Category Baturday News

A Bittersweet Goodbye

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.)

Into the Wild!!

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  

Tinybat’s a Poet!

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

Spring for Bats

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.

Tinybat’s First Blog

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, […]

Spring for Wildlife!

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.)

Bats ‘R Cute!

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.

It’s Cookie Time!

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 week’s post also features one of E Wright’s illustrations. Hello Everyone! It’s Girl Scout cookie time. I wonder what little Bat Scouts would sell.  Bat Scout cookies anyone? The annual Bat Scout Cookie Program gives bats the opportunity to earn money for their program activities and help their council offer special events. This year’s cookie choices are: Mango Munchies – Perfect for fruit bats.  These bite-sized mango cookies are dusted with powdered banana and bursting with yummy mango flavor. Bat Wings – Shaped like a bat’s wing, these delicate-tasting, insect flavored cookies are delightfully simple and satisfying. Crunch-A-Dos – Crisp and crunchy beetle shell cookies with creamy worm filling. Caledonias – Crisp fruity cookie coated in nectar, sprinkled with toasted pollen, and striped with a dark blossomy coating. Hangalongs – Crispy cookies layered with mealworm butter and covered with a mothy coating. Thin Moths – Crispy cookies covered with a mothy coating.   (My apologies to the Girl Scouts and Little Brownie Bakers. ) (And with gratitude for the Girl Scouts of America’s efforts to promote science and technology education for our nation’s girls!—Ed.)

Winter Bats

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.  There have been a lot of very small bats coming into rehabilitation.  The people here at Save Lucy have been taking very good care of them, but some of them have been badly injured.  Our most recent little guy came in on Valentine’s Day.  Since he was such a handsome fellow and he arrived on Valentine’s Day, he was named Rudy Valentino. Little Rudy is a male silver hair bat.  They usually weigh 9 grams and females usually weigh 12-14 grams.  Little Rudy only weighed 7 grams.  He has been eating well, but had an injured wing.  Hopefully he will heal and will be well enough to be released later.  If not, he is such a wonderful little guy that he’ll make a very good education bat for the Save Lucy Campaign.   Another bat that came in was a very small hoary bat.  He only weighed 16 grams.  He should have been 28-35 grams.  He also has a very small forearm.  It’s only about ¾ of the length of a normal hoary bat in the winter.   Over the summer, a little red bat came in.  They named her Dawn.  She was only as big as a 1 month old, but by that time, she should have been 6-8 weeks old and able to fly. The people at Save Lucy think that some bats might have taken advantage of the long, mild summer and had their pups late in the season.  Bat pups that are born late in the […]

With Love, from Russia

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 that you all are enjoying the Olympics.  Since they are in Russia, I thought you all might like to see some pictures of some Russian bats.  I hope you like them. (click the captions to see the original pages. –Ed.)   Lesser Mouse Eared Bat