Eating practice
Catching prey is only half the battle! Bats still have to curl & kick to subdue their catch while flying. This eastern red male still needs to refine his technique!
Austin
Southern Yellow breakfast at The Refuge
It took forever to find this guy tucked against the ridge pole against the bright sky.
Glad we found you pup!
Friday Night Flights
Sweet, early (8:33 pm) emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge last night.
Come visit us at the Austin Bat Refuge table on Friday nights this summer!
What a great mum!
This is an eastern red bat mum that has four nursing pups. (Yes, it’s the bat you brought us Laurie, we found another pup tucked under her wing!) She flies very well, as do two of her pups, the other two are not yet volant, but they all find each other the next morning. She is doing a great job raising these pups and we’re happy to help her get over that little glitch that found her grounded.
Eastern reds have four nipples. Both nipples on her left side are visible in this photo and it’s apparent that the lower one is offset, to the outside, from the midline of her chest. That offset allows all four pups to fit symmetrically so that all can nurse without overlapping. Overlapping would cause more jostling for position, attracting attention from predators, and so has been evolutionarily eliminated.
26 West pup
This evening bat pup had been hanging low on a wall for a day and a half over in West Campus UT. He was brought to us to make sure he’s OK and we marked his ear with some yellow eyeshadow . He is only half the size of an adult, but foraging on his own and here we see him practicing his drinking skills. He made around ten passes over the drinking pond, slowly calibrating his approach, getting closer and closer each time and eventually getting two or three gulps of water.
We’ll give him about a week of practice, then set him on his way in a more wooded area where he’ll find an evening bat roost in a hollow tree. He found the other evening bats in our bat box easily enough, so we’re sure he’ll do the same in the wild.
What a cool little bat! Thanks to Rachel Ellerd and Carin Peterson of UT Animal Make-Safe
Late Last Night
Love the wing shape in this photo of an eastern red pup (17-79) brought to us by Adam Warren from Silver Dale in SW Austin
Lots of action in the flight cage last night!
This bat is curling up on a moth it just caught, rolling it into its tail membrane and kicking it to subdue and eat it. All of this done while flying and scarcely missing a beat.
A closeup of that shot
Adam’s bat showing his chops
Pretty wing conformation on this tri-colored bat.
Here’s another bat curling up on a moth. Lots of action under the blacklight!
This Barred Owl juvy was raised nearby and we’re trying to run him off. Way easier said than done. 
Finally got him to go, but grudgingly and he’ll probably be back before the night is through. At least the pups will recognize a predator the next time they see one. For many bat pups, the firs time they see an owl is the last time they see anything, so we’re glad ours get another chance.
In the morning, pups were scattered all over the place, this one right out in the open. He is the first of Laurie’s pups to fly off on his own. The mum flew off with the others still on her. We found her and reunited them so they could snuggle through the day.
These pups are trying to look like just another dead leaf.
Here’s Laurie’s mum with her pups on her, but with Alvaro and Michelle trying to adopt her. We got them all straightened out, reunited the family, fed and watered all for the day. What a night!
Morning after First Flight
We opened all the pup tents last night for the first time. We played lifeguard for a while as the pups rolled out, some in flight and some on the ground! We picked them up one after another to give them another chance to drop into flight. All of them got it by the end of the night, but some were low on the flight cage walls in the morning. We are so proud of them!
These two pups found their mum and here all are enjoying a nice breakfast
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Eastern red mum in the garden
Eastern red girl patrolling the cherry tomatoes.
Southern yellow
Our 100th intake of the year is this beautiful southern yellow pup!
We distinguish southerns by their mossy, wooly, olive colored fur.
Northerns are more “Baby Huey” like, with shorter, yellowish fur.
This pup has just started eating whole mealworms.
He’s also stretching his wings and doing pushups.
He’ll be flying soon!
39 intakes 2 weeks!
We just took in our 103rd bat of the year, 39 of which came to us in the last 2 weeks.
June is always crazy around here and this year is no exception.
We’ve had bats of seven species this month; northern yellows, southern yellows, Seminoles, eastern reds, free-tails, velifers, and evening bats.
It’s crazy, exhausting, and exhilarating work. But what a priviledge and an honor to be able to give these pups a second chance at life.
