Story: Night Squeaks
“Mia! Mia! Did you hear that?” Pip, the deer mouse, whispers from her hollow in the big cypress. “Something is squeaking!”
Mia, the blue jay, yawns and stretches her wings, “What is it, Pip?”
“Squeaking! I heard tiny squeaks!” Pip’s whisker’s twitch.
“Like a squirrel or mouse?” Mia asks.
Pip shakes her head and points, “No…. Higher-pitched, little squeaks. It sounds like they are coming from high up in the tree.”
“Let’s go take a look,” Mia suggests. “I’ll fly up.”
“I am right behind you,” Pip scurries up the tree. “Oh, there it is again!”
“I hear it,” Mia says. “It sounds like a chorus of little squeaks, and they sound friendly.”
“Hello?” Pip calls. “Hello. I am Pip, and this is my friend Mia.”
“Who’s there?” Mia asks and listens carefully.
“I…Ivy. My name is Ivy,” they hear a soft voice say.
“Hello. What are you doing up here this late?” Mia asks.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Did we wake you?” The little voice replies. “We are waking up, and getting ready to hunt for breakfast.”
“Getting up?” Pip is curious, “But, it’s night.”
Ivy giggles, “I am a brown bat. I sleep during the day and hunt for food at night. That’s when the yummiest insects come out.”
“Can we watch? I’m curious.” Pip is eagerly standing on her hind legs.
“Of course,” Ivy loves the idea. “I hunt at night with my family. We just moved into the hollow at the top of the tree.”
“So you and your family are nocturnal. Jasper, the opossum, and Boone, the raccoon, are nocturnal too. They love to sleep all day, and hunt at night.” Mia shares.
Pip adds, “Ember, the owl, is also nocturnal.”
Ivy stretches her wings, “Watch this! I’m fast!”
Mia is in awe, “She is fast! Look at her swoop!”
“How does she catch bugs in the dark, and at that speed?” Pip wonders aloud.
“Echolocation,” Ivy calls back to Pip and Mia. “I make high-pitched sounds, and then listen for how long it takes the sound to bounce off an insect and come back to me.”
She adds, “The sound tells me where the insects are. That way I do not have to see them with my eyes in the dark.”
“Can all bats do that?” Pip asks.
“Yes,” Ivy swoops down and catches a mosquito. “Yummy!”
“Wow! That is incredible!” Mia exclaims. “You make it look so easy.”
“We practice every night, hunting together as a family,” Ivy smiles.
“Let’s stay here tonight and watch the bats hunt in the moonlight, Mia,” Pip suggests.
“Sure. That sounds like a peaceful way to go to sleep tonight under the stars,” Mia agrees.
“Ivy, we are glad to meet you and your family,” Pip smiles.
“I love making new friends,” Ivy swoops near them.
Pip and Mia nestle down in a crook of the tree. Soon, they fall fast asleep under the moonlight, watching as Ivy and her family dance in the night sky.
