Captured Moments: bats at sunset with crimson wings

Just west of Sacramento, California, underneath a three-mile-long causeway, a colony of 250,000 Mexican free-tail bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) has established a summer roost in the expansion joints of the freeway. It is considered the largest urban colony of this species of bats in California. Between May and early September each year, this colony provides a natural spectacle beside the Yolo Causeway of Interstate 80. Just before sunset, the bats fly out from under the causeway bridge, emerging in huge, breathtaking ribbons that pulse and shift across the evening sky.

It was a captured moment for me. Mexican free-tail bats with wings painted red by the setting sun flying in front of a rising moon.

The best place to witness this nocturnal explosion of life is the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, just south of and adjacent to the freeway causeway. You can certainly experience the evening fly-out of the Mexican free-tail bats without a guide. For your first time, however, taking a group tour hosted by the Yolo Basin Foundation is much better. The group offers regular tours from late June through September – but be sure to sign up early.

This past year, I spent numerous evenings watching and photographing the bats flying from under the causeway. Each time, I marveled at the thousands of tiny bats performing an aerial synchronized dance as they streamed into the night sky, searching for insects to feed on. But one week in August became even more special, as a rising moon would be low enough in the sky that I might have a possibility of photographing the bats passing in front of it. Game on! Two nights. Two failures … at least in terms of the tiny bats cooperating sufficiently to pass in front of the moon. Sadly, no amount of telepathy on my part convinced them to cooperate. Either I had the wrong frequency or, more likely, I was just in the wrong spot.

Not in front of the moon, but still an amazing number of bats streaming across the sky. Seeing so many Mexican free-tail bats is an unforgettable experience.

On my third night, the stars aligned: The sunset cast an intense reddish-orange light across the sky as the moon rose – exactly where I hoped it would be. Learning from my positioning failures from the previous nights, I set up and waited as the bats began streaming out from under the causeway behind me. I was facing in the opposite direction, looking toward the moon. Though a peregrine falcon diving through the columns of bats, seeking to grab one or two in its claws for dinner, tempted me to try for a shot, I knew I only had one opportunity to get the photo I sought and remained focused on the moon.

And then it happened: Perhaps thanks to the falcon, a column of bats streaming away from the causeway pivoted and swirled to the right, passing directly in front of the moon. The sunset painted their wings red, as if on fire. I managed three shots before they were gone, off to gorge on moths and other flying insects.

Preparation, patience, anticipation, focus, and luck contributed to a photo of a moment I will always treasure: Crimson Wings: Mexican Free-Tail Bats Flying At Sunset.

· Camera: Sony A7RV

· Lens: Sony FE 300mm F2.8 with a Sony 1.4 teleconverter

· Shutter speed: 1/2000^th

· Aperture: f/4

· ISO: 640

— Story by Michael Hodgson - See more photos by Michael Hodgson here – all available for purchase for gifts or just for you!