Daytime Bridge Exploration. Exploring Austin's Congress Bridge: Daytime Adventure Without Bat Sightings

Everyone, it's Wednesday morning, 9:45 a.m. It's July 23rd, and this is Gary with City Vibe, just heading up to the Congress Avenue Bridge, also known affectionately of course as Bat Bridge. Now uh. Underneath this bridge here lives. The largest colony of Mexican free-tail bats in North America. The population numbers in the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions, and I'll give you a tip here. When it comes to bat watching, uh, the early bird does not catch the worm. These guys are nocturnal feeders. They uh they come out at night to feed on airborne insects, gnats and mosquitoes and such. And in my experience, they always come out slightly after sunset. So what you're looking for is a uh a cloud of black bats silhouetted against a dark sky. Uh, so my tip is while you're waiting. Allow your eyes to adjust to the dark, uh resist the temptation to look at your phone or other light sources, because you really want your night vision to be dialed in to experience this uh uniquely Austin event at its best.