Storms after emergences at Bracken, Congress, and McNeil had bats scrambling for cover last night.
David Chapman took care of hundreds in a parking garage in San Antonio this morning.
He stopped a custodian from sweeping bats off the ceiling onto the driveway inside the garage.
Great job David!
We got a call from Wilshire Homes in Pflugerville.
A bat took shelter in one of their homes under construction.
He apparently flew in an open garage door and went right in the house through the missing deadbolt lock on the door to the interior.
Alejandro, the superintendent, got him in a container for us and we went and picked him up about 23 miles north of our location.
He was a juvenile male free-tailed bat and had a full belly and looked to be in great shape. He drank water from a syringe and seemed bright eyed and full of life. We showed him the deadbolt hole; wonder what he thought about that.
Since he most likely came from the McNeil bridge colony, a mere 7 miles to the west, we decided to take him back there, rather than bring him all the way back to Austin and release him at a different roost at night. I bet he was wondering how we knew where he lived; probably thought he got hacked by Russians!
Well, he barely survived the episode. Releasing during the day is always risky and this time was no exception.
He flew off the hand and instead of quickly entering a crevice, he flitted around under the bridge looking for just the right crevice.
Two different grackles took shots at him and very nearly got him, but he managed to evade them and finally enter a crevice above the support structure.
So glad you made it buddy! We’ll wait till dark from now on, we promise!