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Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. “TRICK OR TREAT! Hi Ms. Wing!” Brownie and Stella said. “How are you?” Ms. Wing said. “Let’s see, one canary and one person. Here, why don’t each of you pick what you want for your treat.” “I WANT THE MOTH!!!” each of them shouted. “There are enough moths for each of you. Here, take two,” said Ms. Wing. “Thank you! Let’s go to the next cave,” Stella said. “TRICK OR TREAT!” they both said. “Oh, boy! You have BEETLES! I LOVE BEETLES!” Then they looked at the bat who had answered the door. He was dressed up as a cowboy! “Howdy, partners. Let’s see what we have here. A mighty fine looking canary. And, what are you supposed to be? I’ve seen your kind around these parts. Are you one of them scary people? Why don’t you take some of these here beetles? Be careful, they’re still alive,” said the cowboy. “Thank you!” both little bats said. They went from cave to cave collecting yummy insects until Brownie stopped in mid-flight. Stella said, “What’s wrong, Brownie?” “That’s the human I was telling you about! He’s my costume. I dressed up like him.” “Oh, hey look at him! He’s you! He’s dressed like a BAT!” Stella said. “Those are really weird looking bugs in his bag! I wonder what they are.” Brownie was getting tired. “Why don’t we go rest over there on that tree,” he said. “Stella…I want to eat a beetle.” “Me too,” she said. “How are you two doing?” their moms said. “Hi mom!” they both said. “Can we eat a beetle now?” “Yes, it will be your dinner,” both moms said at the same time. After they rested for a while, […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. This week, we welcome another student, special guest illustrator E. Wright, who donated an illustration to today’s blog. Hello, it’s only five more days until Halloween! Yay! Today I will share a story that I wrote about Brownie the bat on Halloween. Brownie’s Halloween It was one week before Halloween, and Brownie the bat still hadn’t picked a Halloween costume. “What am I going to do?!” Brownie said. “Well, you could be anything you want.” Brownie’s mom said. “I know.” Brownie sighed. “Bye mom. I am going to be late for school,” he said just before he free-fell out the hole in the cave he lived in. “AND NO SILLY TRICKS LIKE THAT!” Brownie’s mom called after him, but Brownie was too far away to hear. “What are you going to be for Halloween?” a familiar voice said. “Hi Stella!” Brownie said. “I’m not sure. What are you going to be?” “I am going to be a canary.” Stella said. Down below, the school bell rang, and Stella and Brownie did a very fast dive. After seven long hours, school finally ended. Stella and Brownie flew home together. “Do you want to come over to my house and have a sleepover?” Stella asked. “Sure.” Brownie said. “Hello Stella!” Brownie’s mom said. “Hi Mrs. Baker. Can Brownie and I have a sleepover at my house today?” Stella said. “Why of course Brownie can have a sleepover with you,” Brownie’s mom said. “She is such a nice girl,” Brownie’s mom said once Stella left to go to her cave.   “I know. I am going up to my room to do my homework. Ok, Mom!” Brownie yelled as he was running up the stairs. After […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Welcome to a special edition of Baturday News, which we are posting on Tuesday, or rather, Boosday, because of some computer glitches. We hope you enjoy Rachael’s batty poetry. Hi everybody! Since it is almost Halloween, I thought that the next few weeks should be Halloween related blog entrees. This week, I will share two poems that I wrote. I hope you like them! Brown Bat on a Halloween Night I am a bat all snug and warm Folded wings is my form Until night I sleep For that’s when I eat Now the sun is going down All the children frown They have to sleep But a bat does not weep Now is when I wake But for my mother’s sake I’ll sleep in late But I do not want to wait For my food is flying around And it needs to be found Finally mom wakes I’ll make no mistakes While catching my food I’ll make sure it’s all chewed Then I see a ghost It is holding a pot-roast It looks blue So I fly down to it and yell BOO!!! A Bats’ Halloween From far above, it is such a sight. What I see below gives me a fright. Goblins and ghouls are running about. “Trick or Treat” I hear them shout. Why are those creatures running around? If I stay up here, will I be found? Oh, no! I’ve been seen by a ghost! It’s over there by a lamp post. He holds up his hand high in the air. Should I go? Do I dare? In his hand, he holds something sweet. Should I grab it with my feet? Here I go. His candy I take. Then […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Do bats even have a tail? Most bats do but a few bats don’t. The hind legs of many bats are connected by a membrane called the uropatagium. The uropatagium is supported by the legs, the tail bones and something called a calcar. The calcar is part of the ankle. This big brown bat’s tail is partially extended. Here is a bat tale that I like. It is Nigerian folktale that I found on WorldofTales.com. Why the bat flies at night Once upon a time, a bush rat called Oyot was a great friend of Emiong, the bat; they always fed together, but the bat was jealous of the bush rat. When the bat cooked the food it was always very good, and the bush rat said, “How is it that when you make the soup it is so tasty?” The bat replied, “I always boil myself in the water, and my flesh is so sweet, that the soup is good.” He then told the bush rat that he would show him how it was done; so he got a pot of warm water, which he told the bush rat was boiling water, and jumped into it, and very shortly afterwards came out again. When the soup was brought it was as strong and good as usual, as the bat had prepared it beforehand. The bush rat then went home and told his wife that he was going to make good soup like the bat’s. He therefore told her to boil some water, which she did. Then, when his wife was not looking, he jumped into the pot, and was very soon dead. When his wife looked into the pot and saw the […]

