Bats in the Belfry

     Let's talk about bats.
     Not the hot bats swung in the major leagues or by Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural. And not Bruce Wayne, either.
     And not the 1.5 bats that emerge from the recesses of that Austin, TX, bridge.
     I'm talking about the bats that eat mosquitoes and drink hummingbird nectar in my back yard.


Long before the most recent incident, a nocturnal critter destroyed my hummingbird feeder and stand by jumping onto it and riding it to the ground, feasting on the wreckage. We guessed the culprit was a raccoon and borrowed a trap for an evening. We caught a domesticated cat which high-tailed it down the street faster than a mockingbird could fly. No more destroyed feeders, though.
   
     Most recently, the hummingbird feeders were ceremoniously emptied each night but the base of the vessel was not pried off. What drinks red nectar in the dead of night other than Dracula and...bats.
   
      Research suggested turning on a light to test the bat theory.
     I moved the feeders again and illuminated them with the back porch light.
   
     This morning, the feeder was still full, untouched by nectar sucking bats.

       Have your hummingbird feeders been mysteriously empty each morning over the past week? Do you have bats in your belfry?