Photos: Bats, lots of bats
Tens of thousands of Mexican free-tail bats make their nightly foray from their summer home under the Campbell Avenue Bridge and into the skies over the Rillito River, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026. The bats should be heading home to Mexico any night now, as October is usually the time they fly back south for the winter.
A falcon flies off with an early snack, one of the first Mexican free-tail bats to emerge from the roost under the Campbell Avenue Bridge over the Rillito River, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026. Tens of thousands of the bats make their home under the bridge through the summer, emerging at sunset to find insects to eat. With October in full swing, the colony should be heading south back to Mexico any day now for the winter.
Tens of thousands of Mexican free-tail bats fly off to the southwest in the last of the light, emerging for the night’s hunt from the understructure of the Campbell Avenue Bridge over the Rillito River, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026.
The evening sky gets crowded over the Rillito River as tens of thousands of Mexican free-tail bats leave their summer home under the Campbell Avenue Bridge for the night, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026.
Bats stream into the western sky from the Campbell Avenue Bridge over the Rillito River on their nightly hunt for insects, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026.
An evening pedestrian walks under Campbell Avenue Bridge as the last few Mexican free-tail bats head out on the night’s hunt over the Rillito River, Tucson, Ariz., October 8, 2026.
Kelly Presnell
Photojournalist
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