Bats!

OK, so the photo above is not the best one you'll ever see, even on this blog. But trust me when I tell you that the dark blotches on the underside of the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin are a few of the million-plus Mexican freetail bats that reside there and make nightly pilgrimages out from under the span to search for food.

This image gives you an idea of what we, along with several hundred other people on top of and beneath the bridge, looked at Tuesday night. It wasn't quite as pretty as that, but it was really pretty darn cool.



We might have been better off on top of the bridge, watching the bats come out below us. But we chose the low angle, and a little after 9 p.m., watched as the little creatures began to stream out from their resting places below the bridge. Though they were at times tough to see against an already dark sky, eventually we got ourselves under a streetlamp and looked up to see a constant stream of wings flitting by, turning the air between the lamp and our eyes a hazy brown as they zipped past.

My description, like my picture, doesn't do the sight justice: It really is something to behold, like the transition in an old Batman cartoon come to life. If ever you find yourself in Austin during the summer, it should be high on the to-do list.