Day 268 - Bertie the Bat

lunchtime is crunch time

The batphone rang for Anna today, so of course she immediately donned cape, put her pants on the outside, and dashed off to collect little Bertie here from a local school.

He'd been stuck indoors over the weekend...they think he must have flown in through a door which had been left open late on Thursday evening...this morning he was found, tired and hungry, on the floor in the sports hall.

He's a Common Pipistrelle, and the school staff that rescued him named him Bertie.

Having found him to be quite lively and animated, and apparently none the worse for wear, Anna brought him home with a plan to release him this evening.

And so Anna ran through the usual checks...inspecting his right wing for any problems...there's no sign of damage here:

wing of bat

Similarly, all is looking good for his left wing too...

other wing of bat

...although he's not too happy about the inspection!

Concluding that all was well, it was time to feed him up for release...

dinner dinner dinner dinner...

Here's a long, unedited video of Bertie having a couple of mealworm for lunch.




His appetite was strong, as you can see, and he ate 5 or 6 of these on the trot!

As dusk approached, we headed back to the school where he was found, 15 miles away, hoping to release him around 10-20 minutes after sunset, which is the time that he would naturally be emerging for his regular evening's foraging.

When Anna took him out of his box to release him under the trees just near where he was found, he seemed oddly reluctant to go.

He was a little lethargic initially, and despite shivering strongly to warm up, he didn't look as though he would fly.  Anna put him under her arm (by which I mean, up her armpit!) for 5 minutes to see if it would help, before once more holding him up to the night to see if he'd make a break for it.

For a few moments we were concerned that we'd have to take him home with us, which would leave care issues to sort out for whilst we're away...then it seemed as though he was just going to fall back to sleep...



But happily, instead off dropping off to sleep, he dropped from Anna's out-stretched fingers, spread his wings (coincidentally, his own out-stretched fingers!), and disappeared immediately into the surrounding darkness, never to be seen again. 

Another successful rescue operation for International Bat Rescue!

Be safe, little Bertie, and try not to fly into any more buildings!

:-)