From:
To:
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 22:19:08 +1100
Subject: [canberrabirds] Bats
Shortly before nine o'clock this evening (Friday),
my partner Robyn and I were sitting on the north facing verandah of our
humble shack in west Queanbeyan enjoying a quiet glass of wine or two
(Pewsey Vale riesling and O'Leary Walker shiraz, if you must know) when
our attention was drawn skyward by the appearance of some large,
silent ariborne creatures flying less than fifty metres above us in a
south-easterly direction. They weren't in a close flock, but over the course of
the next five minutes or so, we would have seen at least thirty fly over
our airspace. Locking onto one of them with my now ever-present binoculars,
I glimpsed the distinctive silhouhette of bat wings. Sizewise, they looked
larger than a currawong and probably closer to a raven (estimation in poor
light).
It seems that is not a one-off sighting, as Robyn
saw some similar airborne creatures at the same time yesterday evening flying in
the same direction.
Our estimation of their flight path is that they
were coming from the general direction fo Mount Ainslie.
Where were they heading? What species of bat were
they? Are they temporarily locally resident like the Grey-headed Flying-foxes a
couple of years ago at Regatta Point?
Any suggestions welcome.
Regards,
Leo.
