Leslie Sturges

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It was really cold here in Virginia, but not as bad as some other places. Some people got snow! I hope everyone stayed nice and warm and enjoyed the winter weather. I’m hoping that we’ll get some snow here soon. I love snow days! I have some fabulously wonderful news! I’m going to be included in a book! A very nice children’s book author named Rob Laidlaw is writing a book about bats and bat issues and he wants to include me! I am so excited! Mr. Laidlaw writes children’s non-fiction books that raise awareness about animal issues. He also started a wildlife protection charity in Canada called Zoocheck. This will be his first book about bats, but he has written books about all kinds of other animals. You can find out about his books at http://roblaidlawbooks.com/. I’ve read some of his books and they are all great! I hope you all have a chance to read them too. It takes a long time to write a book, so it won’t be published until next year. It will hopefully be out in Canada next fall. It will take a little longer for it to come out in the US. I can’t wait to read it! Thank you, Mr. Laidlaw! I am honored! And now, I have some wonderful news in the world of bats! Some of you probably already saw this, but it is so important that […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I can’t believe it’s already December. Soon it will be Christmas and Hanukkah and New Year! The bats here at Save Lucy and I are excited about the holidays.  And now, the bat news… The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas has just purchased 1,425 acres of forest. It is about two miles west of Mt. Judea in Newton County, AR. The forest has a deep valley, steep land, several streams and caves. The Nature Conservancy and the Buffalo River Foundation are working together to raise money to preserve the forest environment. The really awesome thing about the new nature preserve is that it is home to three protected species of bats. Gray bats, Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats are found there. The Gray and Indiana bats are both endangered and the northern long-eared bats are threatened. So, protecting this land could really help the bats. The land will open to hikers on January 1st, but there won’t be any trails for them to follow. The Nature Conservancy wants to wait a while before it marks hiking trails. If you want to read more, you can find it here.

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week and a very happy Thanksgiving! I thought that since it was Thanksgiving, I should write about what I am thankful for. I’m sure you’ve already guessed it…I am thankful for bats! One bat that I think is really interesting is the Livingstone’s fruit bat. The Livingstone’s fruit bat is a mega-bat that lives on the Indian Ocean islands of Anjouan and Moheli in the Union of the Comoros. The Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation off the coast of Africa northwest of Madagascar. The Livingstone’s fruit bat is one of the largest bats in the world. It is about 30 cm (11.8 inches) long and has an average wingspan of 1.4 m (4.6 ft). It has dark brown or black fur and ginger colored hairs on its shoulders. It also has beautiful orange-brown eyes. One of the most interesting things about this bat is that it doesn’t use echolocation. Because of this, it has cute little round ears. Their diet is mainly fruit juice. They squeeze pieces of fruit in their mouths, swallow the juice and then spit out the fruit and seeds. The Livingstone’s fruit bat is endangered. The main threat is deforestation. You can learn more about this amazing bat here.

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had an awesome one! Earlier this week, I got a letter from Senator Warner! That was really exciting. He congratulated me on being a member of Bat Squad. It’s pretty amazing to get a letter from a senator! Senator Warner used to be the governor of VA and I think he likes bats. When he was governor, he designated the Virginia Big Eared bat as our state bat. The Virginia Big Eared bat is an adorable bat with huge ears. Sadly, it is endangered. Not only is Senator Warner an important politician who likes bats, but he is a poet too! You can read his poem here. In other news, there was an earthquake in New Zealand this week. It was a pretty big earthquake that stranded thousands of people. It also brought part of the ocean floor up onto the beach! Because of the earthquake, I thought it would be nice to research bats of New Zealand. It turns out that bats are the only land mammals native to New Zealand and they are in trouble. New Zealand only has two kinds of bats – the long-tailed bat and the lesser short-tailed bat. They had a third kind of bat called the greater short-tailed bat, but it is thought to be extinct. The remaining bats are endangered. The long-tailed bat is closely related to five other species of bats that are found in Australia. They […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to all of our military veterans out there and to all the people who are serving now. Thank you for all you do. And I hope you had a nice Veterans’ Day!   Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! As you know, we elected a new president on Tuesday. I hope he likes bats! I did something really fun on Thursday. I went to the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions. It was a lot of fun to see all the gymnasts. It was also fun to see some of the athletes that we don’t get to see on TV. Not only were the regular gymnasts there, but the rhythmic and acrobatic gymnasts were too and the trampoline team was there. They were all amazing!   And now, on to the bat news…apparently, bats can fly really, really fast. They can fly faster than scientists realized. I always knew that bats were amazing flyers, but apparently knowing something in your heart and scientifically proving it are two completely different things. So, scientists set up an experiment to find out exactly how fast bats could fly. The scientists went to the Frio Bat Cave in south-western Texas and used an airplane tracking device to track the distance that seven Brazilian free-tailed bats flew. All seven of the bats reached speeds of almost 100 km/h (62 mph). One bat even flew as fast as 160 km/h (99 mph)! […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had a wonderful week because it was Halloween. And Halloween means candy! It is also the end of the grading period here in Fairfax County, so I got out of school 2 hours early yesterday and I have Monday and Tuesday off!!! That’s right, I have a 4 day weekend! 🙂 As you know, last week was Bat Week. The week ended with an event at the U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC. It was a lot of fun. They said that more than 3,000 people came through on Saturday! That was a lot of people for me and the bats to meet. Mrs. Sturges, the esteemed leader and president of Save Lucy, was there and she brought some bats with her. There was little Elvis the Silver-haired bat, Cappy the Big Brown bat and Red Bat the Eastern Red bat. They were all very well behaved and were rewarded with lots of mealworms. I would like to thank all the people who came to the event. I hope you all had fun and learned some interesting new batty facts. I hope you all enjoyed meeting my little bat friends. I think they enjoyed meeting all of you. And, now for my public service announcement:  Don’t forget that it is Daylight Savings Time this weekend. I still don’t see the logic in the whole thing, but if you remember to turn your clocks back an hour […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I had an awesome one because it was Bat Week! It has been totally amazing to watch myself and all the other members of Bat Squad on BCI’s webcasts. It was also a lot of fun answering all your questions on Twitter. It was nice to talk with so many people who were interested in bats. Just in case you missed them, you can see all of the webcasts here:  http://batweek.org/ . Today, I will be at the Botanic Gardens in DC. They are having an event called “Bat Bonanza” and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. People will be able to learn all sorts of cool facts about bats, see the Bat Squad videos, and even see some live bats! That’s right, Mrs. Sturges will be there with our furry little friends! The event will be from 10 AM to 5 PM in the Conservatory. If you need more information, you can find it here. I hope to see some of you there! I would also like to remind everyone to stay safe while you are out enjoying Halloween. It’s sure to be a lot of fun for humans and bats alike. Hope you all have an awesome week!

