Bats

[Eve]

Why do they adopt such an almost repetitive flight pattern and sometimes go round in circles.

There are some that must nest near me and I often see them flying about over (and back) or round the back garden, gorgeous things, sometimes one but often both.

I was watching one last night before it even got that dark until what sounded like some kids started shooting something, sounded like a caps gun, and it disappeared :(

Just wondered what makes them have such distinctive flight patterns if anyone knows?

[wildwood]

Depending on the bat species..... When they leave the roost they they spread out and then each one has its own flight path to look for food. It is an evolutionary thing to ensure that they don't fly all over the place willy nilly, competing with each other for food.

At roosting time they return and swirl around in a flock until there is a considerable number so they all land at once to join the colony. Another ploy to confuse a predator.

[nungate]

One day as I was leaving the house I thought a leaf had got caught up on the wall of the house just outside the front door, on closer inspection turned out it was a tiny bat, it stayed attached to the wall for more than 24 hours. We lived near a river and we used to see lots of bats flying around in the twilight

[FredPuli43]

Had a house with a lit path along the wall. Bats roosted in the roof directly above it. Some of them would beat up and down the path, taking the moths and other insects drawn to the lights. There was so much food that the same run, out and back, accommodated several at once. We had the laziest, and probably the fattest, bats in Cambridgeshire ! But it did illustrate the principle on which the bats operated, of chosing one route and using it repeatedly, thereby providing for the individuals without the whole colony competing for the one source.