1/4 million ...

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you are no doubt familiar with some of The Boys' obsessions.  An opportunity arose for him to fully experience one such fascination last night.  It was too good to pass up :)  The Yolo Basin Foundation, an organization local to the Davis/Sacramento area, offers a series of...wait for it...wait for it...... Bat Walks throughout the summer.  I know you were all hoping for something dinosaur related...



The underside of this stretch of highway which runs over a wetland area between Davis and Sacramento, is home to one of the largest colonies of Mexican free-tailed bats in California.  It strikes me as such an interesting melding of humans and nature. 

It is thought that close to 1/4 million bats live here.  You can see the beginnings of the evening hunt as the first few hundred or so bats make their exit near the tree in the above photo.... always the same tree, night after night without fail.

The Boy was duly impressed, although I'm not sure if it was the bats, or the opportunity to ride in the front passenger seat  (less than 5 miles an hour on a dirt road out to the observation site) which left the most significant mark on him ;) .