DETECT A BAT

About a year ago, I think -- oh gosh, just over a year ago -- we came, as a household, to the conclusion that we needed A Bat Detector.

I promptly opened around twenty tabs, winnowed them down to about ten, and then hit executive-dysfunction decision paralysis. I've had the tab tree open and taunting me ever since. (I have message and comment notifications from 2016 that I'm definitely going to respond to Any Day Now Okay.)

On Saturday, or thereabouts, A announced to me that he had Purchased A Bat Detector, having found some motive force down the back of the sofa, and with no small relief I closed the tab tree.

Yesterday, a PAKIDGE arrived... and the weather was too dubious for there to exist any bats.

THIS EVENING, HOWEVER. THIS EVENING I was flailing around on the floor doing some Pilates a little after nine o'clock, and I glanced at the sky and said "... bat o'clock...?" and up off the sofa A got, with the bat detector, and took it out onto the patio, and turned it on, and DETECTED! A BAT!

And then we stood outside for a little in the twilight flapping excitedly every time we got a burst of bat-static, and were thoroughly delighted that A heard the bat before he saw it -- and in general, yes, excellent hobby, let's do this again.

(The detector - a Magenta Bat5 - was providing clearest audio at around 47kHz, implying that the pet bat is a common or garden or alto pipistrelle, which is more or less what we expected. Are we pleased, though? HECK YES WE'RE PLEASED, and also I clearly need a bat icon.)