Bats are not always so clever. The BA flight from Barbados to London has been scheduled to depart at dusk for many years. The asphalt runway, warmed by the sun for many hours, attracts huge clouds of insects at dusk, which in turn attract cauldrons of bats to feast on them.
The speed and manoeuvrability of bats is no match for 300 tons of metal accelerating to 190mph.
What sounded and felt like machine gun fire hitting the fuselage signalled the demise of many bats on each takeoff. No doubt many more ended up being gobbled and minced by the big fan engines. In spite of us having a full set of very bright lights on and making a lot of noise, they never seemed to learn to keep out of our way.
Dave
Could it be a shield beetle?
cheers
Mike
Yep, it is one of the shield bugs, but I'm not sure which one having had a look online.Yep, I’d say “shield bug”
I recall something about a French nickname for them which I can’t recall at the moment but iirc it refers to the smell (awful) if you squash one.
Fantastic! We see one every now and then, it swoops so low to get insects! I always wonder where it comes from and how far they travel as we are in suburbia and are surrounded by houses.More bats!