Live in Katy and have a backyard with lots of big old palm trees and a pool. For years, right at dusk, we would notice bats buzzing the pool and hitting the water for a drink. We thought it was really cool and would stay on the sides of the pool, have a cocktail, and watch the bats. Last year I got serious and started noticing it looked like the bats were dropping out of the palm trees. Finally it dawns on me to hit the google.

Always had assumed it was the same bats that hang out under the bridges - Mexican freetail. Nope - sounds like they are a yellow bat - Southern, western, or northern.

All sources I can find basically say " The yellow bat hasn't been studied much, here is what we we think". Any of our resident outdoor experts know any more? Just want to know as much as possible about my little flying buddies I share summer evenings with.

Yes I know they can carry disease etc. but we don't mess with them - just want them to continue to eat their body weight in mosquitoes every night.

In the Houston area, they are most likely Northern Yellow Bats. The range of the Southern really doesn't reach too far into south Texas. BCI has a little profile info on their page:

http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/species-profiles/detail/1974

TPWD has a page on them with a little more info:

http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/northyellow/

But as you said, there has not been a lot of research done on them or their habits.

We have them in our palms in houston as well. Very funny watching the crew that trims them when they all bolt at once.

We had them in the palm tree when I lived in la marque. Coolest little creatures. We would throw towels or shirts in the air to watch them dive bomb them. I had the grand idea to get one out of the palm frond and take it around with me in a little critter carrier. Softest little animal ever. That night I hung it from my hand so it could take off. In hindsight it was a bad idea but I was young.

We had these removed from out attic vents about a month ago. Early morning I kept hearing screeching sounds, thought it was the dog needing to go outside.

Open up the attic and four of these bats had made a nest on the outside of our attic screening.

We disturbed them enough for the wildlife removal guy to clean out the poo, and seal up our vents from the outside.

What part of Katy? We have 3 or 4 we see around dusk that fly over our house and look to be swooping down into the same neighbors yard. We are in Nottingham country.

Very cool bats!