I thought I was going batty when buzzed by a  squad of furry flying mammals on the way out to empty the garbage. I don’t know about you but growing up I believed that old wives tale about bats getting caught in your hair. Not true according to the experts, but old tales like that tend to stick with you.. These guys turned out to be Cave Myotis, a  0.4-0.5 oz creature with a wingspan of 11-13 in. They roost under highway and railroad bridges and cave’s of course, but fly off to feed at night to be near water and insects. My outdoor fountain and bug attracting lights must fill the bill, because my porch is home to about 20 of the echolocating fauna every night starting in June and ending just after Halloween.

I am not a night owl these days but I am a big technology buff, so I scoured the web looking for a simple solution-set up my camera to automatically take photos while I slept. Finally, not knowing what I was getting myself into, I found some helpful folks (Thanks Chris!) over at a blog called Hag’s House. These people are Trail camera buffs and experts at adapting digital cameras to photograph animals automatically, anywhere you can place a camera. They are and remain a very generous and knowledgable bunch. They helped me adapt a $18 Driveway Alert™ sensor to fire a $35  JJC aftermarket camera remote. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you are interested, give Hags House a peruse. Above is my set-up.

Also, if you want to view some really nifty bat photos check out Bruce Taubert”s bat photographs here.

One of the first dozen or so baby photos in my costume series was this photo of a bat baby.