Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! Since the Pope is visiting and his name is Pope Francis after St. Francis, who loved animals, I thought he’d just love it if this blog would be about an Italian bat. They have a lot of different bats in Italy, but I found the cutest one out there! It is called the European free-tailed bat. Since it’s a free-tailed bat, Freda likes it too. She thinks it’s one of her long lost European cousins. The European free-tailed bat is really strong, with fur on its upper body. The fur is soft and plush-like, it’s long on its neck. The hair is also goes onto its wings and the base of the flight membrane. The ears are very complex. They are large and rounded. The inner sides of the ears are pointing downwards and are very close to each other but don’t touch. I love its ears. Its wings are long and narrow, and can be grayish-brown or black. The face is long and its muzzle is wrinkled. The top lip has short hairs. I think it looks like he has a little mustache and beard. His feet are strong and his long tail goes beyond the flight membrane. You can read about it here. I think it might be my new favorite bat! I love its little nose. It’s so cute!!!!!! Since the pope is originally from Argentina, next week…an Argentinian bat. I hope the pope enjoys his trip and that you all have a nice week!
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a nice week. It’s been a long one for me. Five whole days of school can be exhausting after a couple of months off! Who is ready for the next vacation??? I was trying to find something interesting to write about this week and found a post on the Save Lucy Facebook page. I’m sure some of you have already seen it, but just in case, I thought it would be nice to mention it here… As you know, the rehabilitators at Save Lucy work very hard to help the bats recuperate from whatever illness or injury brought them here. After they have recuperated, it’s time for the bats to fly wild and free. Sometimes the bats have another idea. [The above video is of one of the ‘shed bats’ taking off for the night.–Ed.] Save Lucy released almost 30 bats a few weeks ago. Once they are released, most bats fly away happily and go on with their little batty lives. Occasionally, some of them don’t want to leave. That is exactly what happened with 2 of the bats that were recently released. These 2 bats leave every night, but every morning, they are back in the shed at Save Lucy. The rehabilitators aren’t sure exactly why the bats keep coming back. Sadly, the little bats don’t speak English, so they can’t tell their human friends what they’re thinking. They might be waiting for a friend who still hasn’t been released. They might […]
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a nice week. Since Friday was September 11th, I thought it would be nice to write about a bat that lives in New York. A lot of the bats they have there are the same kinds of bats we have here in Fairfax, VA. A couple of them are different. One of them is the Small-footed bat. I don’t think any of them live around here. It’s really cute! It’s New York’s smallest bat and weighs less than a nickel. The Small-footed bat has a very black face mask, just like a raccoon. It also has black wings. It has long, glossy fur and tiny little feet. During the summer, it roosts and raises its young in rocks, cliff faces and road cuts. It also likes to roost in concrete bridges. During the winter, it roosts in caves. I found this website that lists a few more NY bats in addition to the Small-footed bat. Check it out here. In other news, Bat Fest Annandale is this weekend and it’s sold out! It’s going to be a great time. Don’t worry if you aren’t able to make it. There will be more! I hope you all have a good week!
Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a middle school 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 the wild colony for years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a nice week. I read an interesting article today. I am sure some of you saw it because Save Lucy posted it on its Facebook page. We also discussed the topic at bat fest Arlington. The article is about wind turbines and bats and I have some great news! The wind turbine industry is going to turn off the turbines when there is low wind when the bats are migrating! Isn’t that awesome?! By turning the turbines off when there is low wind, tens of thousands of bats could be saved! When bats fly too close to the spinning turbine blades, they are killed. This is particularly bad to the migratory bats. They fly great distances during the spring and fall and are the bats most often found dead around the turbines. People have been trying to solve the problem for over a decade, but it’s an expensive problem to fix. It became a more important problem when the Northern long-eared bat was listed as “threatened” by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Even though the Northern long-eared bat isn’t migratory, they have been found dead around the turbines. Something had to be done! The industry has agreed to new guidelines that will have the turbines turned off during the fall migration period from mid-July through mid-October when there is low wind. Most of the bat deaths occur during that period of time. If you would like to read the article, you can read […]