Echo Valley H.E. Butt Foundation Camp

We went on a church cabin camp-out at the Echo Valley camp of the H.E. Butt Foundation in the hill country this weekend. The Frio River springs forth on the foundation's land, and the campground is along the water. The weather was gray, but fairly cool (in the 70's Fahrenheit mostly), so I think it was nice. I snapped a few pictures of the Frio and the cliffs over it. It's not far from some hunting land Amanda's uncle has in Edwards county, and I did see a doe and yearling pair of Axis deer on the campsite in addition to the regular white tailed deer we see all the time around here and in the hill country. Axis deer are native to India, but they are brought to deer ranches as exotic species, and they escape and breed.

Monarch butterflies were also plentiful in the hill country.

monarch butterfly on a flower

the river and the bottom of the cliff

more of the river and the bottom of the cliff

a view of the cliff side (I wish the sky had been blue.)

Austin Bats Pictures

Correction: The bats eat about five to ten tons of insects each night, not ten to fifteen, according to BCI.

We went on the Austin riverboat for a sunset and the bats tonight. The weather was just clearing, so the clouds made a perfect backdrop for the Congress Street bat colony.

Bats in the sunset

Bats over the river

People on the Congress Street bridge to see the bats

I probably need to get a camera with a faster CCD sometime since ISO 100 mode is relatively limiting.

There are about 1.5 million bats living under the Congress Street bridge, and they eat about five to ten tons of insects every night.