Lots of Central Texas bat activity on a chilly evening. Devil’s Sinkhole, Old Tunnel, and Huber really show up strongly because of their more isolated locations. Still a strong flight from Congress, so our newly released bats have plenty of company.
Latest research shows that 3 out of 4 Mexican free-tailed bats found in Saver’s Thrift Store prefer the Halloween department over other parts of the store. Even though bats have nothing to do with Halloween 😉 , they nonetheless provided holiday ambience as they hung decoratively up with the fake cobwebs up in the ceiling! The other was recovered from over the cash register area, so perhaps the last one was making sure they got paid for their advertising efforts!
They all were fine, just wondering why Savers keeps inviting them into the store and then freaking out about it. Humans!
Here are three of the four a few days later, ready to be released under Congress Avenue Bridge, as soon as F1 takes down the fences for their party at the bat-viewing area.
While they were resting up for their release, an immature Texas rat snake curled up under the roof tarp to stay dry and bask. He was within a few inches of one of the boys and would have had him for lunch but for the netting in between them. Watch out you valiant little bats!
Here’s the rat snake getting relocated a few miles down the creek.
Here they are finally getting released at Congress Avenue Bridge after their circuitous adventure!
Great work Di! The first two talks were to veterinarians at the Convention Center, the last one for the Rotary Club on their riverboat cruise. The boat cruise was really great! The city looked beautiful at night and the bats were translucent in the bridge lights!
A recent episode of Rick Steves Europe titled “Greece’s Peloponnese” included Epidavros, the Greek healing center where doctor-priests performed the work of Esclepios, the Greek god of medicine. This center served Greeks from ~400 BC to 426 AD.
When demonstrating the acoustics of the 12,000 seat amphitheater that entertained those who traveled there for healing, Steves gave a speech meant to sound as if delivered by an ancient Greek: “Friends, Greeks, wayfarers, in these times of discord, fear is rampant in our society. I contend that the flip-side of fear is understanding, and those who travel reap great understanding by meeting people who hold OTHER truths to be self-evident and God-given.”
We love this about Rick Steves and we wish that we could travel more to experience the truths of other cultures. We hope that one day we can do so, but in the meantime, we get to have travelers come to us as we staff the information table at the Congress Avenue Bridge Bat Viewing Area. Thanks so much to all the intrepid travelers who took the time to write in our Bat Journal!
In the future we’ll make a point of asking more about THEIR lives. Much as we love to have them log their impressions of the Austin bats, we want them to share THEIR truths and gain some insight into the way THEY see the world!
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:
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.
Love you little bat! Go have a happy happy life!
Here’s a last look at you pre-release
You look so good up there! Look at all those quick darting moves! Are you showing us how happy you are to be wild and free?
Here’s our boy pre-release. We’ll miss his antics and amazing leaf dancing!
And here’s his final wave goodbye! He is a fine young bat and we have every confidence he will live a long and happy life!
Morris! Last leaf bat of the year heads out. And what a great bat he was!
You were so much fun little bud! We’ll miss you! All the best!
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
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.
