Bats! Bats! Bats!

I once read about the nightly flight of the bats from underneath the Congress Street Bridge in Austin, and while I thought it was pretty neat, I never really thought that I would go and see it.

And then, it just so happened that I was in the right place at the right time, and see it I did.



I will confess, it is one of the weirdest phenomenons I've ever encountered.  These bats are so cool that hundreds of people gather every night near this bridge to see them.  Nevermind that it was 100 degrees outside, even after the sun went down.  There were people selling ice cream snacks and popsicles.



We sat around the park by the bridge for a bit, eating our treats.





Then, we decided that we wanted a river-front spot to watch the bats come out.



So the bats live inside the underside of the bridge.  1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats.



It's the largest urban bat colony in the world.  And they all come out as the sun sets so that they can eat bugs.



For the record, anything that eats mosquitoes is fine by me.



Since they are bats, they don't really start appearing at any exact time.  Sitting around waiting and watching for the first ones to appear was part of the fun.



The tiny bats moved too quickly for the camera to catch clearly in the dim light, but you can see them alright in the video.