Look out world, The Class of 2017 is on the loose! Well, reds and evening bats, anyway.
Now that the heat of summer has passed and ponds and tanks are full, it’s a perfect time to get the pups out and let them establish territories before winter.
What fun to see the precocious pups bolt out immediately, followed by the mums, and watch as they circle back and coax out the others. After a half hour all were hunting the treetops, circling high above in the night sky!
Blessings little pups! We’ll miss you! Live long and make lots more baby bats!

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Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! We’re doing ok. The trees are still standing, although they looked as if they were in a washing machine for the last few days. The pups are doing fine. They seem to prefer their leaf umbrellas to the covered areas to which we continue to bring them.  When they do fly, they get buffeted by the strong gusts and soon land, but they needed to learn about all this. The adults that shelter under leaves stay fluffed out, while the pups get wet and stay soaked, so it must be a learned behavior to shake off the rain and stay warm. We still have four more days of rain, so we’re not out of it yet, but at least the winds are easing off some. Rains are much worse to our southeast. Prayers for Houston.  We’re ready to help with any bat fallout from trees and bridges.


Are these pups playing tag or is this a jam session?  Mexican free-tailed bats have been documented to jam each other’s echolocation signals when competition for food gets intense (see Aaron Corcoran’s research at http://sonarjamming.com) .  Do eastern red bats do the same in similarly competitive situations?  Here in the flight cage, there are not enough  moths for all the 30 plus flying rehab bats. Is this pup following his sibling to practice jamming his call and stealing the moth?  Or just playing?

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austin bat education presentations outreach talks


Action under the black light last night.  Moths attracted by the garden, moth pheromones, night-blooming plants, and the water all tend to congregate around the blacklight.
Our juvenile bats fly in wide loops tangent to the light and hope they time it right so they get the chance to practice their hunting skills.