Bats and Birds on MegaDoppler13 HD

When the weather is quiet, our MegaDoppler 13 radar is very sensitive to anything moving through the air. Bats and birds show up very clearly on the radar.

The image to the left, shows MegaDoppler 13 HD at 8:00 PM Wednesday. Initially, just a small echo showed up as the bats emerged from underneath the Waugh Drive Bridge just west of downtown. According to the Houston Parks and Recreation Department there are about 250,000 bats living under the bridge. As the bats fanned out across the city, we saw an expanding area on the radar that eventually stretched north beyond Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The smaller areas of reflectivity in western Harris County are migrating birds flying in from Mexico. They roost in the trees along I-10, between the West Loop and the Beltway.  Like the bats, the birds start to move around sunset.