Bats and Spider and Slugs, Oh My!

The highlight of my walk this afternoon was seeing a bat flying over the Charles. It was flying in circles just over the water near the Yacht Club (apparently that's where all the excitement is). This is the first bat I've seen out during the day and after observing it for a few seconds I realized I had probably met him before. A few weeks ago as I was leaving the library at 7:00, something nearly flew into my head as I entered the hallway outside Rotch. I assumed it was a bird, but once I got downstairs it flew by me again, this time low to the ground, and I realized it was a bat. People were holding the door open for it and it eventually got out, but continued to circle near the front of the building. According to information on the Mass Audubon web site, it is a large brown bat, however most don't come out until dusk or dark. Mating season is coming up so perhaps this bat was just a little restless.

I also saw several scary spiders on the green railing where Mem. Dr. juts out over the Charles. I first noticed these spiders on Monday during my walk. The entire railing is covered with spider webs and many contain numerous, large, black spiders. I guess they figured out that the combination of being over the water and being close to street lights attracts a lot of insects.

Finally, I can't resist mentioned the huge slug I saw this morning, even though it wasn't during my lunch time walk. As I was heading out for my run in Watertown I passed a huge slug on the sidewalk. It was about 6 inches long and an inch or so across. It made me kind of want to throw up since it was so yucky looking. At the time it was heading up the sidewalk, but given the fact that the sun was rising quickly and the sidewalk has a good amount of foot traffic, I didn't think it would be around much longer. About 25 minutes later on my way home I saw it again, further up the hill. It appeared that it's insides were oozing out, either due to an injury (I feel sorry for whoever stepped on it) or the sun.

Who knew I'd see so much wildlife so close to the city. I need to start bringing a camera along.