Upward Dog?
This Mexican free-tailed skypup is multi-tasking, doing his yoga while eating his breakfast!
Austin bat
Star the yellow bat pup
Good morning Star! You’re a beautiful girl!
Diva!
Hello there, make yourself at home. Well maybe not that much at home ……
Diva is a beautiful Seminole bat who came to us for flight training. She did not fly well at first, landing low on the flight cage walls, where we found her each morning for the first week and a half. Now each morning we find her sleeping high up at the peak of the aviary, meaning she’s flying stronger and can swoop up higher before securing her grip. We can watch her do many flip turns at the top of the cage before finally landing for the day. Good work Diva!
Scruffy!
He’s a tri-colored juvenile who was learning to fly when he somehow ended up inside the atrium at 600 Congress Avenue in Austin. So the Congress bats aren’t the only bats living in the heart of downtown! We have gotten tri-coloreds n from this area previously, so we suspect they are well at home in the high-rised parking garages and breezeways that shelter them from predators.
Box employees have a workout room that is open to the atrium, and this juvie spent the day on their jungle gym before Jo and Ian contained him and brought him to us for safer fledging. Nice work you two!
Scarlet and the Orphan Girls Release
Here’s your backup water, Scarlet. Tell the girls about it, but don’t tell them you were our favorite. Love you! So happy to see you orphan girls cruising the treetops together! omg that looks like so much fun! Long Life Little Ones!
We first met you Scarlet, when we responded to someone, referred to us by another bat organization, who wanted to know how to feed a bat, didn’t know anything about bats, was not permitted or vaccinated, but also “doesn’t drive” so could not bring the bat in for proper care. When we first saw you in the big glass jug, we just knew we had to get you out of there. It took a lot of convincing, but we finally got the “rescuer” to agree to release her to our care. He planned to keep her in the jug and feed her moths for as long as she survived. His theory was “it’s like it was dead already since I could capture it”.
We are so happy you came with us Scarlett, and you got that second chance at a wild life. All our love little bat!
car
The smallest red bat pup!
This little eastern red bat boy needs a name! 18-147 just doesn’t have much of a ring to it!
Rescued by Hannah, as grackles surround him on her breezeway floor in San Marcos, she brought him to our info table at the Congress Avenue Bridge last Friday. He wowed those who witnessed the intake process, and all of us marveled at the beauty of this little pup!
Here he gets another meal of his milk-replacement formula as he gets a supervised introduction to the outdoor reds.
And now a mealworm to top off the tank as the flight cage reds in the background anticipate their breakfast.
And finally he takes his place in the flight cage stair-step heiarchy! (That’s him at the upper right)
He’s so little we’ll have to watch him real closely as he introduces himself to all the others
You can do it little pup!
Green Release
Our red bat families are all color-coded (with corresponding control numbers) so that we can raise and release them together. It was the “green family” release time last night and what a joy it was to see them all fly off together on a beautiful summer evening!
These red bats were found by Brad Fellers on the ground at his Leander home and certainly would have been killed by predators had he not cared enought to save them. The orphan was saved by Megan Rodriguez near Anderson Mill.
It was our great pleasure to help the pups grow up, turning from little furry blobs of bat blubber into amazing flying, hunting, and self-sufficient wonders of the night sky.
We placed each bat in a pup tent first and one by one we watered, fed, and showed them their back-up drinking trough; the infinity-edged pool that we’ll keep nice and full for them throughout the oncoming drought.
Here’s one of the pups drinking from the pool.
Once all were fed and watered, it was up to the release platform high in a tree above their former enclosure. They were all super-excited and we first did a controlled release with the mum, then quickly set the pups free to follow her, so they could all stay together.
Here’s the happy family circling high in the sky, celebrating their freedom on a beautiful Texas summer night. Live long lives little bats and make lots more beautiful bat babies! Thanks for the memories!
Please Donate at https://austinbatrefuge.org/donations/ to support Austin’s amazing bats!
Wonderful visit from a German colleague
We were contacted a few weeks ago by a German ecological consultant on sabbatical, who has been traveling the world for the last year or so. Starting six months ago she was in Patagonia, then in the Brazilian Pantanal, far upstream in the Amazon, and in Montreal, before volunteering with us for three weeks. An intrepid traveler, she has been camping in the jungles and couch-surfing the cities of the world before arriving at facility with an open mind and an open heart, sharing wonderful stories from her travels.
What a joy it was to get to know her! She is a true citizen of the world, and she filled us with hope for the future! As a global ambassador, her ability to share the wonder of the natural world did her country proud! Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and who knows how many other languages, her light shines brightly and we are so happy she came to stay with us for this short while!
Lisa Soehn, you are a spectacular human being! May that twinkle in your eye continue to spread to all you meet!
Love always from Texas!
First pup of the year!
Our first pup of the year, an evening bat, snuggling under his proud mum.
We had a naming contest for Mother’s Da and got so many great suggestions; we loved them all!
Radar got the most votes, but we all have our personal favorites.
You’ll be seeing those other names soon as this year’s pups roll in!
After the crowds leave,
After the crowds leave Congress Avenue Bridge, a few more bats take flight!
All the best girls!