September 29-30, 2017
Yesterday morning I discovered that my hummingbird feeder had been emptied overnight, so I knew I had nectar bats. I've never had an opportunity to photograph these before so I set up the flash, prefocused on the feeder and waited for dark. I wasn't disappointed, dozens of bats of two species were visiting my feeder, Lesser Long-nosed Bat (an endangered species) and Mexican Long-tongued Bat. I was up late, trying to get flight shots of the bats as they flew away from the feeder. It is hard to do, they are very fast. Sometimes they would fly very close to me, I even felt their wingtips a few times. I put tape over most of the holes in the feeder to restrict where they could nectar.
Lesser Long-nosed Bat (an endangered species), notice the shape of the nose. There are mites riding on the wing.
Mexican Long-tongued Bat. Notice the different shape of the nose, and
the lower jaw juts out further than the upper.
Mexican Long-tongued Bat
Mexican Long-tongued Bat
Mexican Long-tongued Bat
Lesser Long-nosed Bat
Ares Metalmark, lifer butterfly
Ares Metalmark, similar to Zela Metalmark, but different markings on the upper forewing and underwings.