Bats!

[spryng]

So slowly I'm learning about all the cool things that come with living in the desert, specifically Tucson. One of those cool things are the bats that like to make this their stopover on their way south. They're Mexican free-tail bats, which are apparently vastly abundant in the southern states, but which also tend to concentrate their numbers in caves and under bridges. Also, the bridges down here can be bat-friendly by design, although I'm not sure if the bridges in Tucson are specifically so. Either way, the expansion cracks built into the bridge for the vast temperature differences between summer and winter are bat-friendly - enough so that there are an estimated 10k or more bats living under the one bridge closest to us.


Towards the beginning of September, the Rillito River Project - a conservation group coupled with the UofA - hosted something called Bat Night. A bunch of people gathered at the Campbell bridge and were talked at by conservationists, then waited for the bats to swarm. We waited and waited - well past sunset - but the bats only came out in drabbles, potentially spooked by the sheer amount of people and the lights they were shining underneath the bridge. Disappointed, we left before we could be eaten alive by mosquitoes, promising, however, that we would return at some point.


And return we did - again and again. But either we just missed the swarming or I neglected to bring my camera. Then one evening, on a complete and utter lark, we managed both. I brought my camera and the bats came out after only a few moments standing beneath the bridge, waiting.


It was a moment - a glorious moment. Bats overhead, chittering amongst themselves and the sound of hundreds of leathery wings. They poured out, endless, a sinuous stream into the twilight.

Comments

[pennywhistle.livejournal.com]

Wow...that's amazing! And not far from me! I had no idea ^_^

[spryng.livejournal.com]

Easy to walk to! You should go sometime, before they finally depart (whenever that is - the googles have been failing me). They usually come out right after sunset. A number of the bridges on the Rillito have colonies, but Campbell is the only one I've seen so far.