• Current Blog
  • 2022-2023 Blog
  • 2019-2020 Blog
  • 2017-18 Blog
  • 2015-16 Blog
  • 2013-14 Blog
  • Current Itinerary
  • Past Itineraries
    • 2019-2020 Itinerary
    • 2017-18 Itinerary
    • 2015-16 Itinerary
    • 2013-14 Itinerary
  • Best Of …

Broome, Western Oz: Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s…

December 31, 2022 Jim 6 Comments

My apologies. I know the blog has been woefully silent in the last few weeks. I’ve been working day and night on another big project and have allowed JimandJamie.com to sit on a shelf gathering digital dust. I promise to do better.

We were dining at Aarli’s (clearly the finest restaurant this small beach town has to offer) when Jamie suddenly ducked. A huge fruit bat had swooped directly over our heads.

It was a sign of things to come. We looked up. Moments later the sky was filled with thousands of the web-winged wonders.

We don’t know where they came from nor where they were going, but other than a few stragglers who enjoyed swooping low over the heads of the unsuspecting diners, they all seemed to be heading toward Cable Beach. But we’ve been out there for dozens of sunsets and have never seen huge swarms of bats, so your guess is as good as ours.

The swarm of flying rodents continued for fifteen minutes or so. Thousands of them flew overhead. Maybe tens of thousands.

I was getting ready to make an additional comment about bats being rodents, but stopped because I wasn’t sure that was correct. I think you’ll be as surprised as I was to read what Britannica.com called the bat’s closest relatives:

“If bats aren’t related to rodents, what are they related to? Bat classification is complicated because bats’ tiny delicate bones make for poor fossils. It used to be thought that bats were actually closely related to primates—including humans—but recent genome analysis has classified them in a superorder that includes animals such as pangolins and whales.”

Just think. If millions of years ago the arc of evolution had bent just a wee bit differently, tonight’s evening sky might have been filled with thousands of flying whales.

Now that would have been spectacular.

Filed Under: 2022-2023 Blog

Read Random Post

Comments

  1. Wendy says

    December 31, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    Jim you ate a crazy man! Too many drinks on NYE. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

  2. Jim says

    December 31, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    I really hope you meant “you are a crazy man” rather than “you ate a crazy man.” Trust me, I have no cannibalistic tendencies.

    • Wendy says

      January 1, 2023 at 2:07 pm

      Oops🙈

  3. Beth says

    January 1, 2023 at 5:21 am

    Mississippi loves bats. They eat mosquitos. Happy New Year!

  4. Ginny Parkinson says

    January 1, 2023 at 8:26 am

    We wish you a very happy New Year!
    We miss seeing you but enjoy your adventures.
    🎉❤️Brad & Ginny

    • Jim says

      January 1, 2023 at 8:32 am

      Jamie and I were just talking about you two today. Always good to see your name show up on the blog or in our email.

Read Random Post

Sign up for the eBlast

Find out every time
we post a new story.
Sign up now.
Your Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recent Comments

  • Wendy on Angaston, South Oz: Two more Aussie TV commercials we love
  • Jim on Angaston, South Oz: Two more Aussie TV commercials we love
  • Traci on Angaston, South Oz: Our all-time favorite artsy-fartsy photos
  • Traci on Angaston, South Oz: Two more Aussie TV commercials we love
  • Rick Reiff on Angaston, South Oz: Two more Aussie TV commercials we love

Recent Posts

  • Angaston, South Oz: Two more Aussie TV commercials we love
  • Angaston, South Oz: Our all-time favorite artsy-fartsy photos
  • Angaston, South Oz: You won’t believe what I just found on the internet. UPDATE: Street View from our neighbor’s house
  • Angaston, South Oz: I laugh every damn time I see this commercial
  • Angaston, South Oz: Local teenager survives shark attack, his surf ski doesn’t

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in