Bats fly out of Bracken Cave. Several bat colonies were captured by the National Weather Service radar as they flew over San Antonio.
Robin Jerstad / Robin JerstadThey're back — and they're showing up on radar. What's that, you ask? Bats.
The world’s largest bat colony — as many as 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats — makes the Bracken Cave Preserve home during their breeding season and the summer. The population of bats at this location just outside of San Antonio is so large that they often can be seen on a weather forecast radar.
And that's just what happened last week.
The National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio station tweeted a radar image that captured several bat colonies flying over the metro area Thursday evening.
“Starting to get into that time of year again. What time is that exactly, you ask? Bat time!” NWS wrote in the Twitter post.
The nocturnal animals likely were heading out for their nightly feeding. The NWS pointed out that some of the bats were being pushed southward by the breezy winds.
Of the 12 bat viewing sites in Texas, nine of them are within two hours of San Antonio. Austin currently has the largest urban bat colony in the world, located downtown under the Congress Avenue Bridge.
The most common bat seen throughout the Alamo City and the Texas Hill Country is the Mexican free-tailed bat.
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These bats are migratory birds that spend their winters in Mexico before flying to Texas in February to form maternity colonies and raise their young, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
By August, the new bats will be big enough to fly on their own. That's considered one of the best times to view bats due to their vast numbers. But once that first cold front rolls in a couple of months later, the colonies will head back to Mexico.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has a map on their website showing the best bat viewing locations in the state.
Gabriella.Ybarra@mysa.com
