Last week I was surprised to discover the nectar feeding bats had found my hummingbird feeders here in Tucson. I thought I lived too far inside the city for them to venture in. Since then they have been hitting my feeders every night and draining them so that I have to clean and re-fill them in the morning. But if I thought the bats were a surprise I was in for a shock because on the night of August 30 as I was peeking through the blinds to watch the bats feeding from the nectar feeder on my balcony I suddenly saw a small head with round ears and a pointy nose watching the bats at the feeder. I had no idea what kind of creature it was but it looked like it wanted to capture a bat and eat it! It looked like it was hunting the bats! I quickly put a query out on Facebook as I had no idea what to even look up and a nearby birder, photographer and blogger named Kelly Rishor suggested it might be a Ring-tailed Cat. After a quick Google search it was confirmed!
Oh my goodness! I had a Ring-tailed cat on my rooftop! Strictly nocturnal, these raccoon-like creatures are omnivores who will eat just about anything! They have a long, banded tail like a raccoon and are in fact related to them. The info I read online said they can actually scale a vertical wall and I can only guess this one got on my second story rooftop by climbing the front yard mesquite trees and leaping over onto the roof. Now my challenge was to get a photos since it was pitch black dark! Not being brave enough to go out on the balcony with the bats, I went out the front door with my camera and a flashlight. I had to try to hold the camera and the flash at the same time to get these shots but I got them!
Ring-tailed cat on my roof 8-30-13
Boo!
Cool! I am not sure I would want to get to close.
ReplyDeleteKathryn, believe me, I didn't. I was down on the ground and it was up on the second story roof! At times like this it's really nice to have a very long lens!
DeleteSuch an awesome sighting and you got good shots too.
ReplyDeleteGaelyn, you should have seen me juggling the flashlight and my Nikon with the zoom lens!
DeleteMost epic sighting!!! And even better, you've got pics to prove you saw this tricky mammal!!! Congrats:)
ReplyDeleteChris, it was your admonition that sent me out to do it!
DeleteScaling the walls? Bats? Are you sure it's not Dracula? Ha ha!
ReplyDeleteNo Dracula at this house! and my bats are nectar feeding...no teeth! Lol!
DeleteWhat a cute face, he/she was watching you! Great visitor and photos. Happy birding and have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteThanks Eileen. I will!
DeleteHow cool is that! We saw the "cats" one time up in Cottonwood, AZ! They are cute!! We also attended a ranger presentation at Cave Creek, AZ! I use to tell people that when I retired I wanted to go out and count Bats. Just like the Bees, we need the Bats!!
ReplyDeleteSheila, yes we do! I like the bats, just not fluttering around my head!
DeleteHi Katie.. He is a cute little creature, and probably as mischievous as the Raccoon! : )
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this with us , I found it very interesting !!
Grace
Grammie, I am so glad you stopped by to say hi! I am glad you liked my southwestern version of a raccoon as well!
DeleteHi Katie Wonderful capture of this lovely guy. Well done for seeing him and then snapping him
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of them but have just checked on the internet and it does seem you were lucky to have one visit.
ReplyDeleteThat was good shooting Kathie and you didn't appear to frighten it away after the first shot.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great shot of the cute Ringtail! I had heard they sometimes visit hummingbird feeders at night. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSo exciting! And even more exciting that you managed to get photographic proof of this very special visitor :)
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