Going Batty - Due November 5, 2021

jo.on.the.go

going, going, always going
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Swap Due Date: November 5, 2021
Signup/Withdraw Date: none, just make sure your give yourself enough time for the cards to arrive
Number of ATCs: 3 for 3 or 6 for 6
Number of Participants: Unlimited
Medium: Open. Any and all media and techniques are welcome. If you include stickers, do not make them the entire focus of the card. Try to keep embellishments to a minimum. Your cards may be realistic, impressionistic, or even whimsical. They may have a Halloween theme or not, it is your choice. I encourage hand drawn/hand painted, but whatever you want is fine with me.

Going Batty - a swap celebrating our winged friends: bats
View attachment 225643

Do you like bats? Or are you just curious about them? Please share your enthusiasm (or your disgust) for these critters by including them on an original ATC. As for myself, I was a biology major in college and I kept three bats in my apartment as part of a study of bat behavior.

CARD GUIDELINES
* This is a 3 for 3 or 6 for 6 card trade. Make three or six cards and receive the same number back.
* Only ATCs allowed. Cards need to measure 2.5" x 3.5" and must be sturdy enough to earn the name "card" (no floppy or flimsy paper).
* Cards should be be labeled on the back with your username, real name, where you live and name of swap. Maybe you could include a clever title.
* Each completed ATC should be in an individual vinyl sleeve for added protection.
* Please consider posting your finished cards in this thread and in the gallery. We all love eye candy and it serves as an inspiration for everybody! Let us know when you see cards that you especially like by checking "like" for a post or making a comment in the thread or gallery. When I swap out cards I look at comments made by players and try to give players cards that they like.
* A host ATC in the swap theme is appreciated and will be treasured, but is not a requirement!

MAILING GUIDELINES
* Please PM me for my address when cards are ready to send.
* Keep the due date in mind. I suggest 7 days for US players and 14 days for International players.
* US Players: Please send a large label with your name and address clearly printed on it, and as much loose postage as it took to mail the cards to me. Usually one "Forever" stamp is sufficient for three cards. More postage may be necessary to mail more than three cards. Check at your post office if you are uncertain. I WILL PROVIDE ENVELOPES.
* International Players: Please send a large label with your name and address clearly printed on it. I will provide postage for the first three international players. Additional players please send $1 or a "Forever" Global stamp. I WILL PROVIDE ENVELOPES.

I-TRADERS and YOU-ROCKS
* I will give you an I-Traders when I receive your ATCs.
* When you receive your cards, please don't forget to leave your reputation/rock points for the artists whose ATCs you receive, and an I-Trader for me (if you like the way this swap is handled).

cards received
PARTICIPANTS
1. Vicki Z; returns received
2. leydab; returns received
3. Ancient Planter; returns received
(4. acalla withdrawn)
5. somnia international #1; returns received
6. Seascape131; returns received
(7. JenUrebel withdrawn)
8. Allegrae; returns received
9. beaksalot; returns received
10. mrubyjean; returns received
(11. TrinaLD withdrawn)
12. luckycat479; returns received
13. theweavershand; returns received
14. KatieV
15. jhuss
16. KiinKing1440; returns received
17. BArox818; returns received
18. Suzi; returns received
19. KESagers; returns received
20. ferretgirl; returns received
21. pilarfarmer; returns received
 
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Welcome acalla and somnia. I wish more people liked bats. They seem to get such bad press - sort of like wolves.
 
I read that one bat can eat 1000-1200 mosquitoes per hour. Makes one wonder how that was measured!
When I was keeping bats I also had a mealworm colony because the bats liked live food. My bats each would eat 4-5 mealworms per day.
 
I lived in an apartment by myself in my last year of college, when I had the bats. When I flew home at the end, from Indiana to California, I put my three bats in a paper bag and boarded the plane. I could hear them chattering away where I stowed them under my seat, but nobody else seemed to notice. I guess that tells you something about airline security in 1970! My mother was certainly less than thrilled with my pets. Within two months I was living alone again. I used to let the bats fly free in my apartment. Of course, being captive, they never really got enough exercise but they would catch the stray fly in my apartment. I had an assortment of boyfriends, and one measure of a potential second date was if he didn't freak out when I let the bats loose.
 
Welcome to the swap Seascape131, JenUrebel and Allegrae.

Watching for bats has always been a fun pastime for me. I have had friends comment upon the "birds" flying about in the evening and I always assumed that they were happier thinking that the bats were birds instead. The difference between bat and swift flight patterns is that bats have a more erratic flight as they dart about catching insects.
 
One of the most memorable sights I’ve seen while traveling was watching the bats leave for their night feeding at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. My guide book states that hundreds of thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats exit the cavern each evening.
 
Yes, ferretgirl, baby bats are really cute. Here are some that I drew for Vicki Z's Vampire Swap:

View attachment 225675

When I was doing my bat study in college, I started with three Big Brown Bats (Eptesicus fuscus) which I obtained from a professor studying bat thermoregulation. He had received them from a farmer, but they weren't the species he was studying, so I got them. Two of the bats died early on, and I was afraid that my bat study was doomed. Then one night the third bat was screaming up a storm in the cage in my apartment. When I picked her up I thought that I had torn off a wing. But no, she had given birth to two baby bats! The babies were so tiny. When they nursed, the mother hung, head down, in the cage and wrapped her wings around the babies. The babies had their backs to the mother and nursed over their heads.

Another interesting thing that I learned was that if I gently pressed my finger on the heads of the babies, they would align themselves the length of my finger.

The mother and two babies were the bats I ended up with in California after college.
 
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