Batfest - When Cityfolk Celebrate Nature

by Susan
It was Tim Beatley, Professor of Sustainable Communities at the University of Virginia School of Architecture, who got me thinking about bats.  In a talk called "Sustaining the City: Urban Ecology", he reminisced about a connection he made with nature during a six-month stay in Sydney, Australia. 

In Sidney, every evening these bats fly off and they go off and feed.  As the light fades the skies fill up with grey-headed flying foxes [a type of fruit bat].  We thought it was so peculiar that nobody seemed to be paying attention to this amazing phenomenon.   It was the most important thing about where we lived and yet, again, it was the thing that most everyone around us just was not paying attention to or just had forgotten about it perhaps.

In some ways it has become a metaphor for those things in cities that are wondrous and awe-inspiring and about the nature around us that we are not paying attention to.  So, where are the grey-headed flying foxes in Washington?  I guess that is my question. 

Then in the Q&A session he was reminded that they also have bats in Austin, TX and they're a very big deal, ya know.  To which Beatley replied:

Well, you know the story about Austin is a marvelous story.  Austin has these Mexican free-tailed bats that arrive every summer.  They are migratory and they suddenly started residing underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge, which is a major bridge in Austin, and it is now the largest urban bat colony in the world.  It has now gone from being sort of amusing to the colony being beloved, and they have a batfest every year.  You can go on dinner bat cruises when night arrives and these bats fly.  They named--is it their hockey team?–-the Bats.  They have gone a little batty for bats in Austin, but it is a marvelous story.  

And sure enough, in the spring thousands of pregnant female bats migrate north from Mexico to give birth, making their homes under this bridge in downtown Austin.  By August the pups have joined their moms in the nightly hunt for food and the swarm totals 750,000 to 1.5 million bats going forth to eat between 10 and 30,000 pounds of insects - good job!

Once feared or considered a nuisance, the bats' public image took a turn for the better in 1986 when Bat Conservation International moved its headquarters to Austin and some good public education turned them into a popular tourist attraction.  Public schools have Bat Awareness Teams, no less.  And because Austinites know how to par-tay, they celebrate these ugly blind critters with a yearly Batfest, to be held September 1-2 this year. There are so many activities (music, food, crafts, surely drinking though that website won't say so), they need a Bat hotline just to keep track of them. Those bat-watching cruises will be booked solid.

So if I were one of the lucky Austin gardenbloggers you better believe I'd be saying "Let's all meet under the Congress Avenue Bridge this Saturday.  And don't forget your umbrella (and not for rain, ya know)." Meanwhile, my humble bat house (right) has yet to attract a single bat.

But enough about those lucky Austinites.  Let's go back to the good professor's question:  Where are the grey-headed flying foxes in your city?  What's "wondrous and awe-inspiring about the nature around us that we're not paying attention to"?  Maybe as gardeners we pay attention to plants but tune out the animal life around us, like the 260 species of birds in my area, of which I can identify about 8 on a good day.  Maybe it's the insect sounds I'm not really tuned in to. 

Well, at least we're outdoors where we can hear 'em, right?  And when it comes to nature awareness, I'll bet on a gardener any day, even if our attention is a little lopsided toward the plant kingdom.

Photo credit: Batfest.

Comments

[layanee]

Great post! The insects were so loud here the other night that I couldn't sleep! Love your bat house and the Austin bat story. I would be bringing my umbrella and a shovel as bat guano is premier nitrogen fertilizer. Think how big the corn would get!

[Kathy, Washington Gardener]

A recent issue of "Ranger Rick" has a great story on the Austin bats - was just reading it to my nieces last week.

[sandra]

Right next to your great article on the Austin bat fest is an ad for bat control and repelling bats. Why would anyone want to repel bats - anything that eats mosquitos is welcomed in my garden. Here small bats in ones or twos flitter out of the trees at dusk and set about hunting. That has been true in all the cities in Canada that I have lived in. In Ottawa they were joined by whippoorwills and I would sit on my balcony and watch them flitter and dive against a twilight sky - lovely.

[wendy]

I just recently read an article (of course I can't think of where) that said that bats won't live in bat houses attached to trees because there is too much temperature fluctuation and also because predators can climb up the trees and reach into the bat houses. I don't know if this is true or not, but it makes sense to me that you might have more luck attracting bats with a bat house on the side of a building.

[bright]

mmm, thanks for the austin memories. go ice bats!
http://www.icebats.com/

[firefly]

Yeah, I heard the same thing about bat houses as wendy, although I'm not about to cheerfully tolerate guano running down the side of my house.

Still, when I contacted BCI about installing a pole, I was told that a squirrel baffle was essential because even squirrels investigating bat houses will disturb them and keep them from coming back.

[Pam/Digging]

Those batty Austinites!

Actually, I've been on the bat-watching dinner cruise---quite fun! August is prime bat-watching time, what with all the baby bats joining their mothers in the bug-hunt at sunset.

Because it's not so hot this August, our family may go to Batfest this weekend. If we do, I'll be sure to post about it.

[Annie in Austin]

We've never gone on the cruise, but if the season is right, we take out-of-town visitors to watch the bats emerge from the bridge - it is quite a sight.

School groups sometimes plan ahead, having the children make folded paper hats to wear, just in case.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

[Deb]

I have thought about getting a bat house and have heard from local gardners here in VA that it will take a few years to actually get bats to move in. I have also seen "bat attractant" for sale which promises to shorten the length of time it normally takes to get a colony going. Anyone have experience with this product?

[penelope]

How about info on how to build your own bat house? I'm not crazy about the idea of forking over $45 for a wooden box, but would love to see some bats in my yard...