Great bat tale, Giles!
We recently had a bloke ring the Museum because he claimed to have "Bats
in his BBQ" (Do other nations have barbeques?? - here they are bizarre
custom-built brick things with fireplace and grill plate, chimney eyc, a
cultural icon in the Aussie backyard). Well, we get some unusual stories
here at the Museum (including treasure maps mailed in to us etc), but
this bloke was insistent, so, armed with the OM, I sallied forth to his
suburban backyard. We climbed up on to the BBQ, removed a large brick
from the top of the "chimney", peered inside - to my astonsihment the
chimney had about 20 bats in it. They turned out to be "Broad-nosed
bats", and enter the BBQ via a small opening. But why this BBQ in the
middle of the 'burbs?? - no idea! "And when it comes time for a BBQ?" I
asked. Why the family carefully removes all the bats to a box, and
replace them after the snags have been consumed! X-files material!
OM content: Used the OM2N to photograph them. A journo from the local
paper arrived the next week with 2 tonnes of N*k*n gear and had all
sorts of trouble (the BBQ owner was very protective of his bats, and I
don't think Mr F520 had ever been asked to grapple with such subjects!)
OK, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I promise to write about nothing but OM gear
for the next month!!!
(PS The book "Bats in Question" by the Smithsonian has some astonishing
bat photos by M. Tuttle - jaw-droppers)
(PPS I'm a sucker for great UFO stories - Doris, were you fair
dinkum????? Ok, I'm gullible! - at times)
Cheers all
Ashdown
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