If you live in Austin and have not visited the Congress Street Bridge, affectionately known as the bat bridge, you need to go. If you are visiting and the bats haven't left for the winter, this is a must see for you too.
The Congress Street Bridge in downtown that crosses Lady Bird Lake is home to the world's largest urban mammal colony. Arriving in the spring and leaving in the fall, an enormous colony of Mexican free-tailed bats live in the underside of the bridge. Around 750,000 bats arrive at the Bat Bridge, with most being females. These female bats give birth to pups during the summer and that just about doubles the bat population under the bridge.
I took my girls to the Bat Bridge a few years ago and we stood on the sidewalk atop the bridge. Around sunset we started hearing noises coming from under the bridge. The noise turned out to be the flapping of the wing-like structures that the bats use to fly. The bats exiting the bridge seemed to take forever. We could see them come out below us, but then lost them as they blended in to the darkness of the water.
The best viewing is by the Austin American Statesman building. The newspaper actually created an observation area for the public to use which is right beside the bridge. Another good place to view the bats is along the hike and bike trail on the north side of the lake.
At first, one might think that having 1.5 million bats in downtown Austin is a bit strange. Some people might even find it creepy. However, these little animals are actually doing us a public service by living where they do as they eat a tremendous amount of flying insects every night. I have seen estimates ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects that the bats consume every night.
In case you are wondering, there are other significant bat colonies around the Austin area. Under the overpass where McNeil Road crossed IH 35 in Round Rock is another colony. There is also one in Mansfield Dam. If you are someone impressed by numbers, you will love this next one. Bracken Cave, outside of San Antonio, is home to the largest bat colony in the world with an estimated 20 to 40 million bats.
There are a lot of things to see and do in Austin and watching the bats at The Bat Bridge is one of the most unique.
Author Bio:
Sam Chapman is a REALTOR who has lived and worked in the Austin area since 1987. Sam enjoys helping people buy or sell Austin real estate and he enjoys volunteering in the community. Read Sam's Austin Real Estate Blog.
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