Hey Harry!

[myxpykalix]

I just saw a news item on ABC news about where 1.5 million bats live under a bridge in Austin, Texas. It was very interesting. They have a whole cottage industry built around it with water tours and all kinds of stuff. You might want to do some advertising for your bat houses in some Austin publications.

[robtown]

I was there 3 weeks ago for my Brother's wedding. It's the largest colony of bats in the country. My wife and I rented 2 person kayaks and paddled under the "bat bridge" with the kids. It was cool, but it smelled something awful... hey, 1.5 mil bats gotta go somewhere don't they?

[harryball]

Yeah, we have Austin covered. We sell about 1 bat house a week in that area alone on average during the year. We go to Austin regularly. We've even been to Bracken Cave south of Austin, home of some 20 to 40 million Mexican Freetail bats. It's the largest concentration of mammals known on the planet. It's amazing when they emerge, it can last from 6PM until midnight. The critters keep coming out in volume with no noticable reduction for hours. If you look at our website I took the banner photo from Bracken Cave.

The Congress Avenue bridge colony is the largest urban bat colony at 1.5 to 2 M bats. It's amazing to watch them fly out. You have to be careful under the bridge though... looking up with your mouth open is not recommended. That's not black rain. :-)

Everyone should visit when you go to the Maker Faire this year in Austin.

I was actually in Austin when we decided to buy a CNC machine. Shopbot was on the top of the list but with the IWF approaching in 2006 we waited to see them all. After seeing every CNC offering on the floor, the Shopbot stood out not just on price (there was actually one less expensive) but on community. I'd been visiting the forums already and none of the other MFG had anything close, in fact it seemed more like many wanted to hide and distance themselves from the customer.

I've NEVER regretted going with ShopBot.

/RB

[myxpykalix]

oh so not only do we have illegal mexicans crossing the border but now we have 20 million illegal mexican bats too? Should we offer them amnesty too? lol

[dana_swift]

Hmm, that gives me another nudge to plan to go to Austin. I have been to the bat preserve down by Fredricksburg in Texas, where it is also amazing to watch the bats come out in the evening.

There are clearly colonies of bats around Tulsa, in the early evening they are easy to spot flying around the treetops. At first I thought they were birds- they fly fast enough and don't fly in straight lines for long so its hard to really make out individuals in the dim light. Some parts of town seem to have lots of them, other parts I have never seen them.

As near as I can tell they have several sonar modes. When they are just flying around I cant hear anything, but when they are hot on a bug they emit a very high pitch squealy sound I can hear. (I guess I should thank the hearing protection I use for being able to still hear them at my age!)

Interesting critters- I give them permission to eat all of the Oklahoma bugs they want! Go Bats!

D

[bleeth]

Now I have three reasons to stop in the Austin area the next time I am in Texas; Music, bats, and
see a great botter.