Holy Bayou Bat Tour, Batman!

By urbanhoustonian at October 29, 2009 | 6:00 AM | Print

Now sit right down and you’ll hear a tale, A tale of a faithful trip.
That started from a Downtown port,
Aboard a pontoon boat.

osprey

The mate was an urban Houstonian,
The skipper Captain Ray.
16 passengers set sail that day
For a two hour tour, a two hour tour.

The weather was beautiful,
The tiny ship flowed true.
If not for the courage of the Partnership
The bayou would be lost, the bayou would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore near Waugh Street Bridge
With Chardonnay, and Merlot too
Mexican Free-Tailed bats, and their pups
Appetizers
Really great friends and a camera man

Here on Buffalo Bayou!

I was excited when I was asked by my friends at the Buffalo Bayou Partnership to host a Bat Boat Tour on Buffalo Bayou. I had previously ridden their pontoon boat through the pylons of Downtown Houston at a previous BBP event at the Sabine Promenade. This tour would be my first legitimate jaunt down the Bayou, and my first intentional viewing of the burgeoning new stars of Houston pop culture, the Waugh Street Bat Colony.

Our journey began at the boat launch in Sabine Promenade park in the shadows of the Sabine Street Bridge. If you haven’t yet visited the Sabine Promenade, I highly recommend you make a visit. There is free parking available in City Lot H, enter off of Memorial. There is a map available here. From there you head west under the Sabine Street Bridge. While most of your trek will be in between Memorial Drive and Allen Parkway, shortly have leaving the Downtown area, you find yourself drifting underneath Memorial Drive.

One thing that struck me from the beginning is how lush the shores of the Bayou are. I don’t know if there are many cities in the world with this kind of natural resource literally sitting in its backyard. There has been a lot of talk about the idea of turning the Bayou into San Antonio’s Riverwalk. I’ve been a proponent of such a plan in the past, but after doing a Huckleberry Finn up the Buffalo Bayou, I have to say we need to keep it just the way it is. Of course, I would like to see more development along the Bayou, but not of the restaurant, cafe and residential variety. I want to see more parks like Sabine Promenade. I am anxiously anticipating the completion of the renovation of the International Coffee Building, the Partnership’s next great project along the Bayou.
So let’s talk about the Boat and the Tours. Your vessel is the Osprey, a 20-person pontoon boat. As you can see from the picture above, it seats everyone quite comfortably. You are asked to sit down while the boat is travelling. Nature has a habit of sticking logs in unlikely places along the bayou, so unexpected bumps are sometimes part of your tour. On our tour, we only had one small bump. In any case, your captain will regale you about the history of Buffalo Bayou while you drift slowly towards the Waugh Street Bridge.
You might ask yourself what’s the big deal about the Waugh Street Bridge. Where did these bats come from? Well, take a gander at the photo above of the Montrose Street Bridge. You see the gaps between the beams? The Montrose bridge’s supports go across the bridge between cement beams. Now look underneath the Waugh Street Bridge.
Instead of supports going across the bridge, the expansion spans are placed side-by-side the entire length of the bridge. The expansion gaps between the beams then became the perfect home for Mexican Free-Tailed Bats. Roughly 250,000 bats live under the Waugh Street Bridge. The famous bats of the Congress Bridge in Austin number 1,500,000.
The first thing you notice once you run aground near the Bridge, is the tell tale twittering of the bats under the bridge. The thing I find so fantastic about this whole experience is the location. I drive over the Waugh Street bridge multiple times a week. Here I was, sipping wine with friends underneath a bridge waiting for bats, and lots of ‘em, to take flight into the Houston evening. It’s certainly belongs on the list of things to do in Houston. For my part, I am going to plan personal cruises bi-annually; one near my birthday in April and another one weekend in October. One thing to know is you can pretty much book a cruise whenever you like. Give the Partnership at least two weeks, maybe more, and find 20 people. As long as they can find a captain, you’re in good shape. There is more information available about their public tours here. Whether you want to cruise the Bayou or see the bats, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership has you covered.