2 visitors...1 lucky, 1 not so lucky

Yesterday morning I went out onto the deck and found a little brown bat who was dead.

My curiosity always gets the better of me in such manners

and so after making sure it was truly dead, I grabbed

a pair of good gloves and my camera (of course).

"The unexamined life is not worth living"
So says Socrates.
I couldn't agree more. To be able to have a close look at one of the
worlds most fascinating and stealth little creatures is a gift.
Look at it's little nose...almost looks like a dog nose...

We have them around here all summer but it's only for a fleeting moment that we see them

take off from their house and then in the twilight, they're gone.

See the tiny hook-like claw they have for climbing and crawling?

Like a little finger...

The German word for bat is 'fledermaus'...like flying mouse.

Something I never knew before is that they actually have another claw where a tail would be.

I imagine this is for hanging upside down purposes...

...look at those tiny wee feet!...

I gently spread her out on a blanket, knowing how powerful, yet delicate

their wings are...even in death, those little hooks clung to the blanket...

 how amazing is the fact that something so paper thin can fly for hours upon hours every night...

Don't forget that bats are one of the most valuable controllers

of mosquito's and eat something like 3,000 of them in a single night!

So as odd and as bad a reputation as they have remember

BATS ARE OUR FRIENDS!

So #1 unlucky visitor but then in the late afternoon, while I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready

I saw something scurry across the floor.

It was one of our native lizards.

We used to see them all the time around here but I hadn't seen one in a few years.

So I called Tom to come and catch it so I could take photos (of course!).

You have to be careful when trying to catch these guys because they

are extremely fast and in defence their tale will break off so

they can escape. The remaining broken off piece will continue to twitch,

distracting the predator

while the lizard escapes and eventually regrows a new piece of tail.

Isn't nature extraordinary?!

Tom was quick and gentle and we put him/her down on the ground

to let it go.

Technically they are called Northern Alligator Lizards and are found only in South Western B.C.

Harmless little things...

It took one last look before scurrying off.

#2 visitor...lucky.

Still unclear of how it happened to be in the house but lucky I found it before the cat did!