We finally saw the bats! Under the Congress bridge in Austin are a million bats that sleep all day and prey on insects (and who knows what else...) at night.
Watching the bats leave for their evening feast has been on the to-do list for over a year. I've heard that it's pretty underwhelming, which it kind of was. But since we caught the bats unexpectedly, it was pretty exciting and kind of freaky. We kept waiting for a crazy, rogue bat to jet out of the flying line and dart our way. Didn't happen, thank God.
We had a previous experience with the bats while we kayaked last summer. We paddled all the way from Barton Springs to the Congress Bridge and could hear the creepy little bats chirping, but didn't see them.
This time we got to SEE them. Robbie and I were rode our bikes downtown to check out the SXSW madness and on the way home we saw everyone lined up on the Congress bridge watching the bats. They were following this weird flying path, from north to south under the Congress bridge then up and away to who knows where. Both creepy and cool at the same time.
See the bats- check. What's next?
(On a related, but unrelated note: check out this adorable Austin Bucket List.)
I've tried a handful of times to see the bats (even parking my butt in the grass during the bat fest for FOUR HOURS) and they've never come out in one giant swoop when I'm around. They get shy.
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