Not a Happy Bat

This little guy was not having a good day.  Presumably one of my cats caught him last night.  I saw his tiny dark form on the porch last night when I let Pan and Hera in, but I assumed it was the remains of another mouse for me to clean up later.

I was surprised in the morning to discover it was a little bat and that he was still alive — squirming occasionally on his back.  I got some cardboard to turn him over and he shrieked a bit but still laid there.  He clearly wasn’t feeling too great.  Rather than let Pan and Hera mess with him,  I decided to carry him into the front yard.  He squealed a bit and started hissing and showing his teeth.  That explains why Pan gave his little form such a wide berth coming in last night — I thought it odd at the time.

 

Anyway, I carried him into the front yard where the cats couldn’t get him, but of course there are plenty of birds….  And yeah, just an hour or so later I saw several large birds around where I had left him and went over to find him curled up, no longer moving and… covered in ants.  Yeah, wasn’t a good day for the bat.

Spoiler Fence

While trying to set up this shot with my cats framing the coyote, I failed to also catch the deer behind the coyote.  It just walked out of the frame to the left by the time I got this shot.  It’s a wildlife party!
Next time I’ll try to catch the deer behind the coyote in front of a gopher as a hawk dives for it — all framed by Pan and Hera, of course.

Bobcat in the Yard

… that is, until a buck drove him off.  No, really!

I was just letting Hera and Pan out when I see…. oh, a bobcat. Huh. No guys, back inside. No, I mean it. Hey, Hera… come back here — no, I don’t think he would be a good friend for you…

And then I see the young buck. Huh. The buck is facing the bobcat down, making him back away. And he continues to drive him off and down the dirt road, out of sight.

Sorry Pan, sorry Hera, gotta go and you’re staying inside today!

Yeah, yeah… the fence/cat enclosure around the porch is due to go up in a few weeks. Hey, good thing I’ve got guard deer though in the meantime, eh?