Are These Bats?
It started (I thought) on August 1, when I saw a bat fly from Walnut Canyon to my side of the street. However, in mid-July, I was startled at night by some loud, bird-like noises in my back yard. It was something like "tweetly-eetly-eetly-booply-ooply", and was repeated once. Then heard again a week or so later. I heard this sound 3 times this summer.
August 8, I noticed a dozen small, black droppings scattered outside my back door, a few even stuck to the side of the house. There are 3 to 5 added daily. My investigation showed them to be bat droppings.
I have heard a variety of high pitched cheeps, chips, chirps, squeaks and tinks at night, usually around sunset.
Aug 13, I arrived home at 6:10pm, in daylight, and found 3 soft, moist droppings near the door. They had flown by, and I had just missed them! Around 7:30pm that evening, I heard some loud cheeps outside, but not from a bird I recognized. I rushed outdoors to see some leaves & branch ends of a shrub moving, but couldn't see a bird or anything else making it move. There were more sounds, like the sounds Bushtits make, but louder and more jingly, almost musical, coming from places all around me and filling the air with sound. I looked up at the dimming sky, but saw no bats or birds flying. Behind me I heard a sound of flapping, and turned to see some thin branch ends and leaves moving wildly, just a few feet away, but could see no bird or animal causing the motions and sounds. I have yet to see them flying, but I know bats are here in my neighborhood.
I'm not easliy frightened or creeped out, and am not now, but I can understand why people in the past, or even today, would feel frightened of being in a forest at night- it's full of weird sounds made by things you can't see, even if they're right in front of you!
