my dad says we've now got three bats in our norfolk pine again. strange for a bat to live in a pine, but there you go. and the latest news is that a bird has built a very deep nest on one of the smaller potted trees beside the norfolk pine and that when my dad was trying to get a good look at the nest he noticed the bird hovering by ("helicoptering") and waiting for him to go away. i am hoping very hard that it will turn out to be a hummingbird. hummingbirds and bats, two of my favourite animals, and there are the pair of chameleons too! i do love it that they have adopted us. my dad is very worried that a cat might get the bird or disturb the nest - there are lots of strays in the neighbourhood who get into our garden and we haven't a dog anymore to chase them off - so he borrowed a water gun from one of his students so as to give any cat that comes into our garden a nasty wet shock of a warning, but the gun was a lousy one and when he took aim it emerged the range was all of 3 inches! hee. so now we're looking for a new gun. anybody who has young cousins with unwanted water guns might lend us one.