My First Virginia Bat Sightings

We got another red bat at my place of work in Newport News, VA on Friday September 28. It was our second bat, and happened to be our second red bat, since I started in mid-August. The first red bat was a male that was brought in on ______ by a man who lives in ______. He had accidentally run it over with his lawn-mower, because the bat was sitting on the ground in his field. This male red bat had a completely broken wing at the elbow joint, and he was taken to a vet and euthanized. Poor guy, he was very beautiful. He waits in the freezer to be donated to Rick's mammalogy lab. So our second red bat was a female that had been called in by an employee at Casey Honda dealer on Jefferson. (?) She was hanging on a wall with one wing out stretched and the employee could see a hole in the wing, so he called us. The ranger on duty caught the bat by putting a bucket over it, then putting the lid on, then he delivered the bat to us. I took the lid slightly off the bucket, peeked inside, said "ooo its another red bat!" and the she jumped right out and flew through the tiny opening, slapping me in the face as she passed. She flew around inside for about five minutes before we brought her down with a net and released her outside. The hole in her wing was about the same size as a genetic punch sample, not an injury that needed our help.

I hope to have many more bat encounters to record while I work here at the park.
Here is a picture I took with my cell phone of the male red bat, after euthanasia.