April 17 is National Bat Appreciation Day! To show your appreciation, why not make a pledge to help bats? Click on a pledge below, print it, color it, and write your pledge. You can scan it, or better yet, take a picture of yourself and your pledge and send it to savelucy (at) saveLucytheBat.org! We’ll post your pledge here and on our Facebook page.
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.]
Please join us as we partner with Front Royal Grotto to kick off Virginia Cave week on Sunday, April 19.
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! I have news, but I can’t decide if it’s good news or bad news. The federal government has decided to list the Northern Long-Eared Bat as a threatened species. I think it might be good news because the little bats will get some protections from the government and hopefully some extra help. I think it’s bad news because the poor little bats need the help. So I’m torn…good news or bad news? I would like to wish a very Happy Passover to those who celebrate! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! And Happy Easter to my readers who celebrate the holiday! I hope the Easter Bunny brings you lots and lots of yummy things! Maybe the little bats here at Save Lucy will get some tasty chocolate covered mealworms! I’m sure they’d all love that.
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! I am very happy to report that Mrs. Sturges was featured as the Woman in Bat Conservation this week by Bat Conservation International. I was very fun to read about her because she is obviously my favorite “bat lady”. I am sure a lot of you already read about her, but just in case you didn’t, here is the link. http://www.batcon.org/resources/media-education/news-room/the-echo/896-women-in-bat-conservation-leslie-sturges I think one of the important things that she says is that there are many ways to raise awareness of bats. She suggests talking to your neighbors about how awesome bats are and how we shouldn’t be scared of them. I think it’s amazing how many people are scared of these awesome little critters. You all obviously love them, so please help spread the word that bats aren’t gross or scary. We need them and they need us. Congratulations Mrs. Sturges!!! You are awesome!!!
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! I hope you all had a nice week. It was nice and warm here and I thought the bats would all be happy, but then it snowed. It didn’t snow a lot, but it was enough to make me cold. The bats were very cold too. I think they decided to stay nice and snug in their little roosts. Hopefully it’ll be nice and warm soon and they’ll be able to fly around and eat some juicy bugs. The bats at Save Lucy are waiting for warmth too. I thought you all might want to know about an awesome thing that Bat Conservation International is doing. Some of you probably already know this, but just in case some of you don’t, they are featuring a different woman who works with bats every day this month. Some of the stories have been really interesting. I’m waiting for Mrs. Sturges from Save Lucy to be featured! They promised, so it should be soon and then I’ll know someone famous! I’ll keep you posted, but you should all check out their website so you can read about all these interesting women.
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! This week has been very nice and warm. I think all the little bats are happy again. I haven’t seen any yet, but I think there will be some juicy moths and other bugs flying around real soon. Hopefully a lot of the little bats being taken care of by Save Lucy will be able to fly free soon. I think that would make a lot of little bats very happy. I think some people at Save Lucy will be happy too. Everyone has been working very hard keeping all the little bats fed and healthy. Here is a poem written by little 2015-20 who you met last week. Keep in mind that not all bats are extremely poetic, but I think he did a pretty good job for a first try. Flying Free A bat with nail polish. It just cannot be! Oh, when will I be able to fly free? A while ago I was so cold. I was hungry with no food to eat, truth be told. The two legged creatures took care of me. They fed me and cleaned me and kept me healthy. Now, the weather will soon be warm. Maybe I can move out of the bat dorm. When things get better, they’ll take the polish off. There will be no more eating mealworms out of a trough. I’m grateful for all they’ve done for me. But I’m looking forward to the day that I’ll be Flying Free!
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! It’s been another cold week around here. Personally, I love the snow days! I haven’t been to school for a whole week since the middle of December! For me, winter is awesome, but the little bats are having trouble surviving all this cold weather. Save Lucy has been getting a lot of bats lately. One little bat is named 2015-20 (most bats get a number instead of a name). He is a very young big brown bat. He weighed only 9.2 grams when he got to Save Lucy, and was thin and hungry. He’s such a tiny little guy that his ‘normal’ weight is only about 11 grams. A ‘regular’ sized big brown can be up to 18 grams (which is only about 7 pennies!). Little 2015-20 seems to be doing well and will hopefully be healthy enough to be released when we finally get some warm weather around here. One reason Save Lucy is getting so many little bats this winter is because there were a lot of late pups last summer. They had enough time to learn to hunt and put on a little fat, but still aren’t able to make it through this crazy winter without some help. We haven’t had any really warm days yet, so there aren’t any yummy moths out for the bats to eat. All the water is frozen too, so the little bats are hungry and thirsty and can’t go back to sleep. It’s supposed to get warmer in the next […]
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! It’s been another cold week at Save Lucy. They have gotten a lot of bats that are having trouble making it through the long winter. They’ve gotten about 30 bats in so far this year. That is in addition to all the bats they were already taking care of. That’s a lot of little bats! Hopefully most of the little bats will be feeling better soon and will be able to be released once the weather warms up. There is one little guy who probably won’t be able to be released. The person who found him named him Nicky and he’s adorable. The poor little guy has a broken arm. He probably won’t ever be able to fly again. I really hope he’ll feel better soon. He could make a cute little education bat. [We will carefully assess Nicky’s ability to have a good quality of life in captivity. If he does not adapt to his injury or if he will be in pain, we will have to say goodbye to him and send him to batty heaven. It’s a hard choice, but the well-being of the bat has to come before our feelings.–Ed.]
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! I hope you all had a nice week. The bats around here are freezing! Luckily, the little bats being taken care of by the nice people at Save Lucy are nice and toasty, but the poor little bats outside are having to suffer through some really cold weather. First, there was snow and then it was just ridiculously cold. They even canceled school because it was so cold! I hope the little bats that are roosting outside managed to stay toasty. I’m worried about them. On a different note, I know you are all anxiously waiting for news about Fierce and Gladys. Gladys absolutely loved Fierce’s thoughtful poetry and letter last week. Once they exchanged their Valentine’s gifts (Gladys got Fierce a worm), they had a lovely Valentine’s dinner. They ate mealworms, mealworms and more mealworms. For dessert, they had chocolate covered wax worms. I hope you all are able to stay warm. If you are looking for something to do while you are stuck inside, perhaps you could knit cute little hats, scarves, mittens or even earmuffs for your neighborhood bats. I’m sure they’d love them! [The prolonged abnormally cold weather is having a profound impact on our resident bats. Save Lucy is getting a several calls a day regarding bats inside houses or down on the ground in the cold. These are overwhelmingly young bats that do not have enough nutritional resources to survive this lengthy cold snap. If you find a bat indoors, please contain it […]