Surprise in our Umbrella!  

For a few weeks, I've been noticing droppings on our picnic table... I kept telling DH "there's some kind of rodent thing hanging out on the table." Since our house borders conservation land, we didn't think much of it - just hosed down the table and forgot about it. Well, we didn't really forget, we were curious about WHAT kind of creature would be bold enough to sit on our picnic table, that is ON our deck, right off the kitchen?? Be bold enough to sit there long enough to do it's business...

Well we found out yesterday because we opened up the umbrella that hangs over the table. IT WAS A BAT!! He was living in the closed up umbrella - probably a great place for him to be - there is always tons of moths, grasshoppers and spiders living up in there! I didn't get to see it, my DH has the job of opening the umbrella... he said it was rather big, but still probably just a fruit bat. He came calling me to get a net - he wanted to show our son (who's 4). I'm sort of glad it got away before he could see it... but you could actually SEE the disappointment on DH face that he didn't catch it to show our son...

Anyone ever been surprised by critters living so close to us??