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very happy to announce that Bat Week starts tomorrow! 😀 Think batty thoughts! I am very excited because Bat Week is a perfect way to end Bat Appreciation Month. The bats at Save Lucy are all very happy too. They think they deserve extra mealworms to celebrate the special occasion. I think they’re right. In honor of Bat Week, there are a lot of events scheduled around the country. Actually, I think there are batty events scheduled all over the world! One of my favorite events will be the airing of the Bat Squad webcasts. The first will air Tuesday, October 25 at 1:00 and the last one will be Friday, October 28 at 1:00.  All of the webcasts will be followed by a 15 minute Q&A on Twitter. These Q&A sessions will feature all the members of Bat Squad. I will be on Twitter on Friday to answer questions. Please watch these webcasts! I think it’ll be a lot of fun! My other absolute favorite event will be at the US Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 29 from 10:45-4:15. The Bat Squad webcasts will be shown throughout the day. There will also be Q&A sessions after each showing. But the best part of the day will be Mrs. Sturges and the bats! That’s right, Mrs. Sturges, my friend, mentor and president of Save Lucy, will be there too! With BATS!!! It’s […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! As you know, it is Bat Appreciation Month. One way people can celebrate this spectacular month is by doing things that would attract bats to their yards. I found an article that explains how people can do it! One way you can attract some bats to your house is by building a bat house. Sadly if you live in Northern Virginia, this might not work for you. The bats that live around here don’t seem to like houses that people hang up for them. They would much rather find their own little homes. If you live somewhere else, or just want to give putting out a bat house a try, then it should be at least 15 feet above the ground. This will help protect bats from predators on the ground. You might also want to contact your local bat experts. They might be able to help you decide on what type of house to put out for the bats that live in your area. Another way you can attract bats to your yard is by planting a garden. It is better for the environment if you use plants that are native to your area. A nice garden will attract yummy bugs that bats like to eat. If you plant night-blooming plants, nocturnal insects, such as moths, should visit your yard and you will probably get more bats. Your garden should also attract animals that come out […]

Baturday News is a weekly blog written by Rachael, a high school student, bat advocate, 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. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! I am very happy because I am in the middle of a 4 day weekend! I am going camping with my Girl Scout troop.  I really hope we see some bats flying around. As promised, this week we will learn about the real Dracula. There really was a Dracula and he wasn’t a very nice person. His real name was Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia. Wallachia is a place in what is now Romania. Vlad III’s father was inducted into the knightly order called the Order of the Dragon. He got a new last name, Dracul. Dracul means “dragon” in old Romanian. His son, Vlad III, was called Drăculea which means “son of Dracul”. When Vlad III was a child, his father took him and his brother to a meeting he was having with Sultan Murad II. The meeting was a trap to arrest them. The father was released, but the two boys had to stay as prisoners. Eventually they were freed and Vlad III returned to his home in Wallachia. Vlad III eventually ruled Wallachia three different times. During the time that he was ruler, he tortured and killed many people.  He was killed in battle in 1476. In 1897, a man named Bram Stoker wrote the book Dracula. He based the character, Dracula, on the real Drăculea. Although the real Drăculea didn’t turn into a bat and fly around, he was still someone that most […]