Adventurenet.net

☀️ 78°F (25.6° C) 9:10 am

Today I used a dice roller to randomly select an Explore Every Day challenge, and the challenge is to write 150 words about my home town.

Austin, Texas. We have snow-free weather and bats.

I do not believe everyone will agree with me about the weather, but it is something that I enjoy about living here. Wo do tend to have 100 days of 100+ degree weather and this has been stretching our electrical infrastructure to its limits, but it rarely snows here and I believe that the higher temperatures are a fair trade for this treat.

It is rare to be stuck at home or afraid to drive to work due to road conditions thanks to this lack of frozen rain and I love this. My hatred for freezing precipitation and for being cooped up in my apartment trumps the mild discomfort of seeking shade while outside during the hot summer months.

Let us not discuss the issue of electricity consumption & creation that Texas faces as this is a controversial topic and because I want to talk about bats.

The Mexican Free-Tailed Bat has a home in downtown Austin thanks to an unusual mistake in the construction of the Congress street bridge.

Perhaps the term “mistake” is not correct as the design is intentional, but what is not intentional is the introduction of a perfect habitat for these bats.

During the 1980s when this bridge was built there was immediate bat-phobia that spread through the city, but as this bat phenomenon became more understood the tensions eased. The bats are now welcomed guest of Austin due in part to their love of feeding on pesky insects.

Another interesting feature of these creatures is the method that these bats leave the bridge in the evening. They slalom through the barriers of the underside of the bridge. If you stand on top of the bridge and look over the edge, you can see hordes of them flying out for a brief moment as they pop out to turn around and fly back through the next gap. They continue in this pattern until they work their way to the end and fly off to seek nourishment.

Oops. My mind got stuck on bats and I have gone far over the 150 word limit.

Pls forgive. 🙇‍♂️

Remus says “Hi.”