Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I hope it was all batty! You may remember that I was told that my Baturday News post last week was too modest. I was trying something new. As you know, I am already fabulously famous. After all, I have been in many videos. I have yet to win any awards, though. So, this time, I was thinking of trying a different approach. I was thinking that, perhaps, if I waited a week to talk about Bat Squad and my starring role (there are a few stars), that maybe, perhaps, I would get an Oscar or an Emmy this time around. Maybe the people handing out awards think I was too demanding last time. I’m sure it will work. I’m absolutely certain that I’ll be nationally recognized this time around! No pressure people!!! Anyway, I am excited to be a part of Bat Squad. It is an amazing group of kids from around the country and I feel honored to be chosen to be a part of it. You can read all about the other kids and what they are doing to help bats here. They have done some really amazing work! I am a little jealous of Madison. She has gotten to hold bats! I think that would be amazing. It’s exciting to know that there are so many other kids out there who love bats. And it’s nice to know there are kids all around […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a great week because it started with Bat Fest Annandale. I had a lot of fun! It was great to see some of you all there. Some of the people there said they were going to start reading my blog, so welcome to all my new readers. I hope everyone who went to Bat Fest had a good time. Mrs. Sturges taught everyone about our local bats and white-nose syndrome. Then we all got to see some of Save Lucy’s resident bats. First, Poppy the red bat made an appearance. She didn’t stay out very long because she was a little fussy. She did get some juicy mealworms, so I think she was happy. Then we got to see Lacy the Hoary bat. She ate some juicy mealworms too. We also went outside to look for bats. We used bat detectors to listen for them. I had the privilege of getting to hold one of the detectors. We saw a couple of red bats flying around catching bugs. We also might have seen a tri-colored bat and a big brown flying around. It was exciting to see all of the bats, but I thought it was especially exciting to see the tri-colored one. Tri-colored bats are suffering horribly from WNS, so it was nice to see one flying around. I hope everyone has a nice week. [Editor’s note: Rachael is being far too modest–she is […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I survived the first week of school!!! I am in high school now. It has been a rough week. Gone are the leisurely days of sleeping past noon. I have to get up at 6:00 in the morning!!! And now I have homework!!! It’s inhumane!!! At least I got to see my friends. Ok, now for the serious stuff. I am sure you have all heard about the oil pipeline they are trying to build in North Dakota. The pipeline is being built just outside of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The Native Americans are fighting to stop the construction of the pipeline. They say that the construction will disturb their ancient sacred sites. They also say that the construction of the pipeline violates treaties between the US government and the Sioux. While I have some definite opinions about this, I’m not sure this is the place to discuss it. Instead, I will focus on the environmental disaster that will eventually take place if the pipeline is allowed to be constructed in this location. In addition to being built through sacred land, the pipeline will go under the Missouri River. The river is the main source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and many other people living in the area. It is also a source of drinking water for wildlife. If this pipeline cracks, the river will be contaminated with oil. This means that everyone […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years Hi everyone! I hope you had a good week. I enjoyed my last week of summer vacation by sleeping late and shopping. I will be starting high school next week. While I’m excited about being in high school, I am going to miss sleeping until noon (sometimes even later!). I was talking to a family friend a little while ago and he was telling me about his trip to Bracken Cave in Texas. He and another friend are photographers for the Nature Conservancy. They went to Bracken Cave last year to take pictures and video of the bats for a Nature Conservancy article. He took the video and our other friend took the photographs. I wish I could have been there! It must have been amazing! He told me all about sitting outside the cave waiting for the bats to come out for the night. He said that when the bats all start flying out of the cave, there are so many of them that you can feel the wind caused by their wings. He watched for hours while between 15 and 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats flew out of the cave. The Nature Conservancy article tells about how a development company wanted to build a neighborhood close to the cave, so the Nature Conservancy and Bat Conservation International worked to save the cave. Luckily they were successful, so the bats are now safe. If you want to read the article, you can read it here. Another article is […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! While I was enjoying my summer here in Virginia, people in other places around the world weren’t enjoying themselves quite so much. It has be a particularly difficult week for the Italians. There was a terrible earthquake in Italy this week. They are still having aftershocks, which in my opinion are strong enough to be considered full-fledged earthquakes themselves. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to the people of Italy. Our thoughts are with you. Here is an adorable picture of an Italian bat, the Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat. Now, for happier news. It is International Bat Weekend! All the bats at Save Lucy are very excited. They just know that they will get extra mealworms for the special occasion! Arlington, VA is celebrating Bat Weekend with Bat Fest Arlington. Mrs. Sturges, Save Lucy’s president, will be there, but unfortunately, I can’t go. I will be at Bat Fest Annandale in a couple of weeks though. I am looking forward to seeing all the bats and bat lovers there! In other news, there was a very important article shared this week on Save Lucy’s Facebook page. I feel it is my civic duty to mention it here, just in case some of you didn’t see it. I can’t believe I have to mention it, but…don’t lick bats! Apparently, some people do this for fun. It is not a good idea. I believe this rule should be extended to […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Since this was the last week of the Olympics, I