Mastodawn

I was swarmed by mosquitoes last night while releasing a bunch of my longer-term bat rehabs.

All I could think as the batties lifted off of my hand and into the sky was… “yes YES… FLY my pretties!” and cackling internally.

Anyway, I’m:

—thrilled these batties are out in the world and flying the evening skies again.

—worried about them finding their way in the world.

—pleased to have the space again to take in more new cases.

—sad to not see some of their faces every day.

—comforted by the goofy little batties that are still in residence.

—trying to ignore the mosquito bite in the middle of my forehead.

Last night’s release count:
6 Mexican Free-tailed bats
(Tadarida brasiliensis)

2 Southeastern Myotis (Myotis austroriparius)

🖤🦇🖤
#BatsInMyBelfry #BatsInBlankets

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Duckbilled Plattypus.Mar 1

@mycrowgirl Thank you on behalf of us besieged by mosquitoes. Bats are such efficient and graceful antidotes to mosquitoes. We used to have our night skies filled with bats, so when walking at night you could hear their wings fluttering next to your ears as the swooped to catch and scatter the biting pests. Unfortunately, white nose killed off almost all of them. They are slow to return, we are at about 1% to 3% of their numbers from 20 years ago.

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Lisa 🦔

@pattykimura it’s such a scary decline!

Unfortunately, white nose syndrome is only a part of the problem. It only really affects the cave/crevice dwelling bats.

We’re also seeing huge declines in our tree roosting bats from habitat loss due to overdevelopment and unhelpful landscaping practices.

Then consider the terrifying loss of insect mass from pesticides etc. Just because we’re being bitten by mossies doesn’t mean there’s sufficient food for batties (and other insectivores). 😥

The good news is that this is all stuff we can fight, even if it’s hard. And in the meantime, we’ll be out there helping the little ones who land themselves in a spot of bother. ❤️‍🩹
🖤🦇🖤

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Duckbilled Plattypus.Mar 1

@mycrowgirl

We live in a rural area of ledge and caves and lots of woods. Many in our area agreed to protect the farms and woods (mostly hilly woods) because we (as a group) were identified as a major private land connector between federal and state wilderness for wild animals to move from south of us (we're in New England) to Canada and back. Between all the neighbors, we protected about 800 or 900 acres of corridor.

But these are all informal agreements.

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Lisa 🦔Mar 1

@pattykimura informal is better than nothing! It can be a start to something bigger one day, and in the meantime every little bit makes a big difference!