Tonight I went over to Leah’s home in New Westminster to see the bats in her courtyard. We chit chatted and sipped green tea as the sun set behind the building in front of her balcony. We watched many planes fly by, some birds…but no bats. Wait, we did THINK we saw one or two and they were flying past so quickly that there was no way to get a shot of them. Also, the flying animals I thought I saw were teensy tiny, so again, tough to get a shot of them individually. Leah contacted a local bat person at Douglas College – we have a local bat person in the Lower Mainland! Her name is Ronnie and she works at Douglas College Institute of Urban Ecology – to see if she could get any info about the type of bats in her area. Ronnie provided her with a list of the 16 types of bats found in British Columbia. 16 types? Who knew there were so many lucky fu bats in the hood?
It also turns out that bats hibernate and now’s the time they start to sleep (and mate, but that’s another story. Bat gestation and mating habits are a bit weird.) but they’ll be back next summer. Leah said there’s a large colony that swoops through, so I have a better chance of getting a shot when there’s plenty of them together. But, I did not leave her place disappointed. She did have something bat-related in her kitchen:
Bat wing acorn squash. Have you ever seen a cooler vegetable? I can’t think of a better vegetable name. The lucky fu bat wing squash is awesome.
And the mug in the background is pretty cute too. I had my Dragon Tears tea in that mug. Leah has good taste in squashes and mugs.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool bat wing squash! Amazing! I will now look at squash a little differently. Delish, now very pretty!
I hope I can find one in my travels. If not, Leah said she’d pick one up for me. I’ll save some of the seeds and grow my own bat wing squash. Now THAT would be a great crop! And nope, I will not be making another raised flower bed. They can grow out front just like the pumpkins.
Bats have one baby a year and all bats fly out of their caves in the same direction……((bat info from the caves in Cheddar, England).
When they swoop at night they look just like a shadow. And they are great for cleaning up the mosquito population. (a bat delicacy )
Love the squash.
That is a terrific shot! The big one is a Bat Wing Pumpkin, the little one is the Bat Wing Acorn Squash.
I now know more about bats than I ever did before.