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!

Bats are awesome. I did some cave exploring back in Arkansas...nothing big....but I love caves and bats...fun stuff :gj:

Great shots with the clouds in the background.....

We will have to check this out when we go again this year!! Sounds cool.

Those have to be some of the most awesome photos I've ever seen, period. Watching bats is one of the coolest things as far as I'm concerned. I've spent lots of summer nights sitting out at the pond at my parent's house and just watching the bats fly around.

Wonderful pictures & videos!! :cool:

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Originally Posted by Clementine_3

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!

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I was in Austin once for a conference years ago and I believe that is the bridge where we went to see the bats. What an awesome sight!!

Even with a bad experience of getting a bat stuck in my hair as a kid (very traumatic experience!!!!), I still really enjoy bats. I would love to be able to do that, and I can't thank you enough for sharing that experience. :hug:

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Originally Posted by Clementine_3

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

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I've heard of the ones in Austin! I'm defentlly going to try and see them the next time I'm in "The Motherland"! :D You should post them... I'd love to see some close ups! :)

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Originally Posted by Aonaen

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

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Ohhh... your SO going! :banana: We'll be going back, no doubt! :D

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Originally Posted by OhBalls

WOW! That is major cool!

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Thanks! :)

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Originally Posted by Nate

Bats are awesome. I did some cave exploring back in Arkansas...nothing big....but I love caves and bats...fun stuff :gj:

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I enjoyed it so much! I'd love to see more colonies now... defentlly fun stuff! :gj:

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Originally Posted by Phil

Great shots with the clouds in the background.....

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Thank you! :D

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Originally Posted by stangs13

We will have to check this out when we go again this year!! Sounds cool.

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You defentlly need to see it J if you guys frequent that area! Totaly worth 10 doll hairs! :P

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Originally Posted by m00kfu

Those have to be some of the most awesome photos I've ever seen, period. Watching bats is one of the coolest things as far as I'm concerned. I've spent lots of summer nights sitting out at the pond at my parent's house and just watching the bats fly around.

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Wow.. thanks for those really kind words :)

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Originally Posted by nwheat

Wonderful pictures & videos!! :cool:



I was in Austin once for a conference years ago and I believe that is the bridge where we went to see the bats. What an awesome sight!!

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Thanks so much! I'm defentlly going to haft to see those Austin bats :gj:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

Even with a bad experience of getting a bat stuck in my hair as a kid (very traumatic experience!!!!), I still really enjoy bats. I would love to be able to do that, and I can't thank you enough for sharing that experience. :hug:

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Awww... :oops: I bet that was freaky! Yea...I couldn't believe no one got a stray bat flying into them.. they have amazing reflexes! Shux... whuteva! lol :hug:

Very cool pics! :gj:

Spanks Yo! :D

That is so awesome!!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us, what an amazing experience that must have been! Taking photos of those bats im sure was difficult especially with the setting sun, great shots!

Your watermark looks great too btw!!

You might want to consider using it larger and covering a good majority of the screen though if your doing it to make sure no one steals your photos.. in those the watermark could easily be cropped or cloned out. :gj: Those photos are too cool to let other people use them w/o permission. I have watermarked a large portion of my photos for that reason

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Originally Posted by ADEE

That is so awesome!!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us, what an amazing experience that must have been! Taking photos of those bats im sure was difficult especially with the setting sun, great shots!

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Thanks so much! :) Yea... I was surprised how well some of them came out, I was constantly messing with the settings on the camera, trying to get focused shots... they were crazy fast! :oops:

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Originally Posted by ADEE

Your watermark looks great too btw!!

You might want to consider using it larger and covering a good majority of the screen though if your doing it to make sure no one steals your photos.. in those the watermark could easily be cropped or cloned out. :gj: Those photos are too cool to let other people use them w/o permission. I have watermarked a large portion of my photos for that reason

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Thank you again! I know, your absolutely right... It was the first time messing with one, and I think I'll defentlly make it larger the next time I have something "watermark worthy" LOL :D

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Originally Posted by Laooda

Thank you again! I know, your absolutely right... It was the first time messing with one, and I think I'll defentlly make it larger the next time I have something "watermark worthy" LOL :D

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;) No problem, dont want anyone stealing your cool photos ;)

Wow that is amazing!!!!!:weirdface:D:P:oops::)

Spanks T! We gotta go back... and haul the whole group! :D