Round Rock Bats

[texfoto]

I was bored so I went to take some pictures of a nightly occurrence that takes place not too far from my house.

Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. The colony is estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats. Each night from mid-March to November, the bats emerge from under the bridge at dusk to blanket the sky as they head out to forage for food. (source: austincityguide.com)

There is another big group of bats in Round Rock on IH-35 under the highway over McNeil Rd. I don't know if there are a million but there must be thousands of these bats living inside the overpass. It is a unique overpass as it is enclosed underneath giving the bats a dark shelter. I don't know how they choose their direction but they always go east. They've even come over my neighborhood which is about 3 miles away as the crow flies.

These aren't the greatest looking pics but under the circumstances it was the best I could do. They came out 30 minutes later than last night! These pics are from the Round Rock location.







Two or three hawks were feeding on the bats as they came out.


They just litter the sky. There are so many of them.

[Patti Edens]

Cool shots! I like them all! My favorite is the last one with the swarms in the sky. I shot the bats in Houston a week or so ago and found that my favorite shots were ones that I underexposed about 1 full stop. It bought me a little extra shutter speed and you could see the orange in the sky.

[ttusa]

WOW that last one is amazing-a ton of bats!

[texfoto]

Yes, there are a lot of bats. When you drive by on the highway as they are leaving they look like swarms of bees. Freaky.

[w9ctm]

One correction. They do not always fly to the east. Traci and I have watched them many times fly off to the west. But that was last year...

Actually, I find these more interesting to watch come out than the bats at Congress Bridge. These come out before dusk, so you can actually see them as they fly away. In Austin at the other bridge, you have to watch them under the poor illumination of the lights on the bridge.

[corralup]

That's really amazing. I have a few bats at my house. They fly in a figure eight pattern over where my horses stay in the lot I keep them in. Every night I get creeped out when I feed my three horses. I'm tempted to grab my camera but these guys are harder than swallows to catch on digital. I guess when you get a lot of them it's worth it.
I like your pictures and that last one is really cool.

[texfoto]

W9CTM,
They fly west? I wish I could catch that. The light off the sun is nice and would keep me from using a flash.

Corallup,
They fly in a figure 8 (or some variation) under the bridge as well. It doesn't look like they all leave. If you want a picture, use a flash to help freeze the action. My camera will only do 1/250 flash sync max so. They are fast though and elusive so I take what I can get.

mike