Shhhh!!
Shhhh!! Our sleepy red boy is enjoying an afternoon nap on his leaf hammock! Nothing looks more comfortable to a foliage roosting bat than a big green leaf to lay on!
Author: The Refuge
Jam Session
Are these pups playing tag or is this a jam session? Mexican free-tailed bats have been documented to jam each other’s echolocation signals when competition for food gets intense (see Aaron Corcoran’s research at http://sonarjamming.com) . Do eastern red bats do the same in similarly competitive situations? Here in the flight cage, there are not enough moths for all the 30 plus flying rehab bats. Is this pup following his sibling to practice jamming his call and stealing the moth? Or just playing?
Cow Pea Patrol
Patrolling the cow peas. Good little helper!
Black Light Action
Action under the black light last night. Moths attracted by the garden, moth pheromones, night-blooming plants, and the water all tend to congregate around the blacklight.
Our juvenile bats fly in wide loops tangent to the light and hope they time it right so they get the chance to practice their hunting skills.
Red Skypuppy
This eastern red girl is from the family brought in by Evan Alcantara from Salem Hill Drive in Austin.
They have thrived here at the Refuge given a second chance and we’re thrilled that they’ll be back out in the wild as soon as the weather breaks.
Here she’s performing a flip-turn at the palm fronds as she shreds the flight cage.
Saturday Night Flights
Great emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge tonight. Great fun talking to the tourists from all over the world. Especially the wonderful family from New Jersey whose daughter is going for her Girl Scout Silver Award by creating this website https://sites.google.com/site/maketheworldabattierplace/ Check it out!
They are multi-national, with family from Italy, Spain, and Venezuela and we had great fun surfing Google Earth together. Thanks y’all!
Mount Roraima, Venezuela!
Stable cooler temps = better flights at CAB
Stable, cooler temperatures after the storms led to the first great emergence in over a week, last night at Congress Avenue Bridge.
Here we see about 1-1/2 million Mexican free-tailed bats on Doppler radar as they head out to the agricultural fields to forage for crop pests.
Winds from the NE at emergence sent them to the SSE about 18 miles past Mustang Ridge along Cedar Creek.
We frequently see them head on a broad reach to the wind, taking advantage of the free ride while knowing the winds normally die down by the time they want to return.
Dusk at The Refuge
Protect your throats!
Our wonderful Kyndal Irwin shows the Congress Avenue Bridge crowd a fallen juvenile Mexican free-tailed bat, as the humans protect their throats from imminent Vampire/Chupacabra attack!
Next time they will purchase our Kevlar throat protectors!
JUST KIDDING! These wonderful folks were actually WAY more worried about the little bat!
This crowd was treated to a very close look (no touching!) as Kyndal talked about all she has learned about these wonders of the world as an intern at Austin Bat Refuge.
The children especially were enchanted and looked up to Kyndal as if she were a fairy bat princess as she showed all the features of the little bat and described their delightful personalities.
This little bat was dehydrated and was brought back to the refuge for electrolyte therapy before release.
We love the variety of astonished looks as she cares for this pup!
Moth Garden
Gabe supervises the planting of the Moth Garden!
Thanks to the wonderful Teresa Nichta for securing the donation of all those night-blooming plants from Barton Springs Nursery!
And for working so hard to revitalize the garden beds after the long dry summer!
