Bats are not birds. They are mammals. They are, furthermore, the only mammal
capable of true flight.
I will admit, bats range a
little on the creepy side, but the fact they are the only flying mammal leads
me to give them special consideration.
Several years ago, I was given
a wooden bat house as a gift. I fastened
the bat house to the gable on the east side of my home.
Prior to providing a house for
the bats, I regularly found bats clinging to the stucco on the exterior of my
house on warm summer nights. The bats
quickly took to using the bat house and were happy as clams (which is a weird simile
for this blog).
Yesterday, I arrived home
following a rock-hunting excursion and found a northern flicker woodpecker hammering
a hole in the bat house. After shooing
the bird, I gathered my tools, a scrap of leftover metal from my sunroom, and I
fashioned a quick repair.
Last year, a magpie murdered
the female bluebird nesting in the bluebird house in my front yard. Now this!
Birds are mean.
Save the mammals!
And what, exactly, makes clams
happy?
Bat House Damage
My Repair
—Mitchell Hegman
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