April 19, 2024
Of the dozen or so celebrations taking place annually on April 17th, you might think that combing both National Bat Appreciation Day and National Haiku Poetry Day in one blog post makes no sense at all. But if you’ve ever spent even a bit of time witnessing a bat ‘out flight’ at dusk, you’d agree with me that their near-silent hunting maneuvers are sheer poetry!
National Bat Appreciation Day
A holiday celebrated each year to promote awareness about bats and their importance in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
National Haiku Poetry Day
An annual celebration to honor and promote the cultural significance of Haiku, a Japanese form of poetry.
Dedication
This post is dedicated to my good friend, Holly Silva, who finds bats fascinating. She suggested for my first celebratory day in April, I tackle bats. (Not literally of course!) Like Holly, I’ve always been in awe of bats, having seen many ‘out-flights’ of the tiny insectivorous myotis bat and little brow bat. And then there’s fruit bats! Oh my …… so hard to resist sharing my story of an amazing fruit bat ‘out flight’ Roy & I witnessed in the Australian Outback, Bats in OZ!
Bats in OZ
Talk about right place/right time scenario! We had finally arrived at a well known hot springs south of Katherine after a long, hot, dry day through central Australia. Mataranka, a beautiful series of natural pools surrounded by hundreds of eucalyptus (gum) trees. It was late in the day and we were luxuriating in the hot water, when we noticed everyone there before us was leaving. It was a mass exodus; suddenly we had the springs to ourselves. Five minutes later that we noticed the water rippling around us. We figured a freak storm had appeared out of nowhere to offload huge raindrops in just this spot. Then the “rain” became more intense, the noise became cacophonous, and day turned into night.
When we first arrived at Mataranka, our focus was on the inviting pools of water nicely shaded by the gum trees. We never looked up into any of those tall, branchy trees … we were happy to have the shade. Now, soaking in the hot water while getting pelted by “rain,” we wondered if we should haul ourselves out, recalling that the locals must’ve known this storm was about to happen (as it did every night); maybe it wasn’t safe for some reason? So wondering how big the storm cloud was we glanced up at the sky through the tree branches. That’s when shock and awe grabbed us! Hundreds and hundreds of tree branches which must’ve been straining under a great weight minutes ago were sighing relief as thousands of fruit bats (aka flying foxes) dropped from their roosts to take flight. Wing membranes spread wide, their sheer numbers blocked out the fading sun. We were speechless! Gaping in awe at the spectacle, our mouths quickly snapped shut …… you see, that “downpour” wasn’t rain at all! All of those big, beautiful bats were pooping out guano as fast as they could! Another ah-ha moment struck us (along with copious quantities of guano) as we made a hasty retreat out of the water, grabbing our clothes and sun hats, and laughing uproariously while beating feat back to the safety and cover of the rental car!
As fast as the “storm” of bats appeared, they were gone, flying off to feed for the night on a Downunder spring bounty of fruits only they knew about. Stuffed by sunrise they would return to the Mataranka community roost to rest and digest before once again taking flight while pooping on the heads of foolish tourists tomorrow at dusk!
The Post
For this post, while exploring bats’ importance in the ecosystem, to science, and while recalling all of those Australian flying foxes I was curious about why and how bats hang upside down, the types of bats and their diets, and what adaptations Vampire bats have causing them to crave a diet of blood. Much of this rabbit-trailing led to myths and misconceptions about bats, then back to New Mexico’s most famous ‘out flight’ of the American Free-tailed Bat every spring, summer and fall evening from Carlsbad Caverns. While learning, several Haiku poems materialized reflecting bat behavior.
Nighttime brings darkness
A near silent “whoosh” above
Bats! Winged wonders hunt
It would’ve been easy and fun to fill up the rest of my journal with bat facts and more Haiku, but because the celebratory date of both National Bat Appreciation Day and National Haiku Poetry Day has now come and gone, I had to stop. Maybe you’ll want to answer a bunch of your own questions about bats? Maybe you’ll want to write your own Haiku about bats in honor of this style of poetry?
Mosquitoes beware!
Cauldron of bats overhead ….
Echolocation!
Share your bat stories and Haiku, and let me know if this inspires you to dig deeper into the fascinating world of bats!
a curious nature 
Thanks for a fun read on bats. I had a baby bat actually fly into me once as a kid. Scared the you know what out of me as it was a real surprise. But I actually like bats and have seen the out fly at Carlsbad once. So awesome.
