Bat Flight!

Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.  --John Berryman

Ever been stuck in one of those classes where the oh so perky instructor (that you are about 5 seconds from bitch slapping into next week) asks you the supposidly self revealing question "If you could be any kind of animal, what would you be?"  Every one always answers with lion or tiger or wolf or something equally cool and strong.  Notice how no one ever pipes up and says "gee, I LOVE to be a weasel" or "A bunny would be cool!"?  That's 'cuz we're all lying through our teeth and just trying to get through to the next break.  And we don't want to be mercilessly mocked by our co workers for the rest of our lives. My answer is I want to be a bat.  The hours seem good.  Sleep all day, fly around and eat all night.  Lay on a beach drinking margharitas in Mexico all winter.  Got to admit, it sounds pretty appealing doesn't it?  Tonight I got a glimpse into the wonderful world of bats.  I'm at Carlsbad Caverns where about 700,000 Mexican Free-tailed bats are registered voters.  At dusk, they depart their cave in a pretty spectacular display and if you stay for the Bat Flight program, you get to watch.  It was a cool experience.  First you are watching ~40 cave swallows fly around and then in a group they dive into the cave.  A few minutes later, you see what looks like a black whirlwind coming up from the mouth of the cave.  It swirls around for a while then a group of bats splits off and heads southeast looking for dinner.  The swirling continues with a group of bats breaking off and heading out every minute or so.  I have to say, it was a bit like watching the morning commute in Seattle.   Things start out a bit slow, smaller groups of early rising bats heading off to the office, trying to beat rush hour traffic.  Then traffic on the batway builds and larger groups of bats depart in long streams.  More bats  leave and the batway starts to back up a bit, bats start to jockey for the best position, switching lanes, speeding up, slowing down.  There's a couple of near misses and a bit of bat rage when one bat cuts another off.  The bats are actually quite skilled at merging which is more than you can say for most of the commuters merging from 405 N onto 520 E in the morning. After the main swarm is out, you get the later starting Microsoft bats headed out to work along with the parent bats dropping the pups off at school or daycare before heading out.  Bringing up the rear are the unemployed bats, the bats who overslept and the Mercer Island Housewife bats off to shop and do lunch.  It takes about 30 minutes for the bats to exit the cave and it is a sight to see.  Unfortunately, no photography is allowed while it occurs so I don't have any pictures. If you ever go to Carlsbad between June and October, stay for the evening Bat Flight program.  It's worth waiting for.

I spend 2 hours wandering around in the Big Room of Carlsbad Caverns. As with Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon, this is an experience that words fail at. Here are a few of the pictures I took in the cavern.  I opted to not use flash but went with long exposure so this is how it looks when you are down there.

I'm headed to San Antonio, TX tomorrow to spend the weekend with my Other Favorite Brother Thom.  I'll be resuming my trip on Monday morning when I head to Louisiana and Mississippi.