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This morning on my way out I nearly tripped over a large, brown lump of mud on the carpet of the entranceway in my block of flats. Incredulous at the size and smoothness of the clod I peered more closely at it, and discovered that it was furry and had small wings, whereupon I was astonished to infer that it was a bat. I carefully poked the carpet next to it to try to provoke a response that would indicate it was alive, and it didn't move. I assumed it must have tailgated a resident through the front doorway and then been unable to get back out. Flapping around in a panic often does for small creatures.

Thinking to dispose of the corpse, I carefully placed it onto my hand, and it twitched (but showed no signs of flying off). It could have been exhaustion, hunger from being trapped indoors with no food supply all night, or just the fact that bats are nocturnal, but it showed no sign of wanting to fly away, or move at all. I am not a bat sanctuary, so I didn't try to feed it sugared water from a pipette, I just carried it outside and carefully set it down on some shaded soil under a hedge in the garden. I was a bit concerned about it falling prey to our local cats, but I figure you have to be on someone's side, so I left it for nature to take its course.

On returning home this evening I inspected the area. The bat was not present, nor was there evidence of slightly chewed or worried bits of bat gibs, so either the cats took it elsewhere to play with or it flew off.