20 Tons of Bats Just Flew Out of That Bridge!
Good-sized crowd – Great emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge. Even though they flew right about dark, they were backlit by the city lights and everyone down below got a great view!J
Month: October 2017
Loops and Swoops
We love to watch the behavior of the bats while they are hunting. The top photo shows a red bat echolocating a moth above his head just before he loops up to attempt a capture. We’re not sure if he caught one this time, but the bottom photo shows him flying around with a moth he captured a few minutes before the top photo was taken. The photos are obviously out of focus, but they capture hunting behavior so well that we had to post them.
Fire the Lasers!
Free-tailed pup trying on his scary face for Halloween. We’re not buying it – still way cute!
Best Insta-replies?
From pink_1101floyd “Fire the lasers!”
From 747mandi “Game face!”
Ebb & Flow
Huber Limestone Mine bats left their Marble Falls roost and headed towards the Blackland Prairie last night, arriving in Austin and Rock Rock around 11 pm. There is apparent comingling of the colonies as they hunt, suggesting considerable ebb & flow between the roosts on a regular basis, either nightly or during shifts in short-term weather patterns.
TX Spiny Lizard – Praying Mantis
One of the Texas Spiny Lizards in our flight cage caught a Praying Mantis! We love the Mantis, but we’ve seen them sizing up the bat pups as if thinking “I can take you”! Don’t think so!
Sara Hayashi
What fun to have Sara come and visit our flight cage! Sara is from Tokyo and studying abroad at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning in Buffalo, NY. She is writing a book on Architecture for Animals and came by our facility after visiting the Bat Tower in Comfort, TX.
We so enjoyed her visit! And we want to be first to purchase her new book on its way to the Bestseller List!
Here is Sara taking notes in our flight cage. What a beautiful language!
We are so grateful that she translated this for us! The first word in the second line is “bat” in Japanese. Sounds like “Comoro”?
Thank you for the visit, Sara! All the best to you! We look forward to following your career!
Groot & the Seminole Girls go back to the Wild!
Groot goes back to the wild! Our wonderful Seminole pup Groot was released last night at Jerry and Jim Czyzak’s property in Red Rock, TX. Jerry found Groot in her swimming pool back in July and brought him to us for drinking lessons. He soon learned to judge his angle better as he swooped down for a drink, but never forgot his pool experience. We could never get him to take more than a drop of water, even on the hottest days when others drank a whole syringe!
Last night he went home and brought with him two female Seminole friends. Those of us who witnessed the release have a feeling there will be lots more baby Seminoles at Jerry’s place next June! 🙂
The Seminole Girls were rescued by Tracy Rider and came to us from TWRC. They gave us so much joy as they learned to fly, then drink on the wing. They were among the most dependable drinkers and were the subjects of many of the drinking videos. Love these bats!
Best of luck Groot and you wonderful Seminole girls! We loved getting to know you all and will miss hanging out with you in the flight cage! We will keep with us your friendship and the memories of your trust in us. Thank you for being so patient with us and knowing we would find a great spot for you. This property has tons of pine trees, part of the Lost Pines of the Bastrop area, and you all will make fine faux pine cones as you hang in the pines all day awaiting the nightly hunt. Our thoughts will be with you always.
Here’s Groot when he first came in as a juvy. What a beautiful bat!
All the best to you Seminoles! Long life!
The Pip
Tiny but mighty! The smallest US bat, tri-coloreds are amazing flyers, powered by those rippling back muscles.
