Our former neo-nate D-Day had his big night last night!  He and all his classmates joined the Congress bat colony, in plenty of time to integrate prior to their migration south in a few weeks to come. So thrilling to watch them go!

D-Day was found on June 6th as a newborn pup clinging to the top of the bridge with just his feet and tail sticking up under the railing.
Dianne rescued him and hand-raised him and his free-tailed classmates from little specks, so tonight was emotional, as the end of their captive upbringing and the beginning of their new life as part of the wild Congress Avenue Bridge colony! Go with the bat gods, with the wind, with your guts, little pups!

 

Danielle O’Neil’s great photo of D-Day at 3 weeks:

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Just to train them correctly, we waited until all the tourists left before releasing them from the top of the grassy slope of the bat viewing area ;). (It seems the Congress colony waited to emerge until the crowd of tuna boats, kayaks, LED lights, and red lights went away, before they emerged.) So our pups will learn from the best!  That means, of course, that our pup also did not cooperate with the paparazzi, so no videos or photos of the release! Good bats! This photo from the flight cage earlier in the season.

People from Poland, France, and Alaska all came to see the emergence last night!  We love having our information table at the bridge to help inform the tourists about the bats.

 


Love you little bat!  Go have a happy happy life!

Here’s a last look at you pre-release

You look so good up there! Look at all those quick darting moves! Are you showing us how happy you are to be wild and free?


Here’s our boy pre-release. We’ll miss his antics and amazing leaf dancing!

And here’s his final wave goodbye!  He is a fine young bat and we have every confidence he will live a long and happy life!


Morris!  Last leaf bat of the year heads out.  And what a great bat he was!
You were so much fun little bud!  We’ll miss you!  All the best!


Groot goes back to the wild!  Our wonderful Seminole pup Groot was released last night at Jerry and Jim Czyzak’s property in Red Rock, TX.  Jerry found Groot in her swimming pool back in July and brought him to us for drinking lessons.  He soon learned to judge his angle better as he swooped down for a drink, but never forgot his pool experience.  We could never get him to take more than a drop of water, even on the hottest days when others drank a whole syringe!
Last night he went home and brought with him two female Seminole friends.  Those of us who witnessed the release have a feeling there will be lots more baby Seminoles at Jerry’s place next June! 🙂

The Seminole Girls were rescued by Tracy Rider and came to us from TWRC. They gave us so much joy as they learned to fly, then drink on the wing.  They were among the most dependable drinkers and were the subjects of many of the drinking videos.  Love these bats!

Best of luck Groot and you wonderful Seminole girls!  We loved getting to know you all and will miss hanging out with you in the flight cage!  We will keep with us your friendship and the memories of your trust in us. Thank you for being so patient with us and knowing we would find a great spot for you.  This property has tons of pine trees, part of the Lost Pines of the Bastrop area, and you all will make fine faux pine cones as you hang in the pines all day awaiting the nightly hunt. Our thoughts will be with you always.

Here’s Groot when he first came in as a juvy.  What a beautiful bat!


All the best to you Seminoles!  Long life!


Oh sweet pup!  It was so great seeing you grow up!

All the best in your new life!

Wild & Free!


Look out world, The Class of 2017 is on the loose! Well, reds and evening bats, anyway.
Now that the heat of summer has passed and ponds and tanks are full, it’s a perfect time to get the pups out and let them establish territories before winter.
What fun to see the precocious pups bolt out immediately, followed by the mums, and watch as they circle back and coax out the others. After a half hour all were hunting the treetops, circling high above in the night sky!
Blessings little pups! We’ll miss you! Live long and make lots more baby bats!

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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!

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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?

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