Leslie Sturges

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I’m still patiently waiting to hear from Ms. Ellen DeGeneres. I’m sure she’ll just love the pictures of little Freda! I hope she likes bats! I saw an article in The Washington Post newspaper this Monday. I’m sure a lot of you already saw it, but just in case you didn’t, I’ll tell you all about it. It was about a bat study they did in Fairfax County. I had high hopes for this study, but sadly, it was bad news in the end. METRO (a subway system in the DC area) wants to build a new train line. Before they can start building, they need to make sure there aren’t any endangered or threatened animals that will be bothered by the construction. They hired some bat scientists to look for northern long-eared bats. The scientists spent 7 nights looking for the bats. By the end of the week, they had found and released 61 bats, two squirrels and some really big moths. I was really hoping that at least 1 of those 61 bats was a northern long-eared bat, but none of them were. I know that people want the train line to go through, but I want the bats to still be around. I was sad to know that they didn’t find any. It’s really sad that we don’t have any more little brown bats in Fairfax County. I really hope we don’t lose the northern long-eared bats too! […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a nice week. Freda is still a little sad. And a sad little bat is a sad sight indeed. She is jealous of the little Australian bat that is being sponsored by Johnny Depp. She doesn’t understand why no one is sponsoring her. So, on her behalf, I have decided to try one more time. I think I have found the perfect prospective sponsor this time. Ellen DeGeneres! Ms. DeGeneres is a very funny comedian who loves animals. She already works with animal charities. Now, she just needs to know about us! Freda is hopeful that Ms. DeGeneres will just love her as soon as she sees her picture.  In an attempt to make her even more attractive to a famous comedian, Freda decided she should write another poem. I hope she was trying to be a funny bat because if she was being serious…well, you’ll see… If I Had A Sponsor             By Freda the Bat If I had a sponsor, She’d know I’m not a monster. She’d like bats. And maybe buy me hats! I’d share my mealworms. I’m sure she’d like their squirms. Mealworms are crunchy. They are fun to munchy. Yes, they are wormy. They are very squirmy. They are very tasty, Even though their insides are pasty. Do you think she’d like them? Or would she rather have an M & M? I hope she likes me! I’m much cuter than a bee!!!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I am so happy! There is some kind of good news in WNS research. It’s too early to get too excited, but it looks good to me. There is a microbe called Candida albicans that might help fight against white-nose syndrome. Candida albicans lives in many species. It even lives in the intestines of humans. Anyway, scientists from the University of Illinois have discovered that a compound produced by C. albicans called tt-farnesol can inhibit the fungus that causes WNS. One of the scientists said that inoculating hibernating bats with the microbes might increase the bats’ chances of surviving. I think that’s awesome news! Another good piece of news in the fight against WNS is that a common bacterium might also help fight the disease. The bacterium is called Rhodococcus rhodochrous and it’s found in the soil all over North America. Scientists have also discovered that some of the drugs used to fight HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C might also help bats. With all these new discoveries, it’s hard not to get excited. I hope that at least one of these things actually really works. You can read about the studies here:  http://news.discovery.com/animals/cave-microbe-may-aid-bats-in-white-nose-syndrome-fight-150722.htm and http://news.discovery.com/animals/common-bacterium-cures-bats-white-nose-syndrome-150515.htm    

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! First, I would like to thank those of you who tried your best to get a celebrity sponsor for little Freda. She really appreciates all your help. I must say, I’m disappointed. I was led to believe that there were only 6 degrees of separation between Kevin Bacon and everyone else on the planet. That means that there must be some way for us to get in touch with him! And if we can get in touch with him, we should be able to get in touch with all kinds of celebrities! Surely, one of them wants to help a little bat! So, little Freda is asking for everyone’s help again…Please try to figure out what your 6 degrees of separation are (I have yet to figure out mine, but I’m working on it). If just one of us succeeds, either Mr. Bacon, Mr. Affleck, or any of the other wonderful animal loving celebrities is sure to help us. Now, on to other pressing matters…tomorrow is National Ice Cream Day! The bats are very excited because they are positive they’ll get some yummy, bat appropriate ice cream. They have even taken the liberty of using some of Cold Stone Creamery’s flavor ideas to invent some batty flavors. Here is what they have so far: The Fly Who Loved Me – Ingredients:  Mothy Ice Cream with Grub Cookies, Ground Mealworm Crust and Fly Paste Topping All Crunchin’ No Munchin’ – Ingredients:  Mealworm Batter Ice Cream with Mosquito Dough, Whipped Moth […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! I’m sure you have all seen the picture of the adorable Australian Fruit