The night was warm and dry, not too unlike the nights from my childhood in Palm Springs. The slow burn across the country side in my ford fiesta left me with a desire to stand whenever I could. I therefore didn’t mind waiting for the couple in front of me to talk to the old codger behind the counter at the market that boasted “information here”. He reminded me of a person who volunteers at the Zoo or a Hospital. He really enjoyed sharing his wisdom with the dumbfounded travelers that followed the sign that could be seen from miles down the road. Noticing that I was listening in, he told me about the great bat flight that happens every evening during the summer. He gave me a newsletter, a map, and a town directory and then told me that I should get a move on as the sun was setting and the bats would be starting there evening forage. The crazy of codger was full of enthusiasm and I could have listened to him go on and on about the caves and the founding of the town all night but his enthusiasm turned to a urgency so I thanked him for the paraphernalia, and set out toward the opening of the cave.

The cave is centered to an amphitheater made of uneven, uncomfortable steps/benches of ROCK, not stone but ROCK. I didn’t want to sit but being 6′2″ standing is mean to others. Especially since the others were kids and families. I had the sneaking suspicion that I might have been the only single non-pedophile there.

The pre-bat show was made up of a park ranger yacking a pre-approved state message about how to not be afraid of the bats because they only eat insects and to not touch or scream if one dives at you. The whole speach did little to elate my fears. I actually didn’t have any till she was done talking. Now I was at the edge of my stone seat wondering if the crowed was prone to panic and picking out the kids in the audience I could use as a human shield. I picked a little girl with long hair thinking her hair would net the little fuckers if they tried to get to me.

Then all of a sudden it got real quite. It was as if the entire crowed took the same breath at the same time and held it.

Bats started coming out of the cave in a cyclone fashion. They would swirl around slicing through the air with their skin wings. Recklessly but with purpose the cloud got denser and more congested until a couple thousand bats broke away and a cloud formed in the sky and dissipated like a flock of birds after a shotgun blast. They seemed to black out the light that was still in the stratosphere diving erratically like kamikaze fighter pilots after the wings of their plan had been shot off.

One bat got withing 8 inches of my face, I didn’t notice it till it was gone. I heard the wind, saw a flash, and then my brain started doing the math and I assumed from what was going on around me that it was a bat.

No time to scream, no time to grab the girl and start waving her around like a balloontoye bat swatter. As suddenly as they had come the bat cloud thinned out and the darkness set in. They were spread out over the countryside eating insects and scaring children in there dreams. All that was left now was there memory of teh zinging swarming swoosh of the skin like wings cutting up the air.

It was magical.

in july about 400,000 bats (mostly pregnant females) inhabit the caves going 1,037 below the surface.
In october after the pups are born and the dads come home, It gets to be around 1.2 million bats,

I wonder what that sounds like?

-d