Poster for "Bats on the Central Coast" by Paul Collins for his lecture last night
We had a well-attended Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society lecture last night (I'm on the board) on "Bats on the Central Coast" by Paul Collins who is Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This is Paul's poster that shows the bats of central California. These are real specimens pinned onto a poster board. (Sedgwick Reserve, Santa Ynez Valley, 20 September 2012)
After the lecture, we walked to the pond at the UC Sedgwick Preserve and used theAnabat detector to listen to real bats. It's a device that frequency-shifts the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats down to audible frequencies. I didn't see a thing, but we "heard" three kinds of bat - The "Big Brown Bat", a little Myotis, and the "Mexican Free-tailed Bat". I admit, it seemed like magic to me!
Anabat detectors work great, but they are pricey. I want one! There are plans for a homebrew "Simple Bat Detector" on the web...
Poster for "Bats on the Central Coast" by Paul Collins for his lecture last night
We had a well-attended Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society lecture last night (I'm on the board) on "Bats on the Central Coast" by Paul Collins who is Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This is Paul's poster that shows the bats of central California. These are real specimens pinned onto a poster board. (Sedgwick Reserve, Santa Ynez Valley, 20 September 2012)
After the lecture, we walked to the pond at the UC Sedgwick Preserve and used theAnabat detector to listen to real bats. It's a device that frequency-shifts the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats down to audible frequencies. I didn't see a thing, but we "heard" three kinds of bat - The "Big Brown Bat", a little Myotis, and the "Mexican Free-tailed Bat". I admit, it seemed like magic to me!
Anabat detectors work great, but they are pricey. I want one! There are plans for a homebrew "Simple Bat Detector" on the web...