Bats over Austin is a photograph by Juli Scalzi which was uploaded on May 11th, 2017.
Title
Bats over Austin
Artist
Juli Scalzi
Medium
Photograph
Description
Austin, Texas.
Every summer night, hundreds of people gather to see the world's largest urban bat colony emerge from under the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, Texas. So I joined the people to see what this was all about. I could hear them but couldn't see them. They live and sleep in the small gaps that run along the length of the bridge. The north end of the bridge is considered the "nursery," since this is where the mothers stash their babies while they go on their nightly hunt for food.
The cloud of bats everyone hopes to catch sight of is the “first shift” of bats exiting the gaps of the bridge to hunt for flying insects such as mosquitos and moths. This initial wave flies out right before sunset, and it can take 2-3 hours for all of the bats to come out. It was like a cloud of bats flying right over my head. Next time I will be there with a tripod!
Uploaded
May 11th, 2017