Month April 2015

Earth Day, Earth Week, Earth all-the-time!

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  Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Earth day! The bats here at Save Lucy sure did! They ate a lot of mealworms to celebrate. I had left-over birthday cake…not mine :’(, but still yummy! I hope you all did something equally festive to celebrate the Earth and all its creatures, especially bats. Also, I learned a very cool thing. I was reading National Geographic and I found an article on Mexican free-tailed bats. Bats use echolocation to find food but Mexican free tailed bats can also send out a jamming signal. They use it to interfere with other bats signals. If a bat is following a bug, other bats can also hear the echo. If another Mexican free-tailed bat hears the signal it sends a jamming signal to interfere with the first bat’s signal giving bat #2 a chance at getting the bug. But bat #1 can also send a jamming signal to bat #2. So, it goes back and forth until someone gets the bug.  I wish Freda had a free-tailed bat like herself to talk to. It would be fun to watch them jam each other’s signals. Plus, I think she’d like to have a friend to talk to. The humans taking care of her do their best, but their bat squeaks have a very strong human accent. I hope everyone has a great week! [For more information about the amazing sonar jamming skills of freetail bats read all about it here!]

Appreciation, and an ode

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! Yesterday was Bat Appreciation Day! I hope everyone enjoyed their celebration. I know the bats here at Save Lucy did. They don’t really need much of an excuse to ask for extra mealworms. They think they’re so yummy. But it was nice for them to have a good reason to have a celebration dinner. Now for the sad news. It’s very sad news. Fierce, one of Save Lucy’s little tricolored bats, passed away. He was a good little bat and I’m sad. Gladys misses him very much. They made such a lovely little couple. Since all of Save Lucy’s bats love to write poetry, Gladys decided to write a poem to express her grief. Ode to Fierce             By Gladys I miss you my love. You treated me like a dove. Now I’m alone; I just want to moan. With whom will I share my mealworm? With whom will I watch them squirm? Fierce, my friend you are gone. You were as handsome as a swan.

Make a Pledge!!

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.

Celebration season!

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.]

Here comes batty fuzzytail, flapping down the batty trail. Filppity, flapitty…

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.