Leslie Sturges

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 had a nice week! My week started off with final exams, but then the most glorious thing of all happened! The LAST DAY OF SCHOOL was Thursday!!! I do not need to go back to school until September! Isn’t that just wonderful??? I’m sure you all are as happy as I am that it’s summer. I just realized that I started writing this blog when I was in the 6th grade and now I am officially in high school! We’ve been through so much together. And now, we need to get through another Shark Week. If we’re strong, I know we can do it. While everyone is celebrating sharks, we can secretly celebrate bats and know in our hearts that they are so much better than an oversized fish. On that note, let’s compare the two. Shall we? Sharks:  Oversized Fish Bats:  Cute, furry little mammals Sharks:  About a dozen of the approximately 500 shark species are considered potentially dangerous to ocean swimmers. Bats:  Zero of the over 1,200 bat species are considered potentially dangerous to ocean swimmers. Sharks:  In 2015, there were 98 unprovoked shark attacks in oceans around the world. Bats:  In 2015, there were 0 unprovoked bat attacks in oceans around the world. Sharks:  A shark will eat another shark. They are cannibals! Bats:  A bat would never eat another bat. They are not cannibals! Sharks:  The main part of their diet consists of cute fish and other animals that we enjoy looking […]

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. Today’s blog is dedicated to the people of Orlando, FL. I hope the injured recover quickly and the people who lost loved ones find peace. I know it is a very difficult time for the people of Florida and for many people in other parts of the country. Please know that my thoughts are with you. Hi everyone! I thought it would be nice to talk about a bat from Florida. Many of the bats that live in Florida are the same types of bats that live here in Virginia. They do have a few that we don’t have here though. One of them is called the Florida Bonneted bat. I think it looks really interesting. The Florida Bonneted bat is an endangered species. It is also the largest species of bat in Florida. The Bonneted bat can reach a length of 6.5 inches, with a wingspan of 20 inches! Its hair color varies from black to cinnamon brown to gray. It is an insectivore, so it eats yummy flying insects. The Bonneted bat has two mating seasons each year. One is in the summer and one in January and February. They have one pup each time. These bats are very rare and are only found in a few counties in south Florida. Bonneted bats like to roost in bat houses, so if you live in south Florida and want to help this bat, I think putting up a bat house might be a good idea. The biggest threat to this […]

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! Was there something missing in your life this past week? Something that you had grown to love and depend on week after week for years? Something you counted on to give your life purpose? Something you looked forward to reading every single Baturday? Was something terribly wrong, but you just couldn’t put your finger on it? Were you lost and confused? Good news! I’m here to fix that problem for you! The Baturday News is back! I am terribly sorry that my readers had to endure a week without their news. Due to technical difficulties beyond human control, the Baturday News could not be posted last week. However, now that the demons who took over the internet last week have been quieted, all will be right with the world once again. So, sit back and relax. Here is what you have been waiting for… As you know, it is June. What you might not know is that June is baby bat season! That’s right, there are little baby bat pups being born right now! So, I thought we should talk about little baby bats. Since my first bat friends were big brown bats, I decided to research big brown bat pups. I found out that big brown bats usually mate in the fall and winter. The pups are born in May and June (right now!!!). I also found out that in the eastern United States, big brown bats often have twins. In the western states, they usually only have […]

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 good week! I read an article that I thought was important about trying not to spread WNS from cave to cave. As you know, WNS has been found in the Pacific Northwest. They are desperately trying to stop it from spreading. Since a lot of people go out and explore the outdoors on Memorial Day weekend, authorities would like to remind everyone about the dangers of white-nose syndrome and what we can do to help fight its spread. Since WNS can be carried from one cave to another by pets, other animals and humans, everyone is being asked to follow some very specific rules. The people who manage the Deschutes National Forest are specifically trying to protect Lava River Cave. They are saying that nothing that has been used in any other mine or cave is allowed to enter Lava River Cave. This includes clothing, shoes and gear. People are also being instructed to clean and disinfect items before going into any other cave or mine after Lava River Cave. I know it sounds like a lot, but it’s really important for the bats that everyone follows their rules. Bats are very important to our environment and they need our help. So, if you are planning on visiting Lava River Cave in Oregon, or any other cave, please follow the rules mentioned in the article. The little bats are counting on you. You can read the article here.

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 good week! I had a tiring week because it is standardized testing time again. There is still one more week of tests, but then they’ll be done. I am a little jealous of all my batty friends because bats don’t have to take standardized tests. On the bright side, the tests do mean that the school year is almost done! So, I read a very sad article about bats in Georgia. Apparently, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources surveys the bats in caves and mines in the state every year. Since WNS was first found in Georgia three years ago, about 90 percent of the bats there have died of the disease. They surveyed a total of 20 bat hibernation habitats and found that 16 of them either tested positive for the fungus that causes WNS or showed signs of being infected. Most of the bats of the genus Myotis are gone in Georgia. The only bats they found in this genus were gray bats. That means that their little brown bats are all gone. I’m really sad about that. The article did have a little bit of good news. It said that the gray bats are surviving. Gray bats are listed as a federally endangered species, so this is important news. It looks like gray bats carry the fungus that causes WNS, but they aren’t developing the disease. If you want to read more you can find the article here. In different […]

