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 […]
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. Hello everyone! Have a happy Valentine’s Day today! As most of you know Fierce and Gladys are a lovely couple. This year Fierce has done something very special. He has written a poem! Here it is. Mealworms are brown, Some moths are too, Now I am hungry, Oh, and I love you! – From Fierce to Gladys! He also wrote a note… Dear Gladys, I love you even more than a waxworm and they are yummy. All this talk of food is making me hungry. I hope the humans feed us soon. From, Fierce Isn’t that just the most romantic thing you’ve ever read??? Something tells me Fierce has a lot to learn. I hope Gladys doesn’t mind.
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 good week. I found some news that I think is really cool. Apparently, bats are even more useful than I thought. Some students at Wake Forest University in North Carolina are using bats as a model for a device they are making. They think the device will be able to help blind people. The device sort of looks like a watch and uses echo location to determine where things are and how close stuff is. If a person gets close to an obstacle, the wristband vibrates. The closer the person gets, the faster the watch vibrates. It only costs $35 per watch. I really hope it works. I have a visually impaired friend who I think would love this. You can read the article 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! I read an interesting article about how little brown bat colonies are stabilizing in the Aeolus Cave in Vermont. You can read the whole article here. Scientists have found that little brown bats there are surviving even though they have been exposed to WNS for years. They don’t know how or why the bats are able to survive, but they are excited about it. Maybe they’ll be able to figure it out and then they’ll be able to help other bats! I also want to make sure that everyone sees the adorable sculpture of Tinybat that was commissioned by Save Lucy. Just in case you haven’t seen a picture of it yet, here it is. One of Save Lucy’s favorite artists, Julie S., made it out of needlefelt wool, felt and little beads for eyes. I think the artist did a really nice job of capturing little Tinybat’s personality. And I think she’s an amazing artist! I hope you like it. In other news, Save Lucy had a naming contest for the beautiful new education bat. She’s a red bat. The name Poppy won by a landslide. I’m glad Poppy won. She looks like a little Poppy.
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 some fantastic news! It’s not too late to order some Bat Scout cookies! Don’t you want to order a box or two for your furry friends? And for the latest news here at Save Lucy…there is a new little bat here! She is an adorable little Red Bat. Her wing tips are damaged so she’ll never be able to fly well. She won’t be able to be released, so she’s going to stay with the other bats at Save Lucy. Isn’t this picture of her adorable? She made it just in time to order some Bat Wings, Crunch-A-Dos, and some Caledonias. (I wonder how she is going to pay. Mealworm money anyone?) I guess that’s what red bats like to eat. I hope that she doesn’t get a sugar rush after she eats some of her cookies. I hope she has settled in and is ok. I can’t wait to meet her!