Eeyore is the grumpy donkey in the classic children’s tale Winnie-the-Poo.
He mopes around so much that his buddies throw him a birthday party to cheer him up.

Well, even bat workers can get a little mopey when things don’t go well for bats.  And bats have hard lives.
This year, the local non-profit organization The Friends of the Forest Foundation cheered up Austin Bat Refuge with a wonderful donation from the proceeds of Eeyore’s Birthday Party!
Thanks so much from us at ABR to this wonderful organization that has been giving back to the community for decades!

Wow! This brought a huge smile to all our faces!  Love you all!
Please join us all in cheering up Eeyore again next year on April 27, 2019 (always the last Saturday in April).
Next year’s event will be Eeyore’s 56th Birthday Party!
Please bookmark eeyores.org, put on a costume (or nothing at all!) and meet us there!

Thank You Lori Moore – and all the good people at FotFF for the very generous donation!

 


Lots of Central Texas bat activity on a chilly evening. Devil’s Sinkhole, Old Tunnel, and Huber really show up strongly because of their more isolated locations.  Still a strong flight from Congress, so our newly released bats have plenty of company.


A recent episode of Rick Steves Europe titled “Greece’s Peloponnese” included Epidavros, the Greek healing center where doctor-priests performed the work of Esclepios, the Greek god of medicine. This center served Greeks from ~400 BC to 426 AD.

When demonstrating the acoustics of the 12,000 seat amphitheater that entertained those who traveled there for healing, Steves gave a speech meant to sound as if delivered by an ancient Greek: “Friends, Greeks, wayfarers, in these times of discord, fear is rampant in our society.  I contend that the flip-side of fear is understanding, and those who travel reap great understanding by meeting people who hold OTHER truths to be self-evident and God-given.”

We love this about Rick Steves and we wish that we could travel more to experience the truths of other cultures.  We hope that one day we can do so, but in the meantime, we get to have travelers come to us as we staff the information table at the Congress Avenue Bridge Bat Viewing Area.  Thanks so much to all the intrepid travelers who took the time to write in our Bat Journal!

In the future we’ll make a point of asking more about THEIR lives. Much as we love to have them log their impressions of the Austin bats, we want them to share THEIR truths and gain some insight into the way THEY see the world!

Congress Avenue Bridge, Congress Bridge bats, Austin bat education, outreach, programs, presentations, talks

 


Great emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge tonight.  Great fun talking to the tourists from all over the world. Especially the wonderful family from New Jersey whose daughter is going for her Girl Scout Silver Award by creating this website https://sites.google.com/site/maketheworldabattierplace/ Check it out!


They are multi-national, with family from Italy, Spain, and Venezuela and we had great fun surfing Google Earth together. Thanks y’all!
Mount Roraima, Venezuela!


Andrea found Frito in an open stairwell, hiding from the grackles that were stalking him like a pack of velociraptors.
She called us and watched over him until we arrived, saving him from a tragic end.
He was not injured, just a little disoriented and is eating and flying well in the aviary.
Soon to be released.  Nice work Andrea!


This red bat family was found grounded in the middle of a side-street in Dripping Springs.  The young single-mum was a pup herself just last summer and she may have been struggling to feed and manage her young family.  She was emaciated, and was so lucky that Jacque spotted her before the grackles or bluejays did.  Nice save Jacque!  She and the pups have been rehydrated and their bellies filled and are now having a snooze at the top of the aviary.  She knows she and her pups are safe for now.

That night the mum flew and the pups watched her for a while, then the bigger pup joined her.  The little pup felt pretty lonesome and after a while took her very first flight.  Both pups negotiated all the other flying bats and landed successfully at the top of the cage.  By morning they had found mum and the whole family was snoozing together once it got light.
bat rescue rehabilitation

Littlest pup after first flight!

Older pup

Pups have to watch out for the other flyers

bat rehabilitation rescue austin

Waiting for mum to return

austin bat rehabilitation rescue

The next morning mum roosted in the sun, we had to shade them

austin bat rehabilitation rescue


We had a blast at the Texas Night Sky Festival on Saturday March 18th.
We met so many people and introduced them all to Buffy, Gabe, Freida, and Nikita.
It was so much fun to see all those smiling faces.
Thanks Kyndal Irwin for spending the last day of SXSW with us out in Dripping Springs!
You were so great with all those kids!  We’re proud to know you!


Here we see what looks like the fall migration of Mexican free-tailed bats from Devil’s Sinkhole and Frio caves in Central Texas.
A 17 deg F drop in temp at dusk along with a 26 deg F drop in dew point seem to be the trigger.
We see them travel 100 miles SSW to the irrigated fields of Los Alamos, outside of Allende, Coahuila before they disperse.
They traveled about 116 miles in two hours, not the world speed record for mammals (99 mph) that the Frio bats hold, but not too shabby (58 mph).  They seem to be headed toward Cueva de la Virgen in Coahuila, a cave historically known to hold 350,000 Tadarida and 10,000 cave myotis.  We’d love to know if anyone is monitoring numbers at that cave and whether there is a big spike in numbers today and for how long.  If numbers surge there, will they stay all winter, or will numbers wane as they move further south?
Austin meteorological conditions at emergence are in a chart below the video.

fall-migration-devils-sinkhole-meterological-conditions