Today, we went out to Congress Avenue Bridge, which crosses over Lady Bird Lake in Austin. What's special about this bridge is that it's home to the largest urban bat colony in the world. That's right, about 1.5 million bats hang out under this bridge. That's more bats than the total human population of Austin.
The coolest part is that when dusk hits, it's feeding time. Around 8:30pm, swarms of Mexican free-tailed bats fly out from under the bridge, hunting for insects. According to what I've read, these bats consume 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects between them. That's insane! Oh, and the wonderful smell of guano (bat poop) fills the air when they come out. It's not so pleasant and you can't avoid it. Video of flying bats below.
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