Night Visitors

While sitting outside this evening enjoying the warm summer air we had a couple nocturnal visitors.  The first was a bat flying around.  It may have been two bats; one was flying with the typical flitting looping flight I associate with bats.  The other was flying with a much faster and more direct pattern.  In fact, it looked like a duck flying by, except it was definitely a bat.  I've always been crazy about bats, partly because of my fascination with flight but also my love of horror movies and Halloween.  Besides, they are great hunters of moths and beetles, both of which like to feed on my garden plants.  I fear for the future of our bat neighbors.  Besides long time loss of habitat, they are now faced with a devastating fungal disease called white nose syndrome.  According to the National Fish and Wildlife Service website, "since 2006 more than million hibernating bats have died, making this the worst wildlife health crisis in memory." 
The second visitor was the same young skunk we've seen before.  Mike was just saying he hadn't seen it in a couple weeks when we glanced down at the pond and who should be sitting next to it but little skunk.  Hearing us, it toddled off into the vegetation around the porch.  Left alone, skunks are happy to search for food, including the grubs that kill patches of lawn grass.  The also eat just about anything they can find.  We wonder it they account for the lack of toads we've noticed the last few weeks.  However, I would prefer not to have a den under my porch.