We’ve finally gone live on the Bracken Cave cams. It took several years to finally get a reliable internet connection close enough to get the equipment connected. Hopefully they’ll stay functional for a while.
Recently the bats have been starting their emergence anywhere from 7:30-8:30 pm CDT so 12:30-1:30 am UTC, but they do their own thing and sometimes it can vary by hours from one day to another. The emergence is usually pretty steady and last roughly 3 hours but much is in the dark. You can usually still hear the cool sounds of millions of bat wings in flight.
The morning returns are hit and miss as the bats return in spurts anywhere from 5 am to 10am with outliers before and after.
The link is to a local TV station covering the cams with useful background.