Leslie Sturges

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 hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day! Happy unofficial start of summer!!!  The nice thing about the start of summer for us humans is that school is almost out and the pools are finally open. The nice thing for bats is that all their cute little babies will be born soon! A few have already been born. A few weeks ago one of Save Lucy’s rehab bats had twins! They are doing well and are adorable! I love seeing pictures of them!  They are very cute and fluffy. Soon lots and lots of little pups will be showing up at Save Lucy and everyone is going to be very busy. It always makes me sad to know that the babies couldn’t stay with their moms because something terrible happened, but I do like seeing all the little babies. So, while we wait for more little pups, here is a cute picture of some pups that are already here. I hope you like it.

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 have great news! I am a movie star!!!!!! Wellllllllll……. a PSA star, but I have to start somewhere! I was lucky enough to get casted for a public service announcement to help Save Lucy! It was a lot of fun and it will air on cable TV!!! The very nice people at The Good Food Factory show are going to help raise awareness of how awesome bats are by showing the PSA. Right now, the show only airs in California, but a little bat told me that it will air somewhere in Virginia sometime soon. So, keep your eye out. I think it would be a fun show to watch. If you don’t get the channel, you can watch some of their shows online. Here is a link to their website. http://www.thegoodfoodfactory.com/ And now, here is the PSA. I hope you all like it. I’m sure it will win some sort of award. I smell an Emmy.  Ha ha. I’d like to thank my family for always being there for me. I’d like to thank my co-star, Colvin. I couldn’t have done it without him. I’d especially like to thank the people at The Good Food Factory and The Save Lucy Campaign. Without you none of this would have been possible. And last, but not least, I’d like to thank the little bats of Save Lucy. You really were the stars of the show! And now, if there are any movie producers or directors out there who need […]

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 this wild colony  Hi everyone! Happy Endangered Species Day! (A day late. Endangered Species Day was yesterday.) I thought that because it was Endangered Species Day, we should learn about an adorable endangered bat – the Virginia big-eared bat. I think you all will agree that it is absolutely adorable with its huge ears. The Virginia big-eared bat is about 3.4 – 4 inches long. Its ears are over 1 inch long! These bats live in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They like to live in caves. They don’t migrate, so they live in caves all year. That worries me because the fungus that causes WNS likes to live in caves too. I thought that the main reason Virginia big-eared bats were endangered was because of WNS, but it turns out that they think the main reason is human disturbance of their habitat. When humans disturb the colonies during hibernation, the bats lose their stored fat reserves. This can cause them to die before spring. So, on behalf of all Virginia big-eared bats, I would like to ask for people to not disturb them while they are trying to hibernate. Another interesting fact about Virginia big-eared bats is that more of them live in West Virginia than in any other state. I think this is funny because they are called Virginia big-eared bats, not West Virginia big-eared bats. Maybe West Virginia could give us some of our bats back. Or maybe some of the bats could vacation in Virginia and decide that it’s […]

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 this wild colony  Hi everyone! As you all know, I LOVE bats! I also LOVE dinosaurs! I found a very special dinosaur. The only reason I’m writing about it here is because it walked on two legs and had wings just like a bat! Isn’t that cool?! It is called Yi qi. Up until now, they thought that the only dinosaurs that had wings couldn’t fly and their wings were covered in feathers. Yi qi’s wings were not covered in feathers, but were structured very much like a bat’s. And – here’s the really interesting part – because of its cool bat wings, Yi qi could actually take to the sky, but it glided more than it flew. Some of the pictures of Yi qi might look scary because the pictures make it look big, but that’s the same thing that happened to the sweet little vampire bat. All the Dracula movies made vampire bats look big and scary, but really they’re just sweet little guys. Yi qi only weighed half a pound and was the size of a chicken. So, it’s not very scary at all. In fact, it might have been almost as cute as a cuddly little vampire bat. (Just remember not to cuddle bats, even if you want to. It’s not a good idea.)

