Austin's a Little Batty

Every night during the summer in Austin, hoards of people gather along the Congress Street to watch an urban bat colony emerge from underneath the bridge. This was one of those things that I didn't even know was on my bucket list until I heard about it. I've been fascinated with bats since my first spelunking experience in middle school, where I got to see a little one face to face in the wild.

People were everywhere- on the water, down on the ground in the park, and along the top of the bridge, fighting for space on the rail. People waited at least an hour before sunset to get a good spot- although I was there about 30 minutes ahead of time and pretty satisfied with my space on the railing.

As the sun started to set, I got a little impatient and googled about the bats. The bat colony is made up of 1.5-2 million Mexican free tailed bats. The colony is larger in August, when the mothers give birth to their young. The colony is the largest urban colony in North America, which is part of what makes their emergence so fascinating to watch- there are so many.

Initally, one or two came out from under the bridge and wheeled around to go back under, as if they had changed their mind. After a few minutes, the number increased to a flood, a river of bats extending to the horizon as they winged their way to the bug buffet in the sky. The ceaseless flow of bats was just fascinating.