“We presented over 30 high-impact programs at central-city events including Barton Springs University and HEB’s Our Future Our Texas Festival. We facilitated film shoots (one with local Emmy Award-winning cinematographer Skip Hobbie). We enjoyed cultural exchanges with Danish performance artist (and bat lover) Lihn Le and British poet and filmmaker (and bat lover) Katie Byford. Travis Audubon allowed us to install a soft-release bat house for our evening bats in lovely Blair Woods—we are so grateful for their collaborative spirit! This year’s Volunteer Appreciation outing was to Bracken Cave, the home of the largest aggregation of mammals on the planet. It was an awesome team-building experience to witness the vortex of millions of free-tailed bats and feel the wind from the powerful beating of their wings as they rise in undulating ribbons into the sunset.”

“This was a year of interns and education programs, the first of which made the latter possible. Lee and I scheduled nearly twice as many education programs as we did in 2022 because we had something many wildlife rehabilitators are in short supply of: time. We doubled our summer help thanks to our generous supporters; for a team of three, this was huge. Amanda, Eli, Hilary, Kayla, Lisa, and Michelle braved the heat, mosquitoes, and bigger-than-bats cicadas to deliver exceptional care to our most vulnerable bats, the pregnant or nursing moms and the freshly minted pups.”

“It’s the power of people that saves bats’ lives. This truth informed our decisions in 2022. We grew our volunteer base, hired two part-time employees to increase our capacity to care for bats, and invited the wonderful Hilary Pelham to join our board. When bat researchers from around the world gathered in Austin for their annual conference, we jumped at the opportunity to connect with them by offering refuge tours. Lee and I have always wanted to build a community of people who love bats, and we made big strides towards that goal in 2022.”

“2021 got off to a rocky start as Winter Storm Uri blew through Central Texas and led to our largest influx of patients ever, but we made it through because of support from our board, volunteers, and donors—and maybe a few all-nighters pulled by Lee and me. We’re so grateful for all the people who make it possible to respond to each year’s unique challenge and who allow us to be there for the bats, come what may.”