Actually, I think they are called Mexican Free Tails (or something like that). They migrate back and forth over the Mexico/Texas border. There are bat caves all over the Texas Hill Country but these guys prefer the underside of an old bridge in our state's Capital.
I scanned the list of vendors and entertainers looking for any names I might recognize. None of my friends are going to be there but I did see a vendor called.....are you ready for this....Lost Island!!
Too funny,LIG, I wonder if Lost Island will be selling Dharma Crispies or fish biscuits? I have a great deal of respect for our bat friends, but just the thought of them scares the bejeepers out of me (we had one loose in our house at what must have been a phobia creating age, 3 or 4). Did you ever see the Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs?" The host followed a scientist who goes into Bracken (sp?) Cave in Texas to check that everything is as it should be. 40 MILLION bats, 3 feet of guano, flesh eating beetles, and air so filled with ammonia that they have to wear gas masks. The poor host gets stuck in the guano, loses his boot, and has to genuinely struggle to get out. Amazing but awful! Lady in Gray is right, Mexican Free Tail bats. Did I mention 40 Million in just that one cave? My knees are buckling! newbie
GB-I just read your other comment about your encounter in North Ontario! Holy Change of Pants, Batman! I'd have fainted dead away on the sidewalk. My encounter was just my mom waking my up by slamming my door saying, "There's a bat in the house, don't come out!" and my family chasing it around the halls with a fishing net and BBgun for two days. Having their ecolocution thinking I was something to investigate would just petrify me! Those scenes in the early parts of Batman Begins gave me the heebie jeebies! newbie
9 comments:
Not North Bay, Ontario?
Nope! Texas bats.
Actually, I think they are called Mexican Free Tails (or something like that). They migrate back and forth over the Mexico/Texas border. There are bat caves all over the Texas Hill Country but these guys prefer the underside of an old bridge in our state's Capital.
I scanned the list of vendors and entertainers looking for any names I might recognize. None of my friends are going to be there but I did see a vendor called.....are you ready for this....Lost Island!!
Too funny,LIG, I wonder if Lost Island will be selling Dharma Crispies or fish biscuits?
I have a great deal of respect for our bat friends, but just the thought of them scares the bejeepers out of me (we had one loose in our house at what must have been a phobia creating age, 3 or 4). Did you ever see the Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs?" The host followed a scientist who goes into Bracken (sp?) Cave in Texas to check that everything is as it should be. 40 MILLION bats, 3 feet of guano, flesh eating beetles, and air so filled with ammonia that they have to wear gas masks. The poor host gets stuck in the guano, loses his boot, and has to genuinely struggle to get out. Amazing but awful!
Lady in Gray is right, Mexican Free Tail bats. Did I mention 40 Million in just that one cave? My knees are buckling! newbie
GB-I just read your other comment about your encounter in North Ontario! Holy Change of Pants, Batman! I'd have fainted dead away on the sidewalk. My encounter was just my mom waking my up by slamming my door saying, "There's a bat in the house, don't come out!" and my family chasing it around the halls with a fishing net and BBgun for two days. Having their ecolocution thinking I was something to investigate would just petrify me! Those scenes in the early parts of Batman Begins gave me the heebie jeebies! newbie
Heebie Jeebies, Batman!
40 million bats!
Aren't you glad that you weren't the poor guy who had to COUNT them.....!!!
Hi Lady! Yes, how do you count 40 million bats?
Order them to hang in nice, orderly rows of 1 million?
Place, numbered, orange plastic bands around each foot?
No easy task, I'm sure. Maybe they know how many bats will fit in a square foot and then make a calculated guess.
Except, vaguely, I remember seeing a picture of bats hanging off of each other. Well, so much for that idea! Next?
A bat census is a breeze.
Count all the wings and divide by 2.
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