The Bat Out the Back

Nick Boyle

The need to stay local in the Autumn of 2020 has placed a few constraints on the weekend explorations of the natural world that usually sees me out the door early with my two boys. Living in Leichhardt, we’ve moved from living the first few lines of ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’, to Slessor’s ‘William Street’, favouring backstreets and urban art to the busy leafy parks and foreshores of the Inner West of Sydney. This time has also caused us to slow down and appreciate what’s around us – rainbow lorikeets, grey butcherbirds, pied currawongs, and little corellas have been the soundtrack observed more keenly – particularly with fewer planes in our flight-path location. My wife has a background in invertebrates, so the kids are regularly searching for jumping spiders, leaf-curlers, and mole crickets.

I’m still blown away by the fact that, living in urban Sydney, we have a flying mammal that visits our patio on a regular basis. It’s been nice to observe our own bat - a grey-headed flying-fox – with the same curiosity that saw me hiring a motorbike in the Pokhara Valley looking for Himalayan whiskered bats, or wading deep into caves in the Solomon Islands – trusting local advice that crocodiles don’t go in there, but jumping at every brush of an eel. It makes me wonder if the neighbour’s introduced fig that reaches over into our place isn’t the worst thing, and that if we can’t collectively learn to love native gardens in Sydney, if the plants that supplement diets are the next best option. It also makes me reflect on the responsibility I have as a homeowner to think beyond the property convenience and value and about nature’s tenants we support.