Holy Bat Colony, Batman!!!!

[Marv800]

So I recently learned that there is a colony of a few hundred thousand of these little bloodsuckers a couple miles from my home:

http://www.buffalobayou.org/WaughBatColony.htm

Apparently, every evening at dust, these little vampire-makers fly out from under the bridge en masse, to hunt the good people of Houtex.

Anyone ever seen this? Thought it might be cool to try and shoot.

Thinking it would be challenging, since I would want pretty decent depth of field, yet my shutter speed would have to be fast... maybe this is "High ISO" territory... like 3200ish?

Anyone here shoot these winged rats yet? ;)

[Angelo]

There's a bridge in Austin that boasts a million + bats in October. I think that's the month that one can find the most amount of bats under that bridge.

[Steelsun]

Yeah, I've been to the Houston colony a few times (and the Austin one also).

They discourage the use of flash, which at the speed these suckers (groan) move, their size, and the low light of dusk is really needed.

You can have fun with a tripod and a slower exposure though - bat trails.

[snidow]

Brian is right about not using flash, the flash actually causes the bats to get disoriented and that can cause them to get injured and die. It's why no photography of the bat flight at Carlsbad is allowed.. it was a no flash rule but people would still use their flash.. so no photos. :-(

[Sonny]

Be glad the bats are close to you! Those little dudes eat tons of mosquitoes a night!!

[S-Man]

I might need someone to dumb it down for me about why flash can't be used. Aren't bats supposedly blind?

I Definitely want to check this out nonetheless...

[tc95]

Mary,

I have been there twice....really cool to photograph...I recomend an F2.8 fast zoom...with your ISO at 800+ make sure your shutter is at 1/400 at least...I would go faster....it is great to watch...

Sam, you do not want to use a flash beacuse thes creatures see better at night...not all bats are blind...only a few species (I could be wrong...but that is what I remeber from the dicovery channel) they do fly by sonnar...but just like us...you pop a flash in our faces...and I bet you get disoriented...(this next piece is an example...don't really do it!!!)now do that while you are driving down the highway at 60 to 70 miles and hour and see what happens... Also, the flash puts out a high frequency pitch when fired...which will further muck things up.....Hope this helps you out a bit...