Bats aren't easy to observe - and it was many years before I did observe them. This is because they are out hunting only at dusk or dawn, certain times of year - a time when visibility is intrinsically difficult, such that they can be seen only when silhouetted against the semi-dark sky.
Since I cannot hear their high frequency calls at my age; they are identified by their flight - which is indeed very different from the flight of a bird. The bats zig-zag along, chasing flying insects, in a way that is both clumsier and more agile than the flight of a small bird.
My closest encounter with a bat happened when I was a teen visiting a friend who lived in a cottage in the grounds of an mansion - surrounded by ancient outbuildings. We came across a cat carrying something in its mouth - which turned out to be a young bat. We made the cat drop it, and the bat seemed unharmed.
After a brief attempt to feed it milk from a drinking straw - when I realised how flexible and soft was the leather of its wings; we took the bat up into the attic of an old barn, where the adults were nesting, and released it a few yards from the adults - I can still remember the comic way it walked towards the other bats, sometimes crawling, sometimes with its wings extended...
