I had kind of an unusual event summer before last. I was sitting drinking coffee on our patio overlooking the pool just about gray dawn when a bat came down and flew the length of the pool. At the end he made a sharp upward turn, circled around and made another pass. He must have made a dozen flights over the pool , jinking up, down, right, left and flying very fast. It was very entertaining to watch. There were swarms of gnats over the pool that were attracted by the warm vapor coming up and the bat was having himself a good meal.
He would fly around and over the top of the house then drop down very low over the pool and start his run. On the last pass he came over the house, dropped low, jinked up, then down, but went too low and hit the water surface. He skipped about three times like a flat rock then rolled head over heel. I expected him to recover and fly away, but he couldn't he just tried to swim around and was not a very good swimmer. I got the pool net and fished him out and laid him on the side of the pool. He tried three times to fly off but could only get about a foot off the ground. He finally managed to fly about six feet and landed in the pool again. I fished him out a second time and laid him in the grass away from the edge of the pool. He sat there flapping his wings not going anywhere until he finally dried out enough to fly three or four feet. In the end he finally dried out enough to take off and fly like he should. It was one of those times when I really wished I had a video camera to capture the event.
He would fly around and over the top of the house then drop down very low over the pool and start his run. On the last pass he came over the house, dropped low, jinked up, then down, but went too low and hit the water surface. He skipped about three times like a flat rock then rolled head over heel. I expected him to recover and fly away, but he couldn't he just tried to swim around and was not a very good swimmer. I got the pool net and fished him out and laid him on the side of the pool. He tried three times to fly off but could only get about a foot off the ground. He finally managed to fly about six feet and landed in the pool again. I fished him out a second time and laid him in the grass away from the edge of the pool. He sat there flapping his wings not going anywhere until he finally dried out enough to fly three or four feet. In the end he finally dried out enough to take off and fly like he should. It was one of those times when I really wished I had a video camera to capture the event.