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 good week. I am very excited because this weekend I am going camping! Hopefully I will see a lot of critters (just no horrible spiders, please!). I am going to be close to the beach, so with any luck, I’ll see some dolphins playing in the ocean. But, what I really think I’ll see are some little bats! I am going to Delaware, so I thought it would be fun to talk about one of their bats… it turns out they have the same bats as  in Virginia. Since they don’t really have bats that we don’t have here, I thought I’d research one that I don’t know anything about. I found a cool bat called the Evening bat. According to the maps, we have Evening bats here, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. They have dark brown fur and black ears. They live in the forest and are almost never found in caves. Hopefully that little fact will help protect them from white-nose syndrome. Evening bats form colonies in hollow trees, behind loose bark, and sometimes in buildings and attics. They wake up after dusk and eat small nocturnal insects like flying ants, Japanese beetles and moths. One thing that I thought was very interesting is that these bats migrate hundreds of miles south. And, only the females migrate back up north! The males stay in the southern part of the range. So all of you who have seen an […]

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 good week. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to a good friend of ours who passed away last weekend. He was a really funny man and we always had a lot of fun together. He was like an uncle to me and I really can’t believe he’s gone. So, this blog is for you “Uncle” Chris. We miss you! I read an article about a really cool animal called the Hispaniolan solenodon. Scientists have mapped the solenodon’s DNA and have decided that it was around during the time of the dinosaurs! Since the Hispaniolan solenodon is a really cool animal, I thought I should look up other cool animals that live on the island of Hispaniola. I found one called the Hispaniolian greater funnel-eared bat. The Hispaniolan greater funnel-eared bat has soft fur that is kind of long and is woolly at the base. The top of its fur is light brownish and the base of its fur is pinkish. It also has a bell-shaped structure on its forehead. This bat is only found on the island of Hispaniola and lives in caves. It likes to eat yummy insects. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has categorized the species as “Near Threatened.” This is because the caves where they live are a fragile habitat. The IUCN has recommended that action be taken to protect the caves. Tourists damaging the cave ecosystems and mining are two big […]

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 good week. Last weekend the Save Lucy headquarters moved. It was a sad day for Northern Virginia. It was going to be a very sad day for me, too. The most awesome mentor that I could ever have hoped for moved away. Plus, my furry friends were moving. There was a good-bye party, which I thought was going to be sad, but ended up being pretty fun. Mrs. Sturges, the president of Save Lucy and my amazing mentor and friend gave me the best gift ever! She gave me a cute bat jacket! I LOVE IT! It has little ears that are fuzzy around the edges, and the edge of the hood is fuzzy too. It has really great wings that are stitched like the bones in a bat wing. And, it looks absolutely amazing on me! I have worn it a lot this week and I’m planning on wearing it a whole lot more. I’ll show you all some of the places I take it, so you can have fun along with me. The first place I wore my jacket was to the Special Olympics. All my bowling friends loved it, too! I had a lot of fun talking with all my friends about bats. I think they had fun too. One of my best bowling buddies let me take a picture of her with me in my jacket, so you could see how much fun we were having. I would like […]

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 good week. A lot of things happened in the world this week. There were earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador, HM Queen Elizabeth had her 90th birthday and a singer named Prince passed away. I would like to dedicate my blog to all these people, especially the people affected by the earthquakes. I think that maybe their weeks weren’t quite as good as mine was. I thought it would be nice to research a bat from Ecuador. There were a lot to choose from. They have some bats that are very different from the ones we have here in Virginia. One of my favorites is the Pale spear-nosed bat. The pale spear-nosed bat is really cute! They are between 8 and 11 centimeters with an average wingspan of 42 centimeters. Their wings have rounded tips and they have broad faces with short snouts. They have a little leaf like nose that is broad with a spear-like projection. They have really adorable ears that are long enough to reach the tip of their nose. Their fur color ranges from pale yellowish brown to almost black. Their chest and stomach are much paler and can be almost white to gray. These bats don’t only live in Ecuador. They live from southern Mexico to northern Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and across southeastern Brazil. They like to roost in hollow trees or in the mouths of caves. They eat plants and insets, and most of their diet consists of […]

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 good week. It is a very exciting time here at Save Lucy. This is because tomorrow is National Bat Appreciation Day! National Bat Appreciation Day is celebrated every year on April 17th because it is around this time that hibernating bats are beginning to emerge from hibernation. That makes this the best time of year to observe bats. It is also a great time to learn all about bats and how wonderful they are. Another wonderful thing happening next week is Earth Day! Earth Day is going to be celebrated April 22. There will be events all around the world to support environmental awareness and protection. Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 and is now celebrated in more than 193 countries around the world. Obviously it’s a great week to be a bat. And all the little bats at Save Lucy are very excited. I hope that some of you will be able to go to some of the fun Bat Appreciation and Earth Day events scheduled. It should be a lot of fun!