Cool! My guess is that they were big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Big browns are large, fast-flying bats, that live in a wide variety of habitats and emerge relatively early in the evening. Silver-haired bats seem unlikely, as they are notoriously slow-flying.

Nancy Williams
Liberty Lake, WA





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Message: 4
ate: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:46:08 -0700
rom: jeff gibson <gibsondesign at msn.com>
ubject: [Tweeters] Big Bats in Everett
o: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
essage-ID: <BLU162-w34188DE173373B3633C457C9330 at phx.gbl>
ontent-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

live in North Everett ,in what is commonly known as a "nice" neighborhood. A
it too manicured (too many lawns, not enough trees) for my taste. Yet wildlife
omes through somehow - the greater area is surrounded by better habitat. My
ard is a well treed and buggy blemish on this perfect little world.

ne critter we aint got a lot of is Bats. At least as far as I've noticed in 10
ears here. Over the years I have seen a few "Little Brown Bats" (I presume) out
n the alley at dusk during the high Mosquito season (a bit off this wet year).
ut not many.

riday night I was given the job of taking my (wife's) dog out to chase ball's
n our little neighborhood park next door. It was a beautiful warm sunny
vening. The first thing I did was fall asleep on the couch, and by the time I
oke up it was dusk. Then out with the dog and got in a few ball throws in the
athering gloom. As we walked up the alley I was thrilled to see a bat ! Then
nother. I realized that these were not the "Little Brown Bats" (myotis ) that
'm familiar with. These were quite a bit larger - about the size of a swallow.
nd fast. Instead of the fluttery, twisty flight of the little bats, these guys
lew in broad arcs - also somewhat swallow-like. They flew mostly about 30 feet
p, sometimes coming down low as my head.

lso interesting was that the two bats spent much of the time I watched them
ollowing one another - spaced about three feet apart. They would separate
riefly, cruising around the tall trees in my yard, then come together again.
his was about 9:30 pm, the sky still a bit light in the NW. I watched them for
bout 5 minutes, then they disappeared. It was exactly the same scenario tonight
5 minutes of seeing them at the same time, then gone. Pretty cool.

s there a Batman or Batwoman out there in tweeterland that might have an idea
f which species I might have seen ?

eff Gibson
atty in North Everett Wa


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