thought it would be nice to do another Olympic bat post. These Olympic Games were special because we had a team made up of refugee athletes. These athletes come from countries where it is no longer safe for them to live because of wars. Today, we are going to learn about bats from their homelands. Two of the athletes are from Syria. One of the bats of Syria is the Hemprich’s long-eared bat. I think this bat’s long ears are especially cute. The bat has thick, soft fur that is sandy-yellow to dark brown with a white belly. Its nostrils are crescent shaped. This handsome little bat is carnivorous and likes to eat beetles, termites, cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets and locusts. If you would like to learn more about the Hemprich’s long-eared bat, you can read about it here. Five of the athletes are from the country of South Sudan. This is the youngest country in the world and I think it’s really sad that it’s already having a civil war. When the country was only 2 months old, I met a few people from South Sudan. They were a delegation that came to see our Special Olympics and it was a lot of fun to talk with them about their new country. Now I wonder how they are doing. Not only is South Sudan the world’s youngest country, it […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you had a great week. I have been enjoying watching the Olympics. The US is doing very well and we are all very proud of our athletes. The athletes from Maryland (not too far from my home in Virginia) are doing especially well. As promised, we’ll celebrate the Olympics by learning about bats from countries around the world. I thought it would be nice to research bats from two countries that won their very first Olympic medals ever in Rio: Fiji and Kosovo. Fiji only has one bat that is endemic to the country. It is called the Fijian Monkey-faced bat. Not only is this the only bat in Fiji, it is the only mammal endemic to the country, too! The Fijian monkey-faced bat is a large megabat and has orange eyes. It has thick fur and weighs up to 350 grams. Not many of these bats have been found. They only live within a 100 square kilometer region of the rainforest on the mountain of Taveuni. Because of this, it is listed as critically endangered. Scientists believe there are fewer than 1,000 Fijian Monkey-faced bats. If you want to read more about this bat, you can find some information here and here. There are a few bats that are native to Kosovo. One of them is the Natterer’s bat. The Natterer’s bat lives throughout Europe and is not considered to be endangered. It is a medium sized bat with gray-brown fur on its back and […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very excited that the Olympic Games have begun in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Our little friend, Freda, is very happy about it too. Since she is a Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat, she is looking forward to learning more about Brazil. I thought it would be nice to research Brazilian bats and I found a very interesting one. The Greater Bulldog Bat is an amazing bat that lives in Brazil as well as the rest of South and Central America. These bats are absolutely adorable! Greater Bulldog Bats are one of the few bats that eat fish. They use echolocation to detect ripples in the water. They stick their feet in the water and catch the fish with their talons. They are able to catch over 30 fish in a single fishing trip! Because they eat fish, these bats live near rivers and streams in the rainforests. If you’d like to read more about these bats, you can read it here. Here’s some great film of a greater bulldog bat fishing. Please forgive NatGeo Wild for the alarming title! Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll learn more about interesting bats from around the world. I hope everyone enjoys watching the Olympic Games. My hope is that these games will encourage all the people of the world to learn a little more about other countries and cultures. Let’s hope these games are able to encourage peace and understanding around […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everybody! I hope you all had a good week! I saw a picture of some new bats on the Save Lucy Facebook page and thought I would write about them because they are a new species for me. When I first saw the picture, I thought they looked kind of like big brown bats, but they are evening bats! Their names are Wiggles and Shroom! Little Wiggles is missing some hair because he was sick and got some organic matter stuck in his fur. I hope he feels better soon. Little Shroom got her name from a very interesting characteristic of evening bats. They smell like mushrooms!!! Now, you might not know this about me, but mushrooms are not my favorite food. That said, I think I’d like to meet a little bat that smelled like one. Little Shroom is very cute, after all. Evening bats are not well known and look a lot like big brown bats. They are smaller though and have shorter hair. Big brown bats have long wavy hair and little evening bats look like they have buzz cuts. Evening bats are very social and live in large colonies. They are found in the southern United States from central Virginia to the south. Some of them have been found in Pennsylvania though. They live in the forest and in open areas like river corridors and wetlands. They migrate south for the winter. The best news of all is that they are not found in […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a soon-to-be high 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am having a lot of fun on Summer Vacation! I love getting to sleep in! I found a really cool article about bats in Georgia. A scientist from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources has been doing surveys of bat populations at the Ocmulgee National Monument for two years. Although WNS has been in Georgia since 2013, it is not in the middle part of the state. Scientists are hoping that bats from the north and south will be able to find safety from WNS in the middle. One thing that I thought was really interesting how the scientists figure out how old the bats are. They shine a light through the wings of the bat and see the opacity of the joints. Another thing that I liked about the article was how the scientist describes bats. She says they look “like the mixture of little tiny bear cubs and puppies with wings.” I never thought of little bats that way, but I think she’s right. You can read the article here. In other exciting news, there is a bat art contest going on! I’m sure some of you already saw the post on Save Lucy’s Facebook page, but just in case you missed it, here is the link to the article explaining the contest. The winner gets an art supplies! They give instructions on how to draw an adorable bat. I think I might have to try […]