Bats are in the scientific order Chiroptera which means “hand-wing.” If you look at a bat’s wing, it is supported by the bones of the hand. Bat wings are made of skin that is stretched over the bat’s arm and fingers. The wings go all the way from the arms to the ankles. Bats have five fingers, just like us. They even have a thumb. Bat thumbs have a claw that is used for climbing and holding food. Bat fingers are very long compared to the length of its body. They support the wing. The membrane of the wing is made up of two layers of skin and muscles. When bats fly, they don’t just flap their wings up and down. They move their wings in a way that looks like a swimmer moving his arms while swimming the butterfly stroke. Bats also use their wings to wrap around their food (insects or fruit) to catch or hold it while eating. If you look at the video of the bat at my house, you can see its wings really well. Isn’t it cute?!!! Next time I will talk about bat tails and tales…

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a 6th grade student and Save Lucy volunteer. Why is turning off the lights so important to bats? All bats are nocturnal. They sleep in dark spaces during the day and come out at night to feed. Nocturnal animals need a dark night in order to survive. Bats have evolved to have night vision. This helps them find food at night and might help them see predators better. A lot of studies have been done, and scientists think that bats don’t see well in the light. One study showed that bats seem to get confused when there is a lot of light and start bumping into things. This probably means that bats don’t only rely on echolocation to figure out where they are going. They probably also rely on their eyesight, which is specialized for the night. Most bats wait until it is dark outside to come out of their roosts to hunt. Some studies have shown that some bats will avoid well lit areas when they come out of their roosts. These bats might wait until it is darker later at night to come out and return to their roosts sooner when manmade lights are turned on in the morning. This means that they might have less time to eat. This might cause a problem for bat babies because their mothers may not get enough food to eat. If a baby bat is undernourished it might not develop properly or it might not survive the winter because it won’t have enough fat reserves during hibernation. It’s obvious that bats need darkness to survive. If people would turn off lights that aren’t needed, it would help bats a lot. People should turn off their porch lights when they go to bed […]

Hello. My name is Rachael. I am happy to be the newest volunteer here at The Save Lucy Campaign. I am a 6th grade student, but because I am not old enough to work with the bats, I will be writing Lucy’s blog. Since Lucy is a bat, she can’t do it on her own! I hope she’s happy with the job I do for her. I will try to write something every week for the “Baturday News”. I’ll be writing about the bats that visit my house every year and interesting bat facts. I hope that everyone who reads my blog learns about bats and how wonderful they are and how they need our help to survive.             Since the bats aren’t here yet, I’ll keep you informed of interesting bat facts that I learn while talking to the people here at The Save Lucy Campaign. My first interesting fact is about how many different kinds of bats there are. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are 5,488 different mammal species. There are about 1,200 species of bats. This means that just over 1/5 of all the mammal species in the world are bats! Some of them are very tiny and are only about an inch long and some of them are HUGE and have wingspans of more than 4 feet long. Most bats are pretty small. Most of the bats in the world eat insects, some eat fruit and some eat other things like fish. Yes, I know that vampire bats are huge, scary, drink blood and swoop down out of nowhere in the MOVIES! But, there are only 3 kinds of vampire bats and they rarely drink human blood and they are about the same size as […]