Tales on the Trail – Austin’s Neighborhood Bats

Join us as we learn everything about Austin’s neighborhood bats and how you can help protect these marvelous mammals. At sunset, join us for a bat tour and witness them take flight up close! 

Bats play a vital role in Austin’s ecosystem. Each bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour so they help keep Austin’s insect population in check.  No wonder why we love them so much! And while Austin’s Congress Bridge is famous for its bats, there are bats living all around us, including Waterloo Park!

Event Schedule

• 6:30 PM – Cocktail Reception & Be a Bat Scientist Activity
  Kids get to become bat scientists and learn how bat scientists catch and track bats with hands-on demonstrations and activities. 
• 7:00 PM – Presentation: Austin’s Neighborhood Bats 
• 7:30 PM – Sunset Bat Tour
• 8:00 PM – Event Ends

Speakers 

Dianne Odegard, Austin Bat Refuge

Dianne has been a wildlife rehabilitator since 1990, always working with animals that live in close proximity to urban areas and human structures, with the hope of educating people about ways to live harmoniously with wildlife. She considers bat care to be service work, benefiting both bats and humans.

Lee Machenzie, Austin Bat Refuge 

As a carpenter and then a nationally acclaimed design-build remodeler, Lee has been humanely dealing with a variety of small mammals in structures his whole career. A wildlife worker for over 20 years, and now co-founder of Austin Bat Refuge, he creatively combines rehabilitation and permaculture, providing the highest possible quality of life in our “bat gardens,” an Austin Bat Refuge original concept and the first of its kind.