What a beautiful but HOT weekend! Yesterday it got up to about 91F, before the humidity; today it got up to about 92F before the humidity. A little warm for the end of May, but it's nice to get a preview of summer, and to have nice weather for the holiday weekend.

My day was pretty boring. I got about 8 hours of sleep last night. I didn't want to sleep too long and cause me to not sleep tonight. I still had the air conditioner on from yesterday, but was finally able to turn it off about 6:30pm or so after some storms came through. The air cooled down enough, and I'd rather have the windows open than have the air conditioner going. Outside air is much cheaper, lol. Once I had the sliding glass door open to my balcony, I was hearing this noise that sort of sounded like a bird. I would hear it, then it would go away, then I'd hear it again. It went on like this for a couple of hours. I didn't hear it while the a/c was on, it wasn't until the balcony door was open that I heard it. I kept thinking it must be some juvenile bird in one of the trees just off my balcony, since I could never see what was making the noise. And it seemed every time I got up to go to the door to look for it, it shut up, lol.

Finally I went to the door, and I continued to hear the noise. It sounded like it was coming from my balcony itself, so again I'm thinking maybe it's a young bird stuck in a corner and is scared. Perhaps it was separated from it's mommy or daddy. The strange thing is, it was making a weird noise that is unlike any bird noise I have ever heard. It wasn't a chirp, but it's so hard to try to duplicate myself, I can't explain it. As it continued to make this noise, I zeroed in on the source of the noise. It wasn't coming from the floor of my balcony, it was coming from above my head. Now, I live on the 2nd floor, and there is an apartment above me, with a balcony just like mine. My thinking was that a bird was up on their balcony making this noise. I looked and looked and didn't see anything, although I didn't expect to. But then I discovered the noise wasn't coming from on top of the balcony above me, it was coming from between the wood of the balcony and the actual building.

There is this one inch (2-3 cm) gap between the wood of the balcony and the brick on the building. There was something up in that gap! But what? I couldn't see how a bird could get jammed up in there, and I was still curious as to what was making that noise. I closed the screen door, went and got a flashlight, turned it on and shined it up into the gap above my head. I could not believe what I saw! (Is the suspense killing you yet? LMAO) There I saw about five or six little BATS who were sleeping until it was time to go out and feed! I HAVE BATS! I'M GOING BATTY! I HAVE BATS IN MY BELFRY! Omg, I was so excited, I called my aunt to tell her what I found, her first comment was...you better call someone to come get rid of them. I was like, why?? They eat the bugs! She was concerned maybe they'd get into my apt somehow, and I suppose they could, but they seemed pretty content crammed into that gap. I don't think they ever opened their eyes when I was looking at them.

I've never seen bats up close and personal. Omg, I was so excited I couldn't believe my luck! I know right now they are out feeding on bugs, I say go for it, gorge yourselves! The other interesting part is, I think they've been there for awhile. Right below where they are at, I've had these droppings on the cement part of the ledge where the sliding glass door is. I always assumed it was from a bird. I would see it accumulate, I would take a broom and sweep them away, and soon there would be more. Now I know it's not bird droppings, it's bat guano! Ya'll are probably thinking I'm really weird to be this excited about bats. But around here, any sign of nature is fabulous.

Yes I have birds, common ones that will feed if you put a bird feeder out. Every once in awhile, I'll hear a bluejay. I've seen a couple possums, a family of skunks. I see a few tree squirrels now and again (none of those black ones they have in Toronto), and even a ground squirrel on occasion. And I've heard an owl several times at night, but never seen it. For me to find bats, here on a golf course, concluding that they may have been here for a couple years and I didn't know it, is too exciting. It's important that people and animals can find a way to co-exist in peace. Having these bats here, shows me that at least for now, it's working. I don't know anything about bats, so I have no idea what kind of bats these are. It would be interesting to know, and I may do some research on it this week.

Anyway, enough of my excitement for the night, time for bed.