More species

In my last post I neglected two humble species that occasionally make my commute more pleasant. The first is the Mexican Freetail Bat, _Tadarida_brasiliensis_. Probably the best known colony of these mammals lives under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin. In July, August and September, you can see about 1,200,000 individuals leave their homes in cracks underneath the bridge around dusk for a night of foraging on mosquitos and other insects. Less well known is the colony that lives under the I-35 railroad overpass in Round Rock; the numbers are less, probably no more than 700,000, but these bats don't mind getting up close and personal with commuters. If you cross the overpass at the right time, you are likely to see bats surfing the slipstream from your windshield. The bats heading up or down Brushy Creek look like long ropes: it is only when you get to the overpass that you see the individuals that make up the cloud.

The second species is the Western Box Turtle, _Terrapene_ornata_. This gentle reptile (gentle, unless you are a curious puppy with your nose in front of the carapce) starts moving in late spring. In May and June, I'm likely to see at least one daily trying to cross a road. A disturbing number don't make it. When my children were small, I used to stop to pick up one or two a year. I'd put it in a box for a while, then release it in the back yard. Most managed to dig under the fence and escape; those who stayed I eventually took back to the side of the road to which they were heading when I interrupted them.