Bat Tours In Austin

Though we see bat imagery throughout Austin, lots of Austinites have yet to experience one of the most unbelievable views that takes place along among our busiest roads each year from March to November.

Underneath the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge lives the biggest metropolitan bat colony in The United States and Canada. When they arise in the evening throughout "bat period," it's like a cloud flying towards the eastern.

There are several areas where you can see the team of bats. The Austin-American Statesman park on the southeast side of the South Congress Bridge is totally free and also available to the public. There is additionally standing space along the walkway of the bridge itself. An additional method to see the bats and the city is to take a watercraft trip on Lady Bird Lake.

The assistance framework of the South Congress Bridge, such as the buttresses, pylons, arches and also articles, are original to the 1910 building and construction. When the roadway was rebuilt in 1980, designers included small voids running along the size of the bridge's bottom.

Completely by crash, this drew in the bats that currently populated the drains below the north side of the bridge. They remade their residences in the fractures, where they are able to pile on top of each other. Their populace boosted and got to maximum ability in simply three years.

Currently the north end of the bridge is thought about the "baby room," considering that this is where the mothers stash their children. After they go on their every night search for food, they return to the north end of the bridge and also search for their dogs by noise and fragrance, which can take 2-20 minutes. Once they registered nurse their babies, the mommies take shelter a little bit additional along the bridge.

The cloud of bats everyone wants to catch sight of is the "initial shift" of bats exiting the spaces of the bridge to hunt for flying bugs such as mosquitos and also moths. This initial wave flies out right prior to sunset, and also it can take 2-3 hours for all of the bats to find out.

During the gestational period in April-- May, the Guide to Bat Season in Austin mommy bats are extremely hungry so there are a great deal of good evenings to catch the 750,000 bats leaving. They all give birth in the exact same 2-week window in very early June, which causes them to leave later on in the night and also lowers our opportunity to see them. In late July/early August the nursing period is finishing and the children start flying by themselves. This is considered "peak period," since the whole population of 1.5 million flies bent on hunt.

The bats do remain to fly out every single evening, but some evenings they are very tough to see. By the first week of November, the bats have started to migrate, it is beginning to get cool and there is reduced visibility.

Every early morning, the bats return to the bridge regarding 30 minutes before sunup. They are out for around 7-8 hours. They quest by themselves, and also it is not as big of a phenomenon when they come back considering that they do not return in waves.