Get a little Batty

Keep Austin Weird, right? That's the moniker (I prefer "Keep Austin Cheap" personally) that the city lives by in most things it does. So if it were to be identified with an animal, why not make it one that is blind but still flies around helter-skelter (somehow never crashing), lives in caves or under bridges, and scares most people the first few times they see them.


My recommendation is that you spend no money (or at most, some quarters for a bus trip) and check out a bat flight in the heart of our great city. Batty?

Presumably replacing the quirky Armadillo from the 60’s, Mayor Lee Leffingwell hopes to name the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat the official animal of Austin according to the Austin-American Statesman.

It isn't by coincidence either. The Congress Avenue Bridge just past downtown, has the largest urban bat population in the world! According to Bat Conservation International, the bridge has as many as 1.5 million bats living under it at times!

The best times of year to watch:

The best time to go out is usually at just before sunset, around 6 p.m. or so just to be safe. It really is a must-do for any Austinite or anyone visiting for a few days.

But don't just take my word, award-winning singer Tracy Chapman also weighs in (then check out the following song at her Austin City Limits show):