On Wednesday, we had a fairly warm day which must have heated the space behind the fascia board on the deck, where there is a small bat colony.  All of the bats were clambering over each other to get out of their den and into a place where they could cool down.

Some bats chose to fly off toward a large shady tree, but most of them stayed like this for the entire day.

While I’m not 100%sure which species of bat these are, they are tiny and eat insects.  In a previous post my best guess was a Common Bentwing Bat, however at the time I didn’t have clear photographs. If anyone can positively identify the species of bat from these photographs, I would love to know for sure.

The fact that they eat insects makes me feel fortunate to have them close by.  I don’t mind if they eat the mosquitoes and flies around the exterior of the house, so it seems like a good deal that they are there.  So far they have not caused any mess or smell, and we would not even know they were living behind the fascia board  apart from the occasional squeak that emerges from their chamber.  This is the first time I’ve noticed them collecting around the entrance in the daytime. In the evening, they seem to emerge one at a time.  Each bat gives the previous one time to fly completely away from the house before they peek out and prepare to fly.