By David W. Crump

 

If you are in downtown Austin on an early summer evening, it is hard to miss our bat swarm. The bat colony emerges just before sundown from their roost under the Congress Street Bridge in search of an insect supper. A winding horizontal vortex of an estimated 1.5 million Mexican Free-Tailed Bats streams from beneath the bridge and then snakes along Lady Bird Lake.

 

 

Austin hosts a nursing colony. The bat mothers arrive in early Spring and have their baby “pup” normally in mid-June. The young bats learn to fly by late August and then join the evening swarm to hunt for insects. This makes the most impressive emergences Late August and September evenings. The colony relocates south to Mexico as the colder temperatures of Fall approach in October.

 

Mexican Free-Tailed are medium-sized insect eating bats. They are very fast flyers reaching speeds of 60 mph. They are also long-distance travelers often migrating up to a thousand miles between central Mexico, Texas and beyond. The bats benefit our region with their voracious appetite for flying insects.

 

The Congress Street Bridge was widen in the 1980’s and an accident of this redesign was prefect crevices for the nursing bat mothers. The setting also attracted colonization with its water and location near prime insect hunting grounds in the Colorado River valley. The bat colony was initially considered a pest but has since been embraced as a tourist attraction and is now a celebrated part of the Keep Austin Weird culture.

 

Central Texas hosts many other bat colonies. The largest is a huge 20 million strong colony near San Antonio in Bracken Cave. Another large colony is in the Old Tunnel Wildlife Management area near Fredericksburg. A new colony has started under the McNeil bridge of I-35 in Round Rock.

 

 

The bats normally emerge just before sundown and fly east to hunt for insects in the Colorado River valley. The south sidewalk of the Congress Bridge is my favorite spot. While other views are available, the Congress Bridge lets you see the columns of bats as they fly east down the river. The bridge vantage point also avoids the odor which can be intense. Arrive about an hour before sundown to claim a good spot. Also, take the time to read the education signs in the small park on the southeast bank next to the bridge.

 

 

The bat swarm from the Congress Bridge is part of what keeps Austin fun and weird. Enjoy!

  

David W. Crump, Ross Gray Insurance Agency

 

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Links to Austin favorite attractions: http://www.quoteaustininsurance.com/pages/home/austin-links.php

 

I specialize in Business, Health and Personal Insurance sales and service. A graduate of Texas Tech University (BBA Marketing), I began my career in retailing of Toy, Hobbies and Games. I have been a business owner but changed careers to insurance after selling my interest in a Dallas area Game Store Chain thirteen years ago. Hobbies include Gardening, Music (Bass Vocal) and Stock Investing.

 

See our website at http://www.quoteaustininsurance.com/

 

Ross Gray Insurance Agency has a 30+ year history serving Central Texas on all facets of insurance. We are located in South Austin at 2404 S. IH-35. We are here to help!

 

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