picture_070 Bats fly out from under the Congress Ave bridge in Austin, TX
picture_070 Bats fly out at dusk from under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin, TX, where they roost during the day. That trail of black specks above the horizon and under the clouds — that’s the bats.
On September 23rd, 2006, the members of the Atheist Community of Austin went on a cruise on Town Lake, and watched the bats emerge at dusk from the Congress Avenue bridge. Austin area has several big bat colonies, and the biggest of them lives under the Congress Avenue bridge. The ACA has a long annual tradition of renting a cruise boat and going on a 2-hour sunset cruise along the Town Lake (which is not a lake but a river). The cruise ends at sundown, and the ship parks in front of the Congress Avenue Bridge so people could watch millions of bats fly out from under the bridge as they forage for food. The cruise is always at the end of September.
Austin, Texas, 2006