We are so happy to be a part of the wonderful Austin non-profit community!
Here is a great overview of all the creative organizations making a difference in the Austin area.
And our PSA by bat caregiver Kyndal Irwin is the second one, at the 10 minute mark of this 2 hour video, just before Rebecca Campbell with the Austin Film Society!
This little freebie male is one of 8 intakes this week and he’s been showing great flight skills in the aviary. We finally found him roosting with Taz the cave myotis and fed him full with bugs. This video shows him heading up into the bat box for soft-release. There is backup food and water and even lots of company with the wild freetails that have taken to the box this spring.
So go with God little bat; you were lots of fun! Live and long and happy life!
Even with the Doppler radar out of commission, we know the free-tails are back because the phone’s been ringing off the hook all week! First-year pups returning from Mexico are ending up in unexpected places. This cutie was rescued from a downtown Austin office ceiling by Chantal. He’s fine, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Check out those feet! He’s got whiskers between his toes and brushes on the sides.
Talk about bats getting in unexpected places, we even have some in our bat box! We thought it would never happen! This is the first time we’ve had bats since it was put up five years ago! They are super fast coming out of the box; this photo just barely caught one leaving.
Thank you donors! Our first Amplify Austin campaign was a big success! Thanks so much to all those who exemplified the “I Live Here, I Give Here” spirit, especially Individual Fundraiser Kyndal Irwin. Together we provided half a year’s food for Austin’s bats in need.
Big bloom at D’Hanis Bridge, west of Hondo, the last few nights. We’ve seen little activity there all winter until just recently.
We had a great time last night conducting a Bat Walk to mark the third anniversary of the founding of Shoal Creek Conservancy, here in Austin.
Bat fans showed up on the second night of cool weather to see if bats would fly from under the 9th St. Bridge in Duncan Park.
Though the cool weather felt great to us after a long extended hot summer, the bats were snug in their expansion-joint crevices under the bridge and did not want to drop out into the cool night. The temperature had dropped to 43 degrees F the previous night and that night’s dew point of 47 F promised another cool night ahead. Since fewer insects fly below 50 F, they must have decided to conserve their energy budget and stay snug in the roost. Here’s a thermal imaging snapshot of the crevice we inspected.
Those are bat bodies showing white and their reading was about 88 deg F on the outside of their fur. Their body heat kept the crevice nice and warm, 82.6 deg F here next to the bats in this snapshot, 15 degrees warmer than the blue-colored bridge outside the crevice. It would take a lot of snuggling to re-create all that warmth, so perhaps they just hunkered down to wait out the cooler nights. Low temps will be back in the 60s for the next two weeks, so I think they made the right call.
Great group of people at Shoal Creek Conservancy; we’re so happy there is a unified voice to speak up on behalf of beautiful Shoal Creek!
Thanks to all who came out to hear our talk and watch our radar images of Central Texas bat activity. Next year we’ll unveil the new SonoBat Live and if we get a warmer night, we’ll all be able to see real time sonograms of the echolocation calls of flying bats.
This eastern screech was so focused on our bats, that he allowed us to approach to within 6 feet before finally flying off! The rehabilitating bats are working on their flight skills and for that reason, they attract even more attention from local owls.
Our Mexican free-tail Bernie has a permanently injured wrist but was roaming the flight cage last night. But for the netting, he would have been scooped up in an instant by this owl.
This free-tail is so happy to be flying again and catching moths around the blacklight!
Soon to be back in the wild skies.
Just look at that smile!
Here’s an angle rarely seen of a Mexican free-tailed bat. If you look closely you can see the long “whisker” hairs sticking out between the toes. “Kind of like you honey” a bridge visitor said to his girlfriend this summer, right before she hit him, hard.
Congress Ave Bridge bats on the full moon
CAB bats head out to forage in the pasture land and agricultural fields between Bastrop and San Marcos on a full moon night.
They don’t seem to be deterred by the full moon, they are flying in big numbers even as the moon rises, although more seem to be staying within the city limits than usual.
One would think that Mexican free-tails would be lunar phyllic, since they feed in wide open spaces away from tree-loving owls and the moonlight might even allow them to better locate prey visually, before kicking in their echolocation when they get within range.
At this time of year (even on a wet year like this one) there is likely less insect prey in the agricultural fields and the bats are eagerly awaiting the reverse migration of the Corn Ear-worm Moth that usually starts in late September. CEM return south in the fall because their pupae can’t overwinter up north. Mexican free-tailed bats depend on this reverse moth migration to put on weight prior to the bats’ own migration south in late October.