Currently In Care

[den]

Yesterday a lady with a tupperware container walked into the office. "Are you in Wires?" she asked.

"Er, yes. How did you know?"

"Oh, [VET] told me. He said you look after bats." She handed me the container. Inside was a large bat.

It was a very large bat. In fact, she was a greater long eared bat, one of the larger insectivores. The lady found her on a screen door in the middle of town, in a vulnerable position where any shopper passing by would see her. There was nothing wrong with her, apart from being very grumpy from being handled. Perfectly normal.



Her wings were huge. Holding her as I am in this photo, one of her wings reached the entire length of my fore-arm, right up to the elbow. She weighed 20 grams, instead of the 4 to 10g I usually see. I kept her in care until dark and let her go.

Also in care, a young noisy miner. I've has this honey eater since a tiny ball of fluff, and he's almost ready to go. He's self feeding on the nectar mix and chopped meal worms and is quite wild.

Also in care, Boyde, a magpie chick. His nest was blown from a tree, and was the only survivor. He is perching now and is STARVING TO DEATH! I've moved him to the large cage to stretch his wings, but I still have to take him to work in the little cage so I can feed him. He doesn't like the little cage.

And in other news, a pair of peewees are building their mud nest in the sycamore tree in the back yard. I have a feeling they are some I raised because they are quite unconcerned by my presence in the yard. Normally peewees are secretive, but these two call out like mad.

And in other news, a fellow rescuer has been handed a 120g, smooth, pink puggle. I wish I had it, but I have to be fair and share the puggle love around.

Photos to come.

Comments

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

Actually, just last weekend we found a huge bat in our yard. Mom said she saw it whizz past and smack into either the tree or the fence. The wingspan wasn't quite as long as what you describe here, but could have easily been about half that; it had its wings stretched out as it lay stunned on the ground.

We just left it there, as Mom said it was sick and was afraid to touch it. It left on its own shortly afterwards, so it seems to have been all right. A few months back, we rescued a smaller one from our pool. That one was lucky it was still alive when we found it.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Never handle bats without having gloves and rabies shots. A tiny percentage of bats have rabies (or in my case Lyssavirus, no rabies here) but you'd never know. A bat that hits anything not a glass window has something wrong.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

She's beautiful!

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

Beautiful creature! I love the expression on her face.

I recently discovered we really DO have bats in our forest. I'm planning on building and installing boxes for them ASAP. Anything capable of eating Florida's mosquitoes is a very welcome neighbor. Besides, they're pretty in flight.

Yay, puggle! Too bad you have to share.

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

20 grams!?
Oh she's healthy, all right!
"Get me out of heeeeeeere!" says it all. Open the cage door and VOOOOM! ;).
Lovely ears, too.
Hope the Peewees don't expect you to rear their young for them!

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Thick gloves, too, right? Because they can bite through just plain gloves?

The bats are especially active in my neighborhood right now since it's fall and they're fattening up on the Miller moths (http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Pests/millers.htm). I don't know what kind of bats because I only ever glimpse them around dusk, or hear them after dark. They're small though.

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Gandhi is reputed to have said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

The same could be said of individuals.

[kuangning]

Sadly, I can't quite buy that when there are still so many places where an animal is held as inherently more valuable than a woman or a child, and is treated accordingly.

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

That's what my mom said, because of ecolocation.

[frith]

Your journal has gone PG14? Is this a permanent feature? 8-(

Nice bat. Feisty. ^_^ I would have put on leather gloves.

[dennier.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I'm glad you're there to take care of her. The presence of bats is one of the things I miss about my ol' caving days with the Central Oklahoma Grotto in the late 80s/early 90s. That was a good time in my life.

[kayshapero]

Cute batty.

I once nearly stepped on a smallish gopher snake sunning itself on the sidewalk (which is high traffic enough to be a dangerous thing to do). Upon ascertaining that it was a) not someone's strayed pet and b) the nearest houses contained ophidiophobes so putting it back was NOT a good idea, I brought it to a reptile rescuer friend of mine to be checked out. Last I heard it was a classroom pet somewhere, and doing fine.

Sounds like those peewees are proving to you that troubles aren't the only thing that come home to roost. :)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

There are good bat house plans on http://batcon.org/home/default.asp Do be too disappointed if bats don't move in straight away, but they will move in.

I would be very surprised if you didn't have bats. Got bugs? Got bats. 8)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I was fiddling around with the settings and must have hit the wrong button. I'll fix that soon.

But I do swear on occasions.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Gandhi's comment still holds. In this case, the nation is not very great at all.

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Well, you are absolutely correct, if things like that are going to be factored in. I suppose I should have added "ceteris paribus". But in the absence of such distinctions, I feel as though the sentiment has merit.

[hespa.livejournal.com]

Normally peewees are secretive

**blinkblink** They are? I tend to think of magpie-larks as some of the louder, brasher birds around... The ones nesting at our depot have gone so far as to wander in and out of the bushland shed while we're standing in the doorway!

Then again, of the two pairs I've seen nesting, they don't seem to call when they're at the nest... Is that what you meant?

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Yes. On the nest they are very quiet until the chicks hatch. Nothing will shut them up.

[somk.livejournal.com]

She's so cute ! Look at this face, such a beautie *awww puppy eyes mode*