They Might Be Giant Bats

I couldn't resist that blog title. I have never been a fan of TMBG, even though my music tastes are pretty eclectic. Anyway, one of the meteorologists at our Wichita Office emailed me last night to say that what I saw on radar yesterday was probably bats, not birds. I based my original assumption off of this page at the Clemson Radar Ornithology site (actually a predecessor of it on MIT's website that no longer exists). However, I see they also have this page about bats as well.

Both appear as similar "expanding circles" and it might only be the time of day that gives the clue - bats are on the move at sunset; birds leave their roost first thing in the morning. As such, my previous entry about "birds on radar" last year may have been correct, because that even took place at dawn, but clearly I was wrong about yesterday's entry, which showed an evening event. Note that both have a maximum reflectivity level of around 15 dBZ in these static images.