Our snow is gone so you need to make a trip up this way for some bird watching. Some of our summer birds like the mountain blue bird and swallows are back. And of course our year round residents of jay, magpies, crows and flickers are still here. Lets plan a date. I’m not being very mobile at the moment as I broke a bone in my ankle 3 weeks ago, but I can still sit and watch the birds at our feeder which I love to do.
Sue
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Hi Sue! Love your comments. Thanks so much for reading about bats! I was wondering if there’s a way to Zentangle a Haiku?! If not, a bat Haiku is very doable! How fortunate you still like bats, especially after you were accidentally hit by one as a kid! Maybe his sonar was out of wack? I’ve never seen the Carlsbad out-flight even though we’ve visited the caverns plenty of times. Someday!
Sounds like Spring has arrived in Your high country. Awesome! We also get bluebirds down here, but not swallows around our home.
Oh no ….. I’m so sorry to hear you are hobbling around with a broken foot bone. How did that happen? Disc golf on ice? At least you now have quality downtime for zentangle creations. Hope you mend quickly! Are you in a cast, using crutches?
And as tempting as your invitation to visit, maybe later in the year? We are just about to undertake a big move and things are getting crazy around here! We’ve been working closely with a contractor to have a custom house constructed about a mile from our current home. Been at it since last May, and we’re exhausted with the the countless details. Then there’s the matter of selling our current home. We’ve not been anywhere since last September and when we get moved, there’s hopes of a few camping trips to take before winter happens. Stay tuned!
But I’d love to get together, and would love for our Enchanted Tanglers to begin meeting again! What do you think!
Have an awesome weekend, rest and tangle!
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Hi Barb,
Hope you get moved and settled soon. Then you can come up for a camping trip later in the year. The offer will always be there. Just let me know so we aren’t off on a trip somewhere!!
I broke the small tibia bone in my ankle playing with the granddaughters on the bank in front of our house when there was still some snow and mud. Just slid and down I went. I’m in a walking boot/cast. Which I can remove to take showers. Will see the Dr. in 3 weeks so hoping it will be healed enough to get back to a regular shoe. It is feeling much better and can get around in the boot pretty well on flat surfaces. Just can’t get outside to play disc golf and work in the yard like I want too yet on uneven ground I still feel it. In the meantime, I’ll tangle on.
Would be great to get the Enchanted Tanglers together for a meet up again. Maybe this summer or fall.
Take care and get that house finished soon!
Sue
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Ohhhhhh! An ankle bone break! Rest properly ….. disk golf and yard work will be waiting!
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Barb –
What a wonderful post! I absolutely love these little mammals. They have so often been misunderstand, although they do so much for the environment. 🦇
Dee
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Thanks Dee, and I whole heartedly agree there’s too many misunderstandings about bats. Thanks for your comments!
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Hi Barb… LOVE this post!!! Will comment more later… but in case you didn’t already find it, there’s a typo on your second Haiku… “I’m” isn’t part of it, right?
Will write more this evening. Fascinated by bats!!! xoxo Robin
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Thank you and appreciate your enthusiasm on the post, including catching my typo! Just fixed it! Thanks Robin
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Such a deep dive! Bats are fascinating and under appreciated…glad you brought them out of the dark.
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Thank you so much, Jean! I agree …. Bats are fascinating and so cool!
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Wow, Barb, such interesting and fascinating information about bats – solid bones, their vein valves and all the important pollination they do! And, such an entertaining story about your bat sighting from the hot springs! Yikes — a narrow escape for you. I love your Haiku as well. I was waiting in the kayak while D was flying the drone and I heard Pileated Woodpecker calls through the forest by the lake so I decided to write a Haiku, too! I’ll have to include it on my Pileated page when I get to it. I bought a collection book of Mary Oliver poems as well. Such joy and information you share with us through your incredible sketches and researched information. Thank you, Barb!
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Thank you so much Karen! And special thanks for replying while kayaking!! I love Pileated woodpeckers ….. big, colorful and noisy. Can’t wait to read your Haiku! Mary Oliver is wonderfully poetic. Many so perfect to share on nature journaling pages.
Loved learning about bats. Unfortunately all I had time to explore about Haiku was the 5-7-5 syllable lines (which I already knew). Maybe next year?
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Amazing post!
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Thank you so much, and thanks for subscribing!
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