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Bat Channel- get a peek at the largest grouping of mammals in the world

We’ve finally gone live on the Bracken Cave cams. It took several years to finally get a reliable internet connection close enough to get the equipment connected. Hopefully they’ll stay functional for a while.

Recently the bats have been starting their emergence anywhere from 7:30-8:30 pm CDT so 12:30-1:30 am UTC, but they do their own thing and sometimes it can vary by hours from one day to another. The emergence is usually pretty steady and last roughly 3 hours but much is in the dark. You can usually still hear the cool sounds of millions of bat wings in flight.

The morning returns are hit and miss as the bats return in spurts anywhere from 5 am to 10am with outliers before and after.

The link is to a local TV station covering the cams with useful background.

Bat Channel- get a peek at the largest grouping of mammals in the worldhttps://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/08/28/watch-swirling-batnado-on-nightly-livestream-from-bracken-bat-cave/Open linkView original on lemmy.world

Mexican free-tailed bat chased by hawk (part 1 of 3)

Most every night, raptors line up for the bat buffet at Bracken Cave Preserve. The bats pour out of the cave for about 3 hours. he bats exiting is a swarming defense strategy to not getting eaten. When you see a young or sick bat stray from the main cloud of bats, the raptors take advantage of the opportunity. Here is one of several hawks that feeds daily before dusk. After dusk, the owls own the skies here in our little Texas wildlife preserve.

View original on lemmy.world

Bracken Cave Emergence

Here’s a happy snap from a recent emergence at Bracken Cave Preserve. These are Mexican Free-tailed bats that are part of the maternal colony that summers here in the Texas hill country. We host the colony of approximately 20 million bats from spring to fall. It takes 3+ hours for colony to leave the cave and they’re pretty orderly about it.

View original on lemmy.world

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