Labor Day

So, It’s Labor Day and I’m going through the pictures on my website trying to see what would make a good photograph about labor.  Some of you may remember this picture I took last year of the bats in Austin.  It might be a stretch, but these guys sure do work hard.

     Over 1 million bats (and some things I’ve read say up to 2 million) live underneath the Anne Richards Bridge  (a.k.a., Congress Ave Bridge) in downtown Austin.  They migrate up from Mexico in early spring and stay until late October.  During the day, thousands of cars and people commute across the bridge without any signs of bats.  But, at dusk every night, the the bats fly out in search of food.  Bats are mammals and like most mammals that live in colonies, they have 1 leader.  One bat is in charge of the whole group.  He decides when it is time to fly away for food.

     Watching the bats is one of my favorite things to do in Austin.  They create this ribbon of black, as you can see in the picture, as they fly out behind their leader.  You won’t find this many bats anywhere else in North America and here they are, in the middle of the city.  They help Austin live up to its slogan, “Keep Austin Weird”.   They also help me with my hobby of taking pictures of inspiring places interesting things.

     So, on this day when most of us have ta break from our job, I think I’ll take my boys down to the bridge tonight.  We’ll get some ice cream and watch the bats go to work.