cuddled up to bat number 1. They worked their way as close as they could to the dark area where the winshield and side window met and settled down for a big snooze. We fished for 4 more hours and headed for home port under power and the 2 bats never budged from their cozy position. At 5 PM I checked and one of the bats had left and I nudged the other and he flew out of the boat and went under the dock and must have settled for that location til dark.

I have had bats fly around my boat in the past years but this weekend there were several boats on the water reporting that bats were flying around them. It was very interesting seeing bats in the daylight no more than 2 feet away. The guys started calling me Dr DoLittle because I was always looking to see if the 2 bats were still in their little corner. Since I just started getting bats using the houses at home that I had just put up the first of June I was thrilled that I had such a close up look at the little browns. It is certainly easy to see that a 3/4 inch wide crevice is plenty room enough for them to scamper up into. This was a great experience for me this weekend.

Just wanted to share this with others. Rich.

[kerbat]

Neat experience!  Did you hear of anyone getting exciting and trying to drive the bats off their boats??

Bernie   S Florida

[Richathome]

Kerbat, I am glad that you ask that question. As big as men are and as small as a little brown bat is, it seems that most men fear the little guys and want to destroy them not realizing how beneficial they are to us. Two other boats out of this marina also had bats circle their boats looking for a place to rest this weekend. Both of those boats waved their landing nets at them to chase them away. The third boat also had a bat come to their boat and this time the bat flew down into the cabin and they did not see it come back out. The captain was going to sleep on board his boat that night since he had a charter the next morning but was afraid to stay the night on the boat with the bat. Since I occasionally first mate for him I have been giving him a rough time about how brave he was. Fortunately the skipper of our boat also likes bats and told two guys on our boat to stop waving their baseball caps at the bats and he let the bats land and stay on our boat without being bothered. With dense fog for 3 days the bats must have been very disoriented. There were also reports of bats visiting boats from a port 5 miles south of us.

Thanks for the question Bernie. I miss my newly forming colony at home in Illinois and I really welcomed the visit from the bats this weekend.

Rich.