batty
ADJECTIVE ( battier, battiest)
INFORMAL , chiefly British
Mad; insane:you’ll drive me batty!
Lately I've been feeling more than a little batty, so I decided to make this the theme of my week. I wrote a poem, admired them flying about our garden, dug out a pipistrelle bat illustration I did some time ago and imagined the bat that I would create if I had my own frankenstein laboratory.In an effort to maintain the little brain function I have, I try to engage it in an educational task each week. I used a dictionary and also found some amazingly interesting information about bats to share with you.
Bat facts:
Lately I've been feeling more than a little batty, so I decided to make this the theme of my week. I wrote a poem, admired them flying about our garden, dug out a pipistrelle bat illustration I did some time ago and imagined the bat that I would create if I had my own frankenstein laboratory.In an effort to maintain the little brain function I have, I try to engage it in an educational task each week. I used a dictionary and also found some amazingly interesting information about bats to share with you.
Bat facts:
- Fossil evidence of mammals similar to bats dates back to over 50 million years ago.
- Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. Approximately 20% of all mammals in the world are bats.
- Bats can hover, fly backwards and turn in a tight space extremely quickly.
- Bats make high-frequency sounds (echolocation) , and the echoes of these sounds bounce back which enables a bat to work out the size of objects, their location, how fast they are travelling and even texture. Some bats can locate their prey up to 20/30 metres away.
- There are thought to be over 1,100 species of bats in the world. Bats are native to all continents except the Arctic.
- Only three of the world’s 1,100 bat species actually feed on blood (and they are only found in Central and South America).
- A baby bat is called a ‘pup’. Pups can fly four to five weeks after they are born
- The collective name for a group of bats is a ‘colony’.
- 99% of bats worldwide have been lost in the last 100 years, due to loss of food, habitat and human activity.
Incase my messy handwriting is indecipherable, here is my poor attempt at a poem typed out for ease of reading:
Upon this balmy summer night,
out glide the tiny bats in flight.
They dart and swoop, they dive and tear,
at flitting black shadows I sit, I stare.
Inky shapes skim the pale moon face,
they dance, bound, loop in silent grace.
Beneath blinking stars the air grows chill,
hushed fluttering all that breaks the still.
The darkness deepens, a shrouding veil,
to bed on velvet winged dreams I sail.
THE END :D
All images copyright of HKJ and Coity Wallia Commons
