Frio Bat Flight... MAJOR DUW!

This was one of the best things I've ever done.... the 4 of us made an evening of this!

For $10.00 a person you hike up a hill to watch the second largest bat colony in the world! They estimate 10-12 Million bats live in this colony... They live 1/2 a mile down, and fly out for 2 hours, and it's absolutely breath taking! These are Mexican Free Tailed Bats... and they're crazy-cute! There were several hawks feeding well on the bats... I think you can see it in one of the pics...

Enjoy! :) I did!
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/114.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/105.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/136.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/137.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/138.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/140.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/141.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/149.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/152.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/165.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...r-BATS/168.jpg

I also tried the video option on my little cannon... I played with different settings, but I thought it would be neat to post the vids too!
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...ATS/th_147.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...ATS/th_146.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...ATS/th_144.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c7...ATS/th_145.jpg


I also need to give a special thanks to Jo (Frankykeno) for walking me through using a water mark that I tried out on the bat pics...

You ROCK lady! :hug:

Hey wow, thats pretty cool. I've always liked bats.

Are they moving that fast or is that the camera? If it is them they are hauling!

Too cool!!!

That is something everyone should go and see...

Wow that is awesome, they are one of the freakiest animals IMO.
Flying rodent like things. Was it real noisy?

Awesome! I wish I had something like that near me.

Wow, Laura! Those are amazing pictures! The vids turned out great, too! I love bats...they are the coolest creatures! If circumstances were to ever allow, I'd love to have some captive bats....but given their unique needs, that seems highly unlikely.

When I was a kid, my Dad took us to Carlsbad Caverns in NM...and that evening, we got to watch the mass bat exodus from the mouth of the cave. One of my most cherished childhood memories!

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Originally Posted by SecurityStacey

Hey wow, thats pretty cool. I've always liked bats.

Are they moving that fast or is that the camera? If it is them they are hauling!

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They are incredibly fast... As hard as I tried to look at them as they went over, I never got a good idea of what they really look like!

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Too cool!!!

That is something everyone should go and see...

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Thanks Heather! I agree... I'd love to back on day...

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Originally Posted by West Coast Jungle

Wow that is awesome, they are one of the freakiest animals IMO.
Flying rodent like things. Was it real noisy?

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They sounded like a bunch of leaves blowing.. not NEAR as loud as the other people that were there clapping and whooping to make the bats "jump"... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by casperca

Awesome! I wish I had something like that near me.

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I had no idea they were so close to us... or I would have seen them years ago! :D

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Originally Posted by JLC

Wow, Laura! Those are amazing pictures! The vids turned out great, too! I love bats...they are the coolest creatures! If circumstances were to ever allow, I'd love to have some captive bats....but given their unique needs, that seems highly unlikely.

When I was a kid, my Dad took us to Carlsbad Caverns in NM...and that evening, we got to watch the mass bat exodus from the mouth of the cave. One of my most cherished childhood memories!

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Thanks Judy! :) I adore them too... I'm thinking about how to put up a bat house... cause I like them a TON more than the mosquitoes that take up residence here! lol
Carlsbad Caverns is something I'd love to go see... I bet that was an amazing sight to watch the bats there!

Your pictures are great, very nice indeed!
One of the coolest things I ever saw was the Mexican free-tail bats under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin. It was simply amazing to watch them all come out, and out, and out!
My son is going to school for Wildlife Management and spent the summer trapping all sorts of bats for research, I'll have to post some of the pictures he sent me. They got some pretty nice shots of angry little bat faces :O

Wow!!:O That is wicked cool! I really want to go with you next time!! Wow....wow

WOW! That is major cool!