For eight years, I walked my kids to elementary school each morning, and the principal learned to eye me with a certain trepidation as I was in the habit of finding baby animals in distress and leaving them under his care. One day, it was a baby bat, who was delegated to the science department. A week later, I noticed a tiny grave in the school’s garden with a placard: they had given him a name.
The Japanese house bat is migratory - they are insectivorous, moving south as far as Hainan in winter and returning when their meals wake up, marking spring as much as the swallows do in my hometown. A half-dozen suddenly appeared today around my house; they roost under the rain gutters and keep the mosquito population in check. Look over parking lots or fields at dusk for these cute little guys, a popular subject of block prints. You can even name them. - William