Hummingbirds, Bats and Mothers

It’s Mother’s Day in the U.S. which seems like a good time to remind readers of the things mothers put up with. This paean to bats and mothers was penned by Mark Twain. Hummingbird feeders appear at the end.

A bat is beautifully soft and silky; I do not know any creature that is pleasanter to the touch or is more grateful for caressings, if offered in the right spirit. I know all about these coleoptera, because our great cave, three miles below Hannibal, was multitudinously stocked with them, and often I brought them home to amuse my mother with. It was easy to manage if it was a school day, because then I had ostensibly been to school and hadn’t any bats. She was not a suspicious person, but full of trust and confidence; and when I said, “There’s something in my coat pocket for you,” she would put her hand in. But she always took it out again, herself; I didn’t have to tell her. It was remarkable, the way she couldn’t learn to like private bats. The more experience she had, the more she could not change her views.

Here is just one of a series of photographs of bats at a hummingbird feeder in Tuscon from fireflyforest.. We heartily recommend clicking through to see them all.