An Unexpected Visitor

The weirdest thing happened today. We got some beautiful flowers sent from some dear friends for our wedding anniversary the other week, but alas they were ready for the compost bin today. As K went to pick up the vase to dispose of the flowers he noticed what he first thought was a dead leaf from the bouquet that had fallen into the empty glass vase next to it. It was actually a BAT!!!!. We couldn[t believe our eyes. We can only think that the unfortunate creature had flown in last night when the back door was open when the dog was in the garden and somehow got trapped in the vase. It’s a pipistrelle – our smallest and commonest bat species.

We took it outside and worked out that it was probably dehydrated after its ordeal. so K tried offering it some water from a teaspoon, which it lapped up.

It had crawled into a corner between some bin bags of garden waste ready to go to the tip.

After it’s drink the bat really perked up and crawled around the patio, then started to climb up the wall.

Unfortunately it fell off but seemed ok and crawled behind a flower pot. We are hoping it’s ok and just resting until nightfall.

Many years ago we used to volunteer to support our local licensed bat expert, monitoring roosts. He usually had at least one sick or injured bat being nursed back to health so K and I had seen these amazing creatures close up before, but son and daughter hadn’t and they were both fascinated too. It was such a privilege to see our little visitor. I’m just waiting to see if it gets active again at dusk.

Do you get any interesting wildlife in your garden?

UPDATE: We went to check on the little bat after it went dark and I’m pleased to report that it’s gone – hopefully back to lead a normal life!