Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. This is where the bats hang out in winter Hi Everyone! I am very sad. The bats that spend their winter vacation at my house have left. One night this week, I went to see if they were in their roost, or if they had already left for their nightly feast. I looked at the roost and they weren’t there so I thought that they had gone to eat. I was in for a rude awakening. When I went to say “hi” in the morning, they weren’t there. The bats have left me! ^.-.^ /|\/|\ ^^ (But, the bats left to establish their summer maternity roost, which is a good thing. They will have their pups and be batty all summer. We’re glad to know Rachael will welcome them back in winter and keep them safe from harm. –Ed.)
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hello Everyone! Since it was very nice weather last weekend, a lot of the rehabilitated bats were released back into the wild. A hoary bat, two silver haired bats and six big brown bats were released. I hope they are happy and have been able to find some new friends out there. We had a lot of rain on Wednesday, so hopefully they were all ok. I am very happy to report that little “Paint Can” was one of the bats released. Remember him? He is happily flying free. ^.-.^ /|\ /|\ ^^ Here are some cute pictures of some bats that were released. Paint Can, a bat that had been put into a can with wet paint still in it, on left and his new friend just before release. Photo by S. Craig
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! In celebration of Earth Day, I thought it would be nice to let a little creature write this week’s blog. Lucky for us, Tinybat has been begging for another opportunity. Who knew he was a poet? We hope you like his blog. Hi! It’s me, Tinybat. This will be my second blog post! Today I will write a poem for the blog. Please comment if you like it. I’ll be sure to reply. Mealworms A crunchy little mealworm That’s what I will eat A crunchy little mealworm Sweet, sweet, sweet http://youtu.be/_-nK0WuBkJo
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! Here is a nice and festive Batty Easter song. I hope you like it. Here comes Peter Battytail Flappin’ down the batty trail Flippity flappin’, Easter’s on its way Bringing’ every bat-girl and boy Baskets full of Easter joy Things to make your Easter bright and gay He’s got mothy beans for Tommy Colored wax worms for sister Sue There’s an orchid for your mommy And an Easter bonnet too Oh! here comes Peter Battytail Flappin’ down the batty trail Flippity flappity, happy Easter Day Here comes Peter Battytail Flappin’ down the batty trail Flippity flappin’, Easter’s on its way Try to do the things you should Maybe if you’re extra good He’ll bring lots of Easter bugs your way You’ll wake up on Easter mornin’ And you’ll know that he was there When you find those chocolate beetles That he’s hiding everywhere Oh! here comes Peter Battytail Flappin’ down the batty trail Flippity flappity, happy Easter Day Flippity flappity, happy Easter Day My apologies to Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins who wrote the original song. I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!!!
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! My bat friends have been enjoying the nice Spring weather this week. They have been moving around a lot. Right now, most of them are tucked up high, but one of them is hanging with her head out of the roost. She’s cute. (I’ve decided it must be a girl.) We have a picture of a new bat on the Facebook page! It is a male big bat. He is a “young, underweight, dehydrated bat.” Here is a picture of him trying to be fierce and scare off the scary human taking care of him. I hope he feels better soon.
In today’s post, both of our contributors are at play in the world of the imagination! Please enjoy Rachael and E’s interpretations of what bats might do and say if they operated in the human realm! Hi! I hope everyone enjoyed Tinybat’s blog last week. I think he did a wonderful job, but I can’t figure out how he did it. He is so small, he must have flown from key to key. I wrote a poem about a bat suffering through this wacky weather we’ve been having. Waiting for Spring Every time I looked outside, it seemed the snow kept falling. I was so sad, my eyes they just kept bawling. It was too cold to go out and play. In the cave, I had to stay. I asked my mom, “How long until Spring?” She said to wait until I hear the birds sing. I’ve been so bored with nothing to do. The only bird I’ve heard is a winter owl’s “Hoo!” My mom said, “Be patient, little one.” I will, when the snow is done. Finally, I hear the bird song. Now, it won’t be long. My squeaky bat song has begun. Now I sing, “Spring has sprung!”
Hello, blog followers! This is Leslie, the President of The Save Lucy Campaign. I don’t normally write blog posts, but I wanted to celebrate spring, since we made it through a Tuesday without snow and the peepers were singing in the sunshine yesterday. I’ll take that as a sign that spring really is here. In preparation for spring, we moved many of our overwintered bats into the flight cage. They need to re-acclimate to chilly nights, finding safe roosts, finding food, and flying! It’s probably more exciting for us than for them. They’re giving up snug flannel roost pouches, mealworms delivered in a dish, steady temperatures, and safety. This is also when health issues or old injuries may become apparent; these are things we wouldn’t have seen while the bats were torpid and in smaller indoor crates. Some may not regain flight ability or may start to fail as it becomes apparent they aren’t up to foraging on their own. We’ll evaluate the bats that can’t be released for addition to the education collection, but not all nonreleasable animals are happy in permanent captivity. For them, we have no choice but to end their suffering. It’s a very hard decision, but in the end it’s the kindest choice. But soon, most will be regaining their freedom, and we will watch them rocket into the dusky sky and return to the night, where they belong.
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Though apparently, this week’s entry was written by a bat! Hi Everyone! This is Tinybat! Since I had so much fun in Washington, Rachael said that I could write the blog this Baturday. I hope I do a good job. It’s hard to type with wings. I went to the Film Festival. My friends, a hoary bat and a northern long-eared bat, and I were the star attractions. I got to meet a lot of people. I even got to meet the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. He was a very nice man who, I’m sure, thought I was adorable. My humans held me nice and snug in a glove and showed me off to all the people who were there. I behaved myself very well and got to eat lots and lots of mealworms. I even got a wax worm! I think they would go well in stew, if you want to try something new. While I was meeting all the people, I showed off a little bit. I even talked to everyone there, so that they could hear my lovely squeaky voice. Everyone was very impressed. Rachael was there too. She told me how cute I was being. I loved all the attention. After I got to meet all the people, they all watched some movies. I think they must have been about me. What else would they have been about? After the movies, some people came back to see me again. It was a lot of fun, […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. Hi Everyone! I hope everyone had a happy National Wildlife Week. It’s not too late to do something special for your wildlife, if you haven’t done anything to celebrate yet. I found a very interesting National Geographic article that I thought you all might want to read. Here is the link http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/bat-echo/mcgrath-text. I hope everyone likes it. It’s about how flowers have evolved to attract fruit bats. Make sure you click on the pictures because they are all awesome! Tinybat is looking forward to his trip to Washington, DC on Thursday. I’m looking forward to being part of his entourage. Maybe Tinybat will get to meet someone important. Hint: Mr. Obama, you are more than welcome to attend. Tinybat would love to shake your hand and get your autograph. I wouldn’t mind it either. (You’re invited to join us in Washington too! Read more here—Ed.)
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Rachael’s interest in bats was sparked by the big browns bats that use the outside of her home for a winter roost. Her family has cheerfully hosted this wild colony for years. One of our cute favorites, the vanishing little brown bat Hello! I found the best thing ever! It’s the best thing since sliced bread. It might even be better than sliced bread. It is a website on the 25 cutest bats. It was originally on the Save Lucy Facebook page. Since you all might not look at the Facebook page, I thought I’d put it here too. (This is the website http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/25-of-the-cutest-bat-species) I like all of them, but my favorites are the fruit bats and one of our celebrities, the big brown bat. YAAAAAAY!!!!! My little friends made it. I think some of the fruit bats look almost like lemurs. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures.