Congress Avenue Bridge

D-Day’s Big Night

Our former neo-nate D-Day had his big night last night!  He and all his classmates joined the Congress bat colony, in plenty of time to integrate prior to their migration south in a few weeks to come. So thrilling to watch them go!

D-Day was found on June 6th as a newborn pup clinging to the top of the bridge with just his feet and tail sticking up under the railing.
Dianne rescued him and hand-raised him and his free-tailed classmates from little specks, so tonight was emotional, as the end of their captive upbringing and the beginning of their new life as part of the wild Congress Avenue Bridge colony! Go with the bat gods, with the wind, with your guts, little pups!

 

Danielle O’Neil’s great photo of D-Day at 3 weeks:

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Just to train them correctly, we waited until all the tourists left before releasing them from the top of the grassy slope of the bat viewing area ;). (It seems the Congress colony waited to emerge until the crowd of tuna boats, kayaks, LED lights, and red lights went away, before they emerged.) So our pups will learn from the best!  That means, of course, that our pup also did not cooperate with the paparazzi, so no videos or photos of the release! Good bats! This photo from the flight cage earlier in the season.

People from Poland, France, and Alaska all came to see the emergence last night!  We love having our information table at the bridge to help inform the tourists about the bats.

 

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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

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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!”

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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.

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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!

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Still Standing

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! We’re doing ok. The trees are still standing, although they looked as if they were in a washing machine for the last few days. The pups are doing fine. They seem to prefer their leaf umbrellas to the covered areas to which we continue to bring them.  When they do fly, they get buffeted by the strong gusts and soon land, but they needed to learn about all this. The adults that shelter under leaves stay fluffed out, while the pups get wet and stay soaked, so it must be a learned behavior to shake off the rain and stay warm. We still have four more days of rain, so we’re not out of it yet, but at least the winds are easing off some. Rains are much worse to our southeast. Prayers for Houston.  We’re ready to help with any bat fallout from trees and bridges.

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Saturday Night Flights

Great emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge tonight.  Great fun talking to the tourists from all over the world. Especially the wonderful family from New Jersey whose daughter is going for her Girl Scout Silver Award by creating this website https://sites.google.com/site/maketheworldabattierplace/ Check it out!


They are multi-national, with family from Italy, Spain, and Venezuela and we had great fun surfing Google Earth together. Thanks y’all!
Mount Roraima, Venezuela!

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Stable cooler temps = better flights at CAB

Stable, cooler temperatures after the storms led to the first great emergence in over a week, last night at Congress Avenue Bridge.
Here we see about 1-1/2 million Mexican free-tailed bats on Doppler radar as they head out to the agricultural fields to forage for crop pests.
Winds from the NE at emergence sent them to the SSE about 18 miles past Mustang Ridge along Cedar Creek.
We frequently see them head on a broad reach to the wind, taking advantage of the free ride while knowing the winds normally die down by the time they want to return.

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Protect your throats!

Our wonderful Kyndal Irwin shows the Congress Avenue Bridge crowd a fallen juvenile Mexican free-tailed bat, as the humans protect their throats from imminent Vampire/Chupacabra attack!
Next time they will purchase our Kevlar throat protectors!
JUST KIDDING!  These wonderful folks were actually WAY more worried about the little bat!

This crowd was treated to a very close look (no touching!) as Kyndal talked about all she has learned about these wonders of the world as an intern at Austin Bat Refuge.
The children especially were enchanted and looked up to Kyndal as if she were a fairy bat princess as she showed all the features of the little bat and described their delightful personalities.
This little bat was dehydrated and was brought back to the refuge for electrolyte therapy before release.

We love the variety of astonished looks as she cares for this pup!

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Austin bat presentations talks outreach education Congress Avenue Bridge

Austin bat presentations education outreach talks Congress Avenue Bridge

Austin bat presentations education outreach talks Congress Avenue BridgeAustin bat presentation education outreach talks Congress Avenue Bridge

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Who says they’d burst into flames?

Another great emergence at Congress Avenue Bridge!  Half the bats you see are pups that have only been flying for a week or two. Thanks to all who came by to visit at our info table!
Who says if sunlight hits them they burst into flames?  Apparently the just glow!

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