Tag Bat Week

A Plea

One of the recurring themes of #BatWeek is to be a #BatHero. I want to take a minute to talk to you all about that. 2020 has been an awful year in so many respects, but for us, while we,…

Bat Week! Bat Week! Bat Week!!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I had an amazing week because Bat Week began on Wednesday. Bat Week is an entire week dedicated to our furry little friends. In honor of Bat Week, I read some stories starring bats. People all over the world have stories, myths, and fables featuring bats as main characters. I read one fable by Aesop about a very smart little bat. All of Aesop’s fables have a moral or lesson to be learned. Obviously, Aesop knew bats were very intelligent creatures because he is the smart one in this story. I was going to paraphrase the story, but since I can’t tell a story as well as Mr. Aesop could, here is the story as he wrote it…  Aesop’s Fable – The Cage Bird and the Bat “A singing bird was confined in a cage which hung outside a window, and had a way of singing at night when all other birds were asleep. One night a Bat came and clung to the bars of the cage, and asked the Bird why she was silent by day and sang only at night. ‘I have a very good reason for doing so,’ said the Bird. ‘It was once when I was singing in the daytime that a fowler was attracted by my voice, and set his nets for me and caught me. Since then I have never sung except by night.’ But the Bat replied, ‘It is no use your doing that now when you are a prisoner:  If only you had done so before you were caught, you might still have been free.’” The moral of the story is that “Precautions are useless after the crisis.” Isn’t he a smart little bat? And now for a very special reminder. Today […]

Sharky and adorable in one blogpost!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Since Shark Week is starting Sunday, instead of the wonderful Bat Week, I thought that I should have this week’s blog also be slightly sharky. Even though they aren’t bats, sharks are very important to us and do need help. Since Shark Week does raise awareness about how important they are, I decided that this year, I won’t be quite so hard on them. After all, they can’t help it that they aren’t lovely little bats. I did a little bit of research and discovered that there is a beach in South Africa called Gansbaai. This beautiful beach has been nicknamed Shark Ally because there are so many sharks in the water there. In honor of the sharks that swim around that beach, I decided to write this blog about a bat from South Africa. I found an adorable fruit bat called the Straw-colored Fruit bat. The Straw-colored Fruit bat, like its name suggests, has straw colored fur. They also have olive or brown fur mixed in with the straw colored fur. They have big eyes, big ears, and pointy heads that help them reach fruit. These bats, along with other fruit bats, have cheek pouches. They use the cheek pouches to stash fruit in. They like to do this, then fly away with their yummy fruit. They do this so that other bats can’t get to their tasty meal. Straw-colored fruit bats eat a lot of fruit, their favorites seem to be mangoes, dates, figs, baobab flowers (which bats are drawn to because they are very stinky), passion fruit, and avocados. Apparently, these bats are very vocal eaters, and like to scream about their food finds to their friends. They smack their lips while they eat, which I find […]

A Bat Bonanza

HAPPY BAT WEEK EVERYONE!!!!! Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a great one because it has been Bat Week. I have bats decorations on my house and I’ve been looking for bats outside. I haven’t seen too many lately, but I know they’re there. I hope you have all enjoyed doing batty things all week long. I am especially excited that the “Bat Bonanza” Festival at the Botanic Gardens in DC is tomorrow. I can’t wait to go again this year. It will be at the Conservatory from 10 AM – 5 PM. I hope to see some of you there. I will be the one in some sort of batty clothing…ok, a lot of people will be wearing batty things, but I’ll be one of them. I hope everyone had an opportunity to watch the newest episode in the “Bats Aren’t Scary” series. This wonderful video starred an absolutely beautiful bat named Estelle. Supporting roles were played by her children and a few humans and insects. Estelle performed masterfully in her role as Protector of Plants. In this video, we learned about how bats like Estelle save our food supply from being eaten by pesky bugs. I’m sure everyone agrees that little Estelle should be the recipient of an award or two for this amazing performance. If you would like to view the video again, you can find it here. Or watch it now! Not only are wonderfully batty things happening around here, but there has been some good news out of New Hampshire in the world of bats too. (Thank you Aunt Kim for sending me the article.) There is a mine in North County, New Hampshire that is home to little brown bats and northern long-eared bats. Since both of these […]

Bat Week! Bat Week! Bat Week!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to all the people affected by last weekend’s events in Somalia. My thoughts are with you. And now for the most wonderful news of all…BAT WEEK is almost upon us!!!  International Bat Week will be from October 24th – October 31st. There are exciting events scheduled all over the world for this wonderful event, but I am most excited about one scheduled in Washington, DC. Once again, there will be a “Bat Bonanza” Festival at the Botanic Gardens. It is being held at the Conservatory from 10 AM – 5 PM, and it is free! If you are in the area, please come out and learn all about bats. The Save Lucy Campaign will be there, which means Mrs. Sturges and our furry friends will be there. I am also going and I hope to see some of you there. For more information, visit here! In addition to the event at the Botanic Gardens, I am excited to tell you all about what the Bat Week team is doing. They are having a recipe contest! Just submit your favorite original recipe that uses bat dependent ingredients and you could win your very own bat detector! They are also having a photo challenge and would love to see pictures of you wearing some adorable bat ears. For more information, go to www.batweek.org. And in breaking news, The Save Lucy Campaign will premier a new animated short to kick off Bat Week. The film stars the adorable and hard-working Estelle! The new animation is made possible by a grant from the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Watch the Save Lucy Facebook page on October 24 for the premier.  And, our friends at Sticks & Stones Bat Rescue […]