The bats are back in town

The bats have been back for a good month now, but last night was the first time this season that I've stopped to watch the evening emergence. "Bats?" you say. Why yes. Through an odd chance of weather conditions, insects, and some well-suited architecture, Austin, TX has the largest urban bat colony in North America.

There are over one million Mexican free-tailed bats that live under the downtown Congress Avenue Bridge (it's the bridge on the right if you click through the link) that emerge nightly to feed on insects. At sunset, the bats come out from under the bridge, flooding the sky in a manner only properly captured by old horror movies.

The bats migrate up to Austin (from Mexico, hence the name) to enjoy our summer heat, eat our mosquitoes, and give birth to baby bats, known as pups. The pups are generally born in June, and by August they should be out learning to fly (which also greatly increases the size of the nightly bat emergence.) "The conservation group estimate(s) that the 1.5 million-member colony of bats under the bridge gobbles up between 10,000 and 30,000 pounds of insects, including mosquitoes, per night." (via "This is Austin - Bats".)

The bat colony is conveniently located and easy to watch. There's a park below for casual observation, and many people stand on the bridge itself for a closer look. For those coming by car, the Austin American-Statesman (a local newspaper) allows free, public use of it's parking lot after 6pm, which just happens to be right next to the Congress Avenue bridge.

Of course, you'll want to bring wooden stakes, holy water, silver bullets, and whatever other stopping power you might want to have handy just in case the evening turns into a vampires vs. humans bloodbath. But so far, that hasn't happened.

For more information, the Bat Conservation International has a good article on the bats and additional details on viewing the nightly bat emergence.