I was removing a window unit air conditioner today and saw this on the sill in the unit’s absence:
It was a bat; this much I knew.
So what are you supposed to do with a bat that you think is injured? Two things:
- Call a wildlife rescue expert and,
- Give the critter a bat box.
My younger son willfully donned gardening gloves and a dishtowel, and moved the bat from the sill into a Clark’s shoebox into which I’d put a plastic dish with some water and drilled holes. Son #1 snapped this picture:
I left a voicemail with Shaw Wildlife Sanctuary and Crystal Shaw called me back within minutes. She offered to take a look at the bat, but that would have been a bit of a ride.
A friend sent me a list of of rehabilitators from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, and from there I texted Jackie Kashmer of the New Jersey Bat Sanctuary. She texted me back within seconds asking for a picture of the bat.
Jackie said that it’s a Big Brown and that they are “pretty hardy.” She advised that I release him at night, from a high point, as he would get eaten by a bird if relased during the day, and that he’d crash into the ground if released from the ground. (I don’t know if the bat is a “he”.)
So the bat remains, for now, in a box downstairs, until it’s time to say farewell.
Update: The bat took wing on Nov 14th in the early evening.