Those that read here regularly (and pay attention, and care) are likely aware that my home town is Austin, Texas.
One (of many) cool things about Austin is it is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America.
750,000 – 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats hang out under Austin’s Congress Avenue bridge. There are bat watching parties, even BatFest, a 2 day knock-down drag out festival with 30 bands on two stages. (Sigh, I miss that town).
Well, in the “you learn something new about Phoenix every day category”, I just found out that Phoenix has its own collection of migrating Mexican free-tailed bats. Not the size of Austin’s colony of course (after all, everything is bigger in Texas), but “thousands” of bats can be observed as the little critters exit their colony near the Biltmore area of Phoenix.
The Arizona Game & Fish department is holding a free bat workshop on Friday June 20th. You can observe the bats and learn more about these fascinating creatures. More information can be found here.
I’m thinking it’s time to don a University of Texas t-shirt and a six pack of Shiner Bock and pretend I’m back home…
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Bill Lublin 06.18.08 at 5:32 pm
Austin Rocks ! But If you still lived there you would have to modify the plans for eventual world domination.
Lani Anglin-Rosales 06.18.08 at 5:34 pm
Oh wow, there’s nothing more beautiful or smelly than millions of bats flying from under a bridge.
We’ve never been to BatFest but we might just try it!
PS: I’m convinced your talking about Austin is a ploy to garner the SEO market for my city so when your nest is empty you can move here and have a corner on the market already. Just sayin’….
haha
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 06.18.08 at 5:49 pm
@Bill - one word: franchise!
@Lani - you know, I don’t really think that way. But it’s a fabulous idea! BatFest came after my time, but I have many fond memories of attending Aqua Fest on the shores of Town Lake. It was WAY cool in the mid 80’s, but got way too commercialized later. I hear they don’t have it any more. It was second only to the Armadillo World Headquarters, which sadly was torn down for a high rise office building, maybe before you were born.
Terry 06.19.08 at 5:46 pm
Okay, I’ll chime in, I’m a little older than you Jay, but P’s are from Austin and graduates of UT, Mom was aqua carnival queen way back and on father’s day Dad told me about being arrested at Barton Springs for late night swimming…
way back when…AHH! I had some good chocolate chip cookies at Armadillo World Headquarters with Willie. Sounds like you need to come back home!
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 06.19.08 at 9:19 pm
@Terry - I wasn’t ever arrested for sneaking into Barton Springs, but I was ran off the by cops once. Or maybe it was twice. You’re right, I do need to go back, but my kids would stage a revolt.
Fountain Hills Homes 06.19.08 at 10:55 pm
I Had no idea about the Biltmore area bats!
“…as thousands of Mexican free-tail bats exit their roost for the evening at Phoenix’s largest bat colony, near the Biltmore area…”
I’ve run into what I considered A LOT of bats exiting natural caves and old mines when I used to explore more in my youth here, but this is news to me.
Jay, Are you planning on going to the event tomorrow night? It’s not far at all from my house, and now you’ve got me thinking… I might just go myself. If I do, I’ll set up a tri-pod and snap as many shots as I can.
Matt Pellerin - Realtor
Kenneth Cox 06.20.08 at 12:54 pm
Very Interesting! Learn something new every day. I did not know Phoenix was home to bats and hosted the Bat Fest. I’m also going to check out the bat watching party in Austin. I’ve lived only a couple hours away my entire life and didn’t even know about the Congress Avenue Bats. Suprised some of my friends who went to UT never mentioned.
Must be lots of guano under that bridge!
Jay Thompson 06.20.08 at 3:06 pm
@Matt - I’m not going to be able to attend tomorrow night. Would love to see some pics though! I’ve seen the Austin bats, and it’s really pretty cool.
@Kenneth - just to clarify, it’s Austin that hosts the Bast Fest, not Phoenix. If you ever get a chance to see them in Austin, it’s an amazing site. As for the guano, I’m guessing a million and a half bats can indeed “dump” a lot! It’s over a river though, so at least no one has to shovel it…
Victoria Oldham 06.20.08 at 3:42 pm
I think people would really enjoy learning about the benefits of bats! We have a great article on our website about the bat education program at the Flagstaff Arboretum. It’s called “Arizona’s Bat-Tastic! Summer bat programs at the Arboretum give local bats some much-needed PR.” You can find it here: http://www.gatewaytosedona.com.....464/page/1
Sam Chapman 06.21.08 at 9:11 am
Jay - don’t forget about Bracken Cave outside of San Antonio. The bat bridge in Austin has a lot of bats, but Bracken Cave has around 20,000,000 of the critters!
Austinite 06.22.08 at 2:48 pm
Jay, next time you are in Austin, you need to check out the wineries in Driftwood. They have this whole Napa Valley thing going.
Phoenix Night Life 08.23.08 at 2:58 am
Wow. I just got done watching Samantha Brown’s (on the Travel channel) visit to Austin and she stopped at that same place where the Bats were. I’m going to have to go investigate the Migrating Mexican Bats a little further as I’m not far from the Biltmore district.