TUCSON, Ariz. – Artists and community members gather on the dry, sandy bed of the Rillito River to draw attention to the disappearing rivers in the Southwest by playing live music and hosting other live performances. And once a year, they go there to hold a festival and watch 45,000 bats fly out from under a bridge.

Participants in the Rillito River Project are planning the group's second annual Bat Night for Sept. 13.

“Our main goal is to bring attention to the vanishing rivers of the Southwest through art,” said Ellen Skotheim, creative director for the the project, which was first established in January 2007.

On Bat Night, participants gather at the Rillito River near North Campbell Avenue just south of East River Road to watch the bats fly out from under the bridge at sunset.

"They're Mexican free-tailed bats," said Skotheim. "They fly out at sunset from May to September."

These medium-sized bats are a fraction of the millions of bats living in North America. In the summertime, tourists and residents in Austin, Texas, make special trips in the evenings to see the 1.5 million bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge, according to Bat Conservation International.

“It is common for them to live under bridges,” said Arlo Augden of the Saguaro National Park Service.

The bats migrate yearly, Augden said, and Kartchner Caverns in Benson, Ariz. closes a specific part of the park until the bats migrate out of it.

The number of bats living in a colony depends on the habitat, Augden said.

Skotheim is expecting a much bigger turnout in September than the 2,700 people who showed up last year.

“We’re planning some interesting things on Bat Night that will be different from Bat Night last year,” Skotheim said.

People should wear black and come to the river to read or listen to bat poetry and to make a special toast to the soul of the river, a tradition that is done at every event, Skotheim said.

A group of University of Arizona creative writing students along with their professor will be taking part in this year’s event, Skotheim said.

“Some of my graduate students are writing stuff about the river,” said University of Arizona Creative Writing Professor Alison Deming. “Some is poetry, some is nonfiction.”

Deming and her students are waiting to see how their work will fit in with the project’s program.

“We’re all excited,” Deming said. “Environmental and community issues are important to look at.”

A group of five or six students volunteered to write something for the project as extra work because it’s an interesting idea, she said.
The project puts on performances on the riverbed and artists produce music, poetry and other artwork.

Skotheim and her husband started an art company in New York City and moved to Tucson to continue their work here.

Herself an artist, Skotheim went to a special high school for the arts in New Jersey and graduated from the University of California Berkeley for landscape architecture and city planning.

>“These are real environmental issues that we’re looking at,” Skotheim said.

Click on this link for information about Mexican free-tailed bats, courtesy of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences:


Click on the video below to listen to the bats under the bridge at Campbell Avenue and River Road.