OK, so we took the kids to Austin for a few days, that's why I have not been around.
The largest urban bat colony in THE WORLD lives under a bridge in Austin TX. Of coarse, the batteries on my camera died at dusk, when the bats emerge!
For a solid hour millions of bats awoke & emerge from under the bridge. There is NO way you have any idea how many that is untill you have seen it!
Here are some photos on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesma/2410035721/
This photo only shows 1 strean of bats from under 1 spot on the bridge. Bats emereged from 5-6 spots for an hour solid. It was CRAZY!
We saw a bat hit the ground, don't know why, maybe a mid air collision. Once it shook off the head ache, it scampered across the path & up a tree & *tried* to take off w/o luck & fell again. This second time it only fell from about 10 feet so it zoomed across the path & up the tree again super fast we all backed off & gave it space in hopes it would make it that time. Bats can't *take off* from the ground. They have to start off w/ a bit of elevation I am told.
It was too cool!
We also went to schlitterbauhn the worlds #1 water park ( :roll: ) jumped into the Colorado river & did assorted other vacation like activities . Schlitterbaun realy was fun, I thought it was going to be the worst day of my life but it enjoyable much to my surprise.
The food in Austin is amazing! Every place you go offers a huge vegetarian selection & many, many fresh, natural alternatives. We had the most amazing fajitas. They wee onion, red & green pepper, plabano, eggplant, squash & potatoe! The mex food is awesome too w/ a real southwest &/or south American flair. They have pancakes made of everything you could imagine, gingerbread pancakes are my fav but pumpkin pancakes are a close second.
The largest urban bat colony in THE WORLD lives under a bridge in Austin TX. Of coarse, the batteries on my camera died at dusk, when the bats emerge!
For a solid hour millions of bats awoke & emerge from under the bridge. There is NO way you have any idea how many that is untill you have seen it!
Here are some photos on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikesma/2410035721/
This photo only shows 1 strean of bats from under 1 spot on the bridge. Bats emereged from 5-6 spots for an hour solid. It was CRAZY!
We saw a bat hit the ground, don't know why, maybe a mid air collision. Once it shook off the head ache, it scampered across the path & up a tree & *tried* to take off w/o luck & fell again. This second time it only fell from about 10 feet so it zoomed across the path & up the tree again super fast we all backed off & gave it space in hopes it would make it that time. Bats can't *take off* from the ground. They have to start off w/ a bit of elevation I am told.
It was too cool!
We also went to schlitterbauhn the worlds #1 water park ( :roll: ) jumped into the Colorado river & did assorted other vacation like activities . Schlitterbaun realy was fun, I thought it was going to be the worst day of my life but it enjoyable much to my surprise.
The food in Austin is amazing! Every place you go offers a huge vegetarian selection & many, many fresh, natural alternatives. We had the most amazing fajitas. They wee onion, red & green pepper, plabano, eggplant, squash & potatoe! The mex food is awesome too w/ a real southwest &/or south American flair. They have pancakes made of everything you could imagine, gingerbread pancakes are my fav but pumpkin pancakes are a close second.