Tom,

I think this was the first Hairy I've seen in my neighborhood in a few years, though I haven't searched my records.  I regularly see them along the C&O towpath from Glen Echo west.

Can anyone offer a guess as to the identity of the creature my dog flushed from the ivy climbing up a neighbor's house last night?  It was about 11 p.m. as we returned from a romp in the park when he became adamant that he just had to sniff the ivy-covered wall of this house.  As he nosed his way up the wall, a small dark something flew off the wall like a jet.  I could have believed it was a mouse jumping off the wall, but I didn't see it land or even arc - it just kept going up about 20 degrees above horizontal, as far as I could see it.  It was mouse-size, appeared dark (but who knows at that hour?) and took off from about 4-5 feet off the ground.  And Comet isn't talking.

I'm guessing bat, but I've never seen a bat fly that fast or straight.
--
Carrol Cowan 
Washington DC 
arielamcATatt.net