Bats in town ???

Yes! The bats are in town now. Lots and lots of them! They are in downtown Austin, hanging under the Congress Avenue bridge, waiting for the sun to set. As they set flight from their hideout, they amaze people who gather above the bridge, on the banks of the lake, in boats, or those who are simply walking or driving through downtown. In addition to being a tourist attraction, these nocturnal flying mammals help the environment by eating insects and pests, and if left alone, are harmless. With this realization, and with the efforts from bat conservation and other local groups, Austin now has the largest urban colony of bats in North America, sheltering around 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats from March to October.

When we had shifted to Austin a decade ago, we had read about this, and were fascinated. Now that we may be living here for a while, let's settle down first, and wait for next spring to go see these bats. So we thought! Many springs came by and went away. The bats too must have come and gone. It was only this year, when we went for an evening stroll on the boardwalk on Lady Bird Lake, that we actually saw these flying visitors of Austin.

View of Austin skyline from the boardwalk

As we were walking back enjoying the setting sun, which was reflecting beautiful colors on the lake and highlighting the Austin skyline, we noticed a flurry of black objects moving across. "Birds! Birds!", the kids shouted. A lady walking by smiled and said those are bats, not birds.

The black lines in the sky are the bats

Well, we should have known it. These are the bats Austin is famous for! We continued to walk back, watching the black stream, and explaining the yearly migration and daily routine of these tiny mammals, to the kids and my parents, who were visiting us from India.

A week later, the topic of bats came up again. We were visiting our family friends, Jay/Shanthi, long-time residents of Austin. They mentioned how they had taken their out-of-town visitors to the Congress Avenue bridge, earlier that week, to see the bats. As with any topic, they gave us ample information along with motivation to head out to finally witness the amazing bat flight. If one cannot get on a boat and be on the lake, the center of the bridge seemed to be the best and easiest place for this. It was the end of August and it seems in August/September, there would be more bats. The babies born earlier in the season learn to fly and head out, adding to the numbers, making it close to two million bats.

After a cup of refreshing masala chai (spiced Indian tea), and spending some time in their beautiful yard, it was the perfect time to head out to the bridge. 

Feeding fish - an interesting activity for the kids

Open your eyes, be alert! It's the busy Congress Avenue Bridge

We parked behind the Austin American Statesman building, and walked by the lake, past the Statesman Bat Observation Center, which was already packed with people. We climbed the steps leading to the street and saw people lined up on the east side of the bridge. We were able to squeeze into some spots at the center. It was a cool evening and as the wind blew, we could smell bat guano or bat poop, which is supposed to be a very good fertilizer. In a short while, we saw cruise boats and paddlers heading towards the bridge, indicating it was almost time for the bats to head out.


Once the bats started flying out, it felt just like how our friends described - a giant bubble machine spitting out black objects instead of the usual white bubbles. It was as if the machine was non-stop. The bats quickly got into lines and started flying up and away. In the low light, these looked like black smoke rising out of buildings. Coincidentally, it was full moon that day, making it a lovelier sight.

Bats flying out - again the picture is not very clear and only shows black lines

View of full moon from the trail

Bats in a busy pathway

Like our friend said, we could have seen these tiny creatures better, if  the flight happened a little earlier, when there was more daylight. Surprisingly, a couple of weeks later, when we visited White Sands National Monument, we got a close-up view of bats, on the roof of a pathway in the visitor center. They were comfortably resting in spite of the heavy foot traffic beneath them.



Writing about the bats in Austin, I am reminded of the bats in my hometown, a small town named Cherthala in the state of Kerala in India. We used to watch bats hanging upside down on a tree across a canal. I am guessing these were fruit bats as we used to collect the seeds of a fruit which were apparently eaten by them. These seeds had a hard shell and we took great efforts to crack them open with stones to get the white nut that looked and tasted like an almond. I believe these nuts, called "bibbayi" in local language, are actually Indian or Sea almonds. Thinking of it now, I am not sure if it was safe to handle things left by a bat. There are numerous warnings about not touching or handling a bat, as they are potential carriers of many dangerous diseases including rabies.

Just be aware of the warnings and precautions but do not miss this if you are in Austin or if you plan to visit during months of March to October. This bat flight at night is an amazing sight, sure to delight.