On the last night we went to Lady Bird Lake for a sunset and bat boat tour. Lady Bird Lake is a lake along the Colorado River and was formed by a dam collecting water for a 7 mile stretch. This Colorado is not the same as that of the Grand Canyon so I don’t really understand why they have the same name. The lake is a no wake lake which attracts water activities like rowing, kayaking, swan pedal boats, and electrically powered pontoons. Alongside the lake is a path that was also very busy with dog walkers, runners, bikers and pedestrians. The tour guide pointed out in particular that Austin is a very pet friendly city. One of the skyscrapers, the Google head office, was explained to be filled with amenities such as a dog park, cafeteria and other things that make it less painful to work overtime.
Another building had remarkable architecture that mimicked an owl (I guess they really support their nocturnal animal community…?). It can partially be seen in the picture below to the left of the building that looks like USB stick. The tour guide pointed out that it also closely resembles a nose hair trimmer from his point of view so call it what you want.
Then at sunset was when we got to see all the bats. There were hundreds of them flying out from underneath the deck of the bridge. They all flew out a specific path that wraps around the pillar and then high into the sky towards the sunset. As they flew out they had to be careful of larger birds flying nearby who are their predators. We did witness a few of the bats get snatched and become some other birds dinner. The saddest part about that is at this time of year the majority of the bats in the flock are pregnant females. These bats referred to as bat bullets and are the fastest flying bat around with a speed of 16 mph. As seen in the picture, they are really small and have wingspans of about 12 inches.
The sunset was really beautiful and we got to see so many bats flying around. Luckily no one got pooped on which was warned as a possibility!
Blog by Tiana Bojic