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1.5 Million Expected at Bats First-Day Outing

American Bats are the subject of four self-adhesive se-tenant 37¢ stamps in the 2002 National Stamp Collecting Month commemorative issue, to be released Sept. 13 in Austin, Texas.

This pane of 20 stamps consists of four different stamp designs featuring photographs of bats found in the continental United States: the red bat; the pallid bat; the spotted bat; and the leaf-nosed bat.

Although details are still tentative, the first-day ceremony should be a sight to behold, according to U.S. Postal Service Spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky.

'It will be held at the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, where about 1.5 million bats live,' Yarosky told Stamp Collector. 'They fly out every evening at dusk, so it should be a thrilling show. Obviously, our ceremony will be held at about 7 p.m., to try and catch the 'fly out.' '

The story of Austin's Congress Street Bridge bats is on the Internet at: www.batcon.org/discover/congress.html

The photographs on the four stamps and pane selvage were all taken by Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle of the Austin-based Bat Conservation International, Inc. All of the bats were released unharmed after being photographed by Tuttle.