Zeltus

Well, cellar rather than belfry, in our case. I only go into our cellars in our French house once or twice a year – mostly to either shut off and drain the water pipes or else to open them up again.

So it was a pleasant surprise when entering our first cellar to find a small clutch of Pipistrelle bats dozing the daylight hours away. I guess it must have been a really good year for wildlife generally here in the glorious Dordogne.

We often see them in the evening hours as our garden is essentially surrounded by out-buildings and what with the garden lighting, insects are attracted in and have difficulty getting out – and the bats know this all too well. I’m pretty certain we get the odd grey-coloured Daubenton’s bat and we certainly see some larger bats – but they fly so fast it’s hard to identify them. These Pipistrelles roosting like this make the job of identification much easier! :P

They seemed quite unalarmed at my presence and even the flash on the camera left them completely unfazed. Nevertheless, I tried not to take too many liberties and left them in peace as soon as I got my shot.

Unfortunately, entering our second cellar was a less fun experience. A pipe had sprung a leak, God knows when, and it was our side of the meter – so we have to pay for whatever water leaked away. :? It’s not that serious – we have the cheapest water in the Dordogne AND it’s spring water to boot. Fortunately, plumbing, like electrickery, holds no fears for me and it was soon fixed. I guess the higher pressure caused when the street piping was renewed in the summer sought out the weak points.

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