Pow.. Wham.. Bam ! To the Bat Cave Robin (Updated)

Friday, May 3, 2013 Day 5 of our week at Buckhorn Lake RV park near Kerrville TX

 

This lady is on her way to observe “the emergence” at the Bat Cave, but more on that later.

 But first:   Temperature got down to about 47 Thurs night. As usual, our small electric heater is just fine for keeping us warm.  Bright and sunny this Friday morning, still a bit windy.  Temperature was 55 this morning at 10:00 AM…    

We started our day with a nice drive through the hills around Kerrville TX.  There are some really beautiful homes/estates with spectacular views.   From the valley, one crosses Goat Creek which is shown here on the right.

 

We encountered deer in the various fields and yards a number of times and this was at about 11:00 AM.

As an afterthought… Kerrville is home to JAMES AVERY  which is one of the major employers in the area.  We have visited thier factory on previous trips.  They make fine silver jewelry sold in their specialty shops around Texas and the iNet.  Carol and the daughters all have a number of pieces.

We had a pleasant afternoon around the Coffee Bean and then headed out to Old Tunnel wildlife area to observe the evening emergence of its colony of over a million bats streaming out of the tunnel.  During the summer, each female has one pup and the total rises to 3 million.

 

This is TX state park that is quite small, just the land around this old tunnel. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first picture is looking down at the viewing area.  the tunnel cannot be seen from above.. it is down to the left.  A 1/2 mile steep trail leads down to the base of the valley.

 
This was very interesting.   It is one of the smaller colonies in Texas and they feed on the moths of several migrating agricultural pests (that would otherwise be corn borers and such in the Midwest. This kind do not eat mosquitoes. The bats feed from 500 to 10,000 feet (confirmed with hot air baloons and cameras) and consume over 200 Tons of these little moths a night. It sounds unlikely, but that is what the Texas naturalists who watch this preserve say.  Midwest crops would be a disaster without them. These bats are smaller than your hand.

They come out around sunset and it takes over 45 minutes for the tunnel to empty. The “emergence” as they call it is quite spectacular, but difficult to see due to the fading light. 

 

Here are two pictures I tried to take.   In my pictures you can see what looks like smoke swirls in the air. These are clouds of bats as the spiral up to gain altitude after emerging in a constant stream.. less then 25 feet to the left of where the viewers sit quietly on wooden benches.   Our viewing area was lower down than the one in the first picture.. right by the edge of the tunnel.

 

 

 

We got back to the RV at about 9:30 PM.  A good day.