Mexican Free-Tail Bats

After leaving Fredericksburg, Texas, I continued on to Austin, just in time to see thousands of Mexican free-tail bats fly out from underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge.  I have see this spectacle before - it is an awesome thing to watch.  At dusk, the bats fly out from their home under the bridge to feed on insects.  It is very difficult to photograph, as the bats are moving fast and it is dark.

 

The Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin is the spring and summer home to some 750,000 bats with up to 1.5 million bats at the peak of the bat-watching season. It's the largest urban bat colony in North America.  While bats have called Austin home for many years, it was after renovations to the Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake in 1980 that they found their favorite hang-out. Narrow but deep openings created in the bridge turned out to be perfect accommodations.  Each evening around sunset the Congress Avenue bats emerge like a black cloud from the crevices of the bridge. Covering the countryside in search of food, it is estimated that the bats consume from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects.  Giving birth in June or July, the bats and pups hang around til October when they head back south. Watching the nightly forays for food is a favorite evening activity, especially in late summer.