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 this wild colony  Hi everyone! I’m sure everyone has already heard about the terrible earthquake that hit Nepal last weekend. Thousands of people have died and many, many more are injured. I’m very worried about them because my grandmother has some very good friends in Nepal. The conditions there are terrible right now, so I want to wish them the very best and dedicate my blog to all the people of Nepal this week. My thoughts are with you all. Since we’re talking about Nepal, I thought it would be nice to research Nepali bats this week. They have some really neat bats! I think my favorite is called a painted bat. It has nice warm fur that is very black and orange. The colors are very defined. I think the painted bat looks beautiful! They also have horseshoe bats with very interesting noses, leaf bats, and fruit bats in Nepal. There are a lot of websites about all the Nepali bats, but the one I liked most was Bats of Nepal. It is written by the Nepal Institute of Forestry and has a lot of information and some really pretty pictures. And now for Save Lucy news…a whole bunch of the bats that spent the winter with the rehabilitators are well enough to be released soon. They have been flying around the flight cage and are very excited about the nice Spring weather. I hope they all do well once they are released.

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 this wild colony  Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Earth day! The bats here at Save Lucy sure did! They ate a lot of mealworms to celebrate. I had left-over birthday cake…not mine :’(, but still yummy! I hope you all did something equally festive to celebrate the Earth and all its creatures, especially bats. Also, I learned a very cool thing. I was reading National Geographic and I found an article on Mexican free-tailed bats. Bats use echolocation to find food but Mexican free tailed bats can also send out a jamming signal. They use it to interfere with other bats signals. If a bat is following a bug, other bats can also hear the echo. If another Mexican free-tailed bat hears the signal it sends a jamming signal to interfere with the first bat’s signal giving bat #2 a chance at getting the bug. But bat #1 can also send a jamming signal to bat #2. So, it goes back and forth until someone gets the bug.  I wish Freda had a free-tailed bat like herself to talk to. It would be fun to watch them jam each other’s signals. Plus, I think she’d like to have a friend to talk to. The humans taking care of her do their best, but their bat squeaks have a very strong human accent. I hope everyone has a great week! [For more information about the amazing sonar jamming skills of freetail bats read all about it here!]

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 this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! Yesterday was Bat Appreciation Day! I hope everyone enjoyed their celebration. I know the bats here at Save Lucy did. They don’t really need much of an excuse to ask for extra mealworms. They think they’re so yummy. But it was nice for them to have a good reason to have a celebration dinner. Now for the sad news. It’s very sad news. Fierce, one of Save Lucy’s little tricolored bats, passed away. He was a good little bat and I’m sad. Gladys misses him very much. They made such a lovely little couple. Since all of Save Lucy’s bats love to write poetry, Gladys decided to write a poem to express her grief. Ode to Fierce             By Gladys I miss you my love. You treated me like a dove. Now I’m alone; I just want to moan. With whom will I share my mealworm? With whom will I watch them squirm? Fierce, my friend you are gone. You were as handsome as a swan.

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 this wild colony for years. Hi everyone! Happy Virginia Cave Week! It might not be the most festively celebrated of weeks, but it’s still important.  “Why is it important?” You ask. It’s important because bats live in caves. Virginia actually has a lot of bats that live in caves. They are the Gray Bat, Small-footed Bat, Little Brown Bat, Northern Long-eared Bat, Indiana Bat, Eastern Pipistrelle, Big Brown Bat and the Virginia Big-eared Bat. I think all of them are really cute. I would love it if you commented about your favorite bat. Maybe everyone could research some Virginia cave bats as a way to celebrate this very special week. And maybe next year we should all try and be a little more festive. I mean…it could be an excuse to eat cake! We have another chance to be festive next week! Bat Appreciation Day is April 17! Now, if that isn’t an excuse for a party, I don’t know what is. I think I’m going to need some cake for this one. I wonder how the little bats are going to celebrate. [Join Save Lucy and the Front Royal Grotto for VA Cave Week kickoff on April 19, 2015 from 1–4pm. See event information here. –Ed.]