Austin's Bats

These are Austin's famous Mexican Free-tailed Bats. They live under the Ann W. Richards Congress Ave. Bridge from March-November.

People gather every evening to watch the spectacle.



The bats take flight



By summers end there will be about 1.5 million bats after the bats have given birth. It is the largest urban bat colony in the world.



The streams of bats leave the bridge. They will comsume between 10,000 and 30,000 lbs of insects each night.

Round Rock's Bats

The city of Round Rock, just north of Austin, also has a bat colony. It's not as large, about half the size, nor as publicized as Austin's colony, but it is spectacular. Due to it's location, under an I-35 overpass, there is no designated viewing area. People gather on the road side, of the access road, and in parking lots.

I walked under and around the bridge and got some great shots of these little guys:


Here's the informal viewing area



Best view in the house



The stream



In flight

The twilight colors in the sky of the final image from Austin are especially lovely.

The curl of the bat flocks in flight is like dream smoke.

About Round Rock: I've been through there many a time. Was never lucky enough to view its bats. This series you've posted is quite rewarding, as the bat images grow larger and larger.

Mary

Nice story to go with the shots.

Anything that consumes 30,000 lbs of mosquitos is ok in my book!

There are a couple of lung diseases one can get from being around bird poop - I wonder if looking up at a million bats has a similar potential downside?

I wonder what else they eat besides mosquitoes and whether they are fussy?

Do they consume usefull insects too? What is their iimpact on the local ecosystem.

Asher

Steve, I would think it's more dangerous in an enclosed area like a cave. Around and under the bridges there's plenty of ventilation, so I don't worry.

Asher, I'm sure they don't discriminate when it comes to eating. I can live with some good insects getting eating along with the bad. I've been meaning to build a few bathouses to mount around our house for mosquito control.

That brings back some memories. (I spent some time in Austin - counting back, that was 11 years ago!)

A great photo-story.

...Mike