Going Bats!

It started with the idea of making a small birdhouse to donate to the Audubon Society fundraising auction party at our local lagoon nature center.  Making a bat house seemed more interesting, however, so I ended up making four bat houses (because I couldn't buy a partial sheet of plywood).

Each bat house is capable of housing at least a hundred bats.  A single bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquito sized insects an hour, or about 8,000 insects a night.

Excuse the blurry phone pictures that follow.  There were silent and live auctions for many very creative bird houses and one bat house.  The event was quite festive, with food, drinks, and live music provided by "The Endangered Speciez".  And... we actually were recognized by three administrators from the Oceanside Museum of Art as the "hippies" from the Valentine's Day Party.  We practically never see anyone we know or get recognized in this sprawling metropolis, so that felt heartwarming.

The woman in yellow, the auctioneer, is Martha Barnette from the KPBS program "A Way With Words".  It was a very pleasant down home crowd, most of whom are out of the picture.  Gail kept me a little anxious as she joined in the bidding several times, but bailing out before actually winning - whew!  Some of the bird houses sold for over $150!

I was relieved to see I got some bids!

This woman and her husband were nervously guarding the bat house to maintain their high bid.  I was tickled to see how much they wanted it!  They had enjoyed bats at their home in years past and figured they had the perfect place for it.