Bat named Jackie Sparrow who is in care at the Australian Bat Clinic. She is being sponsored by the actor Johnny Depp, who plays the character Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Fruit bats are adorable and I think a lot of people like them. They’re much bigger than our insect eating bats and are really cute. Even when they’re babies, they are big enough to wrap in blankets like burritos and have their pictures taken for all to see. I think it’s great that they have so many fans, but I think we need to do something about the image problem our little insect eating bats have. So, I have a BRILLIANT idea! I know it’s brilliant because all of my ideas are. I think we need to get an actor to sponsor one of our bats. Personally, I think Freda needs a sponsor because she will never be released and she’s young and different and cute. But, Save Lucy has a lot of lovely bats to choose from. I think the logical choice in actors is Ben Affleck. He is the actor who plays Batman in the movie Batman v Superman. He has already appeared in an Organization for Bat Conservation video. Clearly, he likes bats! Maybe he just hasn’t heard of us yet. Now, for the important part of my plan…someone out there needs to tell Mr. Affleck all about […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I know you have seen all the shark stories in the news lately. Sharks are biting people at the beaches. Personally, I have decided to stay away from the beach this summer. The bats have other plans. They are a little upset because of all the attention sharks are getting. I think they are jealous. Last night, I heard all of them talking about going to the ocean. They want to swim around and look scary so everyone will pay more attention to them. Poor little things. Have you seen them? Even when they show their teeth, they don’t look too scary. I heard one of them coming up with a plan to solve that little problem. She is planning to get tangled up in a lifeguard’s hair! I think that should get them in the news. I did my best to talk them out of it, but if you’re going to the beach, don’t forget to look up. And lifeguards beware! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Of course, we could solve the problem easily if more people would just pay attention to our little furry friends. Maybe say “hi” to them if you see them flying around. Maybe the Discovery Channel could have “BAT WEEK” instead of “Shark Week”…just a thought. Instead of a shark fin being part of the “A”, a lovely bat wing could be included. In other news, I saw some more bats flying outside my house! I was out yesterday evening and they […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I am sooooo happy that school is out! I can sleep late now. YES!!!!!!!! I know that I am not the only one happy that school is out for the summer. One special little bat shared one of his diary entries with us. It’s been a while, but I do believe you all know Brownie.  Well, here it is.  Brownie’s Diary                                                              6/19/15 Dear Diary, Hi! I am so happy this night! My bat school is finally out! I also heard that the human school got out today too. That is exciting. It’s finally summer vacation. And my mom said I could celebrate with my friends for the rest of the night! We are going to go to the lake first. And then we are going to swim. I love swimming! After that we are going to have some snacks. Maybe we’ll eat some moths! Then we are going to watch a lot of movies and go to bed. It will be fun. Oh, my friends are here; I have to go. – Brownie I hope everyone has a great summer! Don’t forget to get outside and look for bats. We finally saw one for the first time since we moved to our new house. I was really missing the bats, so I’m very, very happy that we saw one flying around. There were a lot of yummy bugs flying around, so I think my new friend had a nice feast!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 7th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big brown bats that used the outside of her former home for a winter roost. Her family cheerfully hosted the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I tried to find some interesting news about bats for this week’s blog, but was very unsuccessful. Google completely let me down!!! Apparently, my search of “bats in the news” gives more baseball results than cute bat animal results. Very, very disappointing! So, I’ll just say something little about a couple of different things…nothing new really. First, there is an awesome group called Lights Out Baltimore. They are a group of birdwatchers who try to make Baltimore safe for migratory birds by turning out some of the city lights during peak migration seasons [and by walking the streets at dawn and collecting the bats and birds that hit the city windows–ed.]. This is awesome for the birds, but it’s also awesome for bats. So, thank you Lights Out Baltimore! Now, if only we could get more cities to do the same thing. Any adults out there want to start a Lights Out Fairfax? I would also like to make sure everyone has seen the cute bat pup pictures that Save Lucy has been posting on its Facebook page. Earlier this week, there was a very cute video of a little bat baby snuggling in a new dog toy shaped like a slipper. I think everyone needs to see this video at least once, so check it out on Save Lucy’s YouTube channel (click the YouTube icon above to see all the great videos). And here’s a NEW baby video for you… There was also a very cute picture of […]