A Batty Adventure

Fact: If you live in a particular city, there is a 95% probability that you've not been to its tourist attractions. (The 5% is to account for all the enthusiastic fanatics out there). And yes, there probably is uncertainty also.

Source: Me

I would've called it Nimisha's Theory # who know's what, but the truth is that the above really is a fact, not a theory.

Yesterday, my friend Negin and I decided to go for a walk after dinner to digest the excellent thai food we'd had (she, apparently, didn't agree with the excellence of the food). In any case, we started walking, walked around the Capitol, and somehow ended up at the Congress Bridge again. The railing on the left side couldn't be seen because of all the people waiting to see the bats come out from under the bridge.

Every spring, about 1.5 million bats (the Mexican Free-Tails) migrate from Mexico and settle down in the crevices under the Congress Bridge. They go out to hunt every night, and are seen all summer, well into August. One of my friends, who was a guide on one of the tour-boats on Town Lake last summer, told me that the bat babies (called pups) are born during the summer. It's kinda funny how Mexican bats like their young to be American citizens. Heh.

The former public-nightmare was soon turned into a tourist-attraction...bats supposedly eat tonnes (thousands or millions of them) of insects every night. Every evening, around sunset, the bats come out in hoards, which is (supposedly) quite a sight.

I know all about it, but have never seen it happen. Yesterday seemed to be the day I would get that chance.

Negin and I found a spot at the railing, and waited. We waited for 45 minutes. We talked about things ranging from dog-vision to the phase diagram of water. But the bats didn't come out.

While standing there, resting against the railing, my hands felt strangely empty.

"We need to use some bait to get the bats to come out," I finally said.
"How?" Negin said.
"By using a fishing rod. And attaching a dead insect at its end. We could probably call that 'batting'. "
Negin and I looked at each other. And then we started laughing, and couldn't stop for a long time.

We left. And of course, true to Murphy's word, the bats came out soon after. We heard them while crossing 7th street. I guess the batting will have to wait till next time.