bats

On Sunday evening, after the end of NCDD 2008, a group of us met at the Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin, to see the bats emerge from under the bridge. In theory, the bridge is home to 750,000 or more Mexican Free-tailed Bats. Every evening, tourists gather on and around the Congress Avenue bridge to watch the bats come out to eat. The night before, some of our colleagues watched the spectacle. However, we weren’t so lucky. After waiting for over an hour and a half, we only saw a few hundred bats emerge alone or in small groups. We’re not sure what we did to scare them away.

Joining me on the bridge, from left to right: Lou Klepner, Tim Erickson (me), Tom Murray, Sandra Zagon, Martin Rutte, Miriam Wyman.