Family Fun

By Janis Turk Take The Kids Out Tonight To Enjoy Both Bats And Batting Going Batty!

IT IS JUST JUNE! THE KIDS HAVE BEEN ON SUMMER VACATION FOR LESS THAN A MONTH, AND ALREADY THEY ARE DRIVING YOU BATTY? OH NO, WHAT TO DO? WHY, GO BATTY WITH THEM, OF COURSE.

No, do not misbehave. Just redirect their education and energy to interesting and active batty things to do together on summer evenings, like watching flying mammals for instance. Who knew bats could be so spooky yet still so cool? Or “go to bat” at a ballpark or in a batting cage.

Summer is the time to go bat loco in San Antonio!

BAT CRAZY

Start in the evening so you will be ready around nightfall. Texas is home to enormous colonies of Mexican free-tail bats, little brown bats, some vampire bats, and lots of other species, too. And right here in San Antonio, if you know where to look, you are bound to see more than a few.

Because bats are generally nocturnal, being most active after sundown, they tend to emerge from their dark roosts a couple hours after dusk in order to go find their dinner. After feeding, they return to their roosts to spend the rest of the night and day hanging upside down—usually from the top of a cave, the bottom of a bridge, or the eaves of a building. Do not be scared. Bats are our friends. And all they are interested in eating or bugging are bugs—moths, mosquitos and other insects, for instance. In fact, one bat alone is capable of eating Photo courtesy of Texas Parks & Wildlife. up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single hour! Bats are the only known mammals to have developed the ability to fly, and the Mexican free-tailed bats we see in San Antonio can reach speeds up to 99 miles per hour in the air and fly as high as 10,000 feet. Cool, right?

BAT BRIDGES

There are several places where you and the kids can see bats emerge from below bridges at night in the Alamo City. However, your best bet may be along the Museum Reach of the River Walk near the cross of Camden and Newell streets. There, bat enthusiasts often gather from 6:00 to 9:00pm to watch a dark cloud of an estimated 60,000 Mexican free-tail bats emerge from beneath the River Walk’s Camden Street Bridge to devour thousands of pounds of the city’s many bugs and insects. The colony usually comes out from below the bridge between 7:00 to 8:00pm, but get there early to find a spot to spy them so you will not miss the show. The great mass of bats swirl and swoop about en masse, like a plague of locusts in the Ten Commandments, moving (a safe and far distance above you) in a seemingly choreographed collective movement, freakily undulating as one dark cloud when they take to the skies in search of food.

Another spot where you can play with the kids below and watch bats emerge from a high spot above is at the Hays Bridge near The Alamo Beer Co. The brewery has a big outdoor area with picnic tables and sometimes even food trucks and live music. Kids like to play and run around as the folks sip a cold brew at sundown. Then after dusk, families wait for the bats to come out from below the nearby Hays Bridge. Once a railway bridge but now open to pedestrian foot traffic only, the Hays Bridge stands about a mile from the Alamo.

An added bonus can be the “chiropterology” lesson you can give your kids the next day if you decide to help them study up on bats (chiropterologists are bat biologists). Why not get them interested in learning more about bats’ eating habits, mating habits, migration habits, bats’ habitats and bats’ benefits to South Texas?

BAT CAVE

If seeing 60,000 creepy and interesting bats is not wild enough, take them up I-35 near the community of Garden Ridge to Bracken Cave, located on the northern outskirts of San Antonio. The cave is home to the world’s largest bat colony, comprising more than 15 million Mexican free-tailed bats. This spot is a key maternity ward for this species, and females congregate there each year to give birth and rear their young here, according to biologists of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “The Mexican free-tailed bats from Bracken colony alone are estimated to consume over 100 tons of corn earworm moths and other crop pests every summer night,” they tell us.

According to TP&W, Bat Conservation International (BCI) hosts visitation nights for its members and partners during the summer months. For more information about how and where to see the bats at Bracken Cave, go to their website or give them a call.

Photo courtesy of Texas A&M University

Bracken Cave Bats

HEY, BATTA BATTA SWING!

OK, so maybe bats creep you or your kids out just a bit. What other way can you go batty together? How about watching a San Antonio Missions minor-league baseball home game at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium, or head to the batting cages at places like Green Acres Golf & Games Batting Cages or D-BAT San Antonio? At places like D-Bat San Antonio North, for example, swing for the bleachers from the safety of nice batting cages, and sign up for softball and baseball camps, clinics, lessons and club memberships. D-Bat even has a Pro Shop, plus they are happy to host birthday parties and baseball and softball training and more. D-Bat’s summer camps are popular with parents looking for something constructive to keep their ballplayers busy when school is out.

Softball and baseball are a fun activity for kids, be they batters or bleacher-bound fans. And bats, well, they are always an interesting sight in South Texas.

Either way, whether you watch or play, you are sure to see summer fly. So go batty. It is a summer tradition in South Texas.

AUTHOR’S BIO:

Janis Turk is a travel writer, author, guidebook writer, travel expert for TV and a woman with a 230+-year old house, which has had bats swoop from the attic into her living room. While not a fan of bats indoors, she does enjoy watching them emerge from bridges and caves in San Antonio and Austin.

Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium

click on this:

ALAMO BEER CO. (HAYS BRIDGE) www.AlamoBeer.com

BAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

www.BatCon.org

BRACKEN CAVE

www.TPWD.Texas.gov

CAMDEN BRIDGE ON THE MISSION REACH OF THE RIVER WALK

(CAMDEN ST. AT NEWELL ST.) www.San Antonio.gov

D-BAT

www.DBatSan.com

GREEN ACRES GOLF & GAMES BATTING CAGES

www.GreenAcresMiniGolf.com

HAYS BRIDGE AT CHERRY STREET

www.SanAntonio.gov

SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS BASEBALL

www.MiLB.com/san-antonio

SAVE $3 ON ADMISSION TO LEGOLAND® DISCOVERY CENTER OR SEA LIFE SAN ANTONIO