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 […]
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 […]
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to the people affected by the fires in Northern California. I hope that weather brings you some rain soon and the fires can be brought under control. My thoughts are with you all. I am studying poetry in my English class. One of my assignments was to research a famous poet and then to write an original poem using that poet’s style. I researched William Blake, so I decided to try and copy the style he used in his poem “The Tyger”. I wrote about the misunderstood and underappreciated bat that people often call “ugly”. It was difficult to write because, well, bats are adorable! I needed inspiration and as you all know, little bats are very poetic. So, with their inspiration, but definitely not their talent, I managed to write a poem that I would like to share with you all now. I hope you like it. The Bat Big Brown Bat flying light In the skies of the night You’re called ugly by those who see What is outside, not within thee Catching bugs only you can hear How do you see them from so far, not near? With echolocation – a spectacular sense From which a bug has little defense Big Brown Bat in the night Aiding farmers in your flight A life of service. Don’t you see? Helping humans just like me But your appearance causes prejudice Sadly, they don’t see your selflessness Instead they see a hideous troll Missing that deep in your eyes is a loving soul Your purpose in life is actually simple To stray from it would be quite sinful Please save us from the plight Of the unfortunate mosquito bite Big Brown Bat […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! Happy Bat Appreciation Month! I hope you all had a good week! People who were in Las Vegas last weekend had a very bad week. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to everyone affected by what happened there. My thoughts are with you, your families, and your friends. This week, we will learn about a bat that lives in the Las Vegas area. The California leaf-nosed bat is adorable! It has huge ears, which makes its hearing spectacular. It can even hear the footsteps of a cricket! This is very useful for them because they love to eat crickets. They also eat grasshoppers, katydids, June beetles, diving beetles, and some moths. They have a cute leaf shaped nose that points up. This is where they get the name “leaf-nosed”. They have gray to dark brown fur. These bats have short wings, which makes it hard for them to fly long distances. They don’t migrate, but they don’t hibernate either. They do like to roost in caves and mines. Another interesting fact about the California leaf-nosed bat is that they are unable to crawl on their thumbs like other bats. If you would like to read more about the California leaf-nosed bat, you can read about them here. I would like to wish everyone in the path of Tropical Storm (soon to be hurricane) Nate the best of luck! The storm […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone I hope you all had a good week! I found a really cool article about how scientists are studying bat echolocation to help with all kinds of things. The US. Navy is making a new sonar for their ships. The new sonar is going to be based off of how bats echolocate. The Navy ships already have sonar, but it isn’t anything like a bat’s. Even though a bat only uses its two ears and a Navy ship uses complicated sonar arrays, bats still have a better idea of what things are. Using information learned by studying bats, an engineer built a prototype that goes on the nose of an undersea robot. The new device can interpret returning sonar echoes like a bat’s ears. It will also be cheaper, and smaller than their current model. Much like the US Navy, researchers in Israel are also information learned by studying bat echolocation. But instead of using the information to help the military, they are using it to help farmers. Farmers sometimes have trouble knowing how much food they are actually going to get from the plants in their field. Some years, crops might yield more food than others and it is difficult for a farmer to estimate how much they will have from year to year. This makes it difficult for them to determine a good price for that year’s crops and how […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. I have been sick! Just in case you guys are curious, pneumonia stinks! I would not recommend it. In fact, if there is a way you can avoid it, I would highly recommend that you do so. I am happy to say that the antibiotics are working and I am starting to feel a little better now. It has been another difficult week for Puerto Rico and Mexico. Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria. Power is out to the entire island, only about a fourth of the people have water, and a dam is in “imminent danger of failing.” While Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands were dealing with the hurricane, Mexico was hit with another major earthquake. Hundreds of people were killed. My thoughts are with the people of Puerto Rico and Mexico. With all the bad news, I thought everyone could use some good batty news. I have some great news for the Indiana bats living in Illinois. An old silica mine that was owned by the mining company Unimin has been given to the Organization for Bat Conservation. More than 45,000 endangered Indiana bats now have a nice comfy home. Apparently, bat populations living in silica mines haven’t been affected by White Nose Syndrome as much as bats living in other caves. So, the Executive Director of the Organization for […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It has been another difficult week for a lot of people. Not only did Hurricane Irma move through the Caribbean and Florida destroying everything in its path, but wildfires are burning in the western United States. My thoughts are with everyone affected by these disasters. While the US has been dealing with hurricanes and fires, the country of Mexico has been dealing with its own disasters. Last week, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico. This was the worst earthquake to hit Mexico in a century. Just hours after the earthquake, Hurricane Katia hit Mexico’s Atlantic coast. A few days later, Hurricane Max hit Mexico’s Pacific coast. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to the people of Mexico. These disasters affected the entire country and my thoughts are with you all. Mexico has a total of 137 species of bats. One of these species is the Mexican Fish-eating Bat. The Fish-eating bat is an adorable bat that lives near the Gulf of California in Mexico. Instead of bugs, this bat loves eating fish and crustaceans. They have strong legs and big feet for carrying their food. They use their sharp claws to capture their prey. Fish-eating bats have brown fur that is dark gray at the base. They mostly roost in caves and crevices, but will also stay in rock slides. If […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week! It has been another terrible week for weather and it looks like things aren’t going to get better any time soon. Now that Hurricane Harvey has finally moved on, the people in south eastern Texas are faced with picking up the pieces the hurricane left behind. And now, there is another hurricane. This one is named Irma. I would like to dedicate this week’s blog to everyone affected by this hurricane. Irma has spent the last few days in the Caribbean. Many countries have been hit by this hurricane. People in Antigua, Barbuda, St Martin, St Maarten, Anguilla, St Barts, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Turks and Caicos Islands have all been affected by this storm and the damage has been devistating. As I write this, Irma is expected to make landfall in Florida within a few hours. My thoughts are with you all. I thought it would be nice to research some bats that live in the Caribbean. There are a lot of cute ones! The Bahaman funnel-eared bat is absolutely adorable! They are part of the family Natalidae and are endemic to the Bahamas. The Bahaman funnel-eared bat was discovered in 1903 and is listed as near threatened. These bats are small, have long tails, big ears, and reddish or chestnut brown fur. Their […]
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.
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. She now enjoys watching the bats fly over her home on summer evenings. Rachael has been writing the Baturday News for over three years.
