Coming soon to The BatAbility Club!
Review: The Song Meter Mini Bat 2
From Wildlife Acoustics
Welcome! I've tested and reviewed over 40 different bat detectors here...More than anyone else in the world. I've also started to officially review books about bats & bat acoustics.
A short review of The Hi-Sound Compact Parabolic Microphone from Dodotronic, Inc.
A full/detailed live webinar review/presentation of The Hi-Sound Parabolic Mic was done for The BatAbility Club. It is currently posted, and available for viewing to all members of BatAbility Club. As an added bonus, Neil Middleton presented an additional, detailed follow-up; which I joined him on - For The BatAbility Club!
Neil carefully compared this unit from Dodotronic, with one of the "Gold Standards" of parabolic dish microphones: The Parabolic Dish from Telinga, Inc.!
The Telinga Dish (stock photo)
As stated in a recent blog post, I was actively seeking the next bat detector (or wildlife sound recorder) to review:
1st for The BatAbility Club, as a live webinar/presentation.
-and-
2nd for a text-based review/blog post, to appear here on the blog.
Well, I had parabolic dish microphones on my mind. So, the first company I reached out to – was Dodotronic. I remembered seeing some very interesting parabolic dish microphones on their website.
After reaching out to Ivano, at Dodotronic, it was decided that The Hi-Sound Compact would be the device to test & review.
It is a compact, and affordable parabolic dish microphone on the Dodotronic website.
The live webinar/presentation/review of this interesting bit of kit, will be viewable to members of the BatAbility Club; on July 8th.
I am happy to report, that Dodotronic shipped me a review sample straight away. And it arrived here in New York this afternoon!
I would also like to take this opportunity, to inform the reader that I will once again, be actively seeking a device to review, for the live webinar following this one. Which will take place approximately 2 months from now.
If you are a manufacturer of bat detectors, and would like to have your bat detector featured/reviewed during a live webinar for The BatAbility Club: Please contact me!
Happy bat detecting!
'Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain & Ireland'
With photography by Sandra Graham
The following, is my "Cliff notes version", of the back cover of the book:
A volume covering 42 species of terrestrial mammal. From the red deer to the pygmy shrew, from the pine marten to the hedgehog. Treated as a single field of study... This volume covers survey methods, the analysis of sound recordings, as well as software. The book includes species in Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
This book contains almost 300 figures in total, each species covered in detail, along with specific spectrogram examples.
In addition, this book allows the reader to access a (downloadable) sound library, with more than 250 recordings. I won’t go into too much detail about it here, but I will say that I found it to be a very valuable resource.
The authors have extensive experience and expertise in bioacoustics, as well as in the sound identification of mammals.
They are also heavily involved in creating tools that use machine learning algorithms to identify mammal species from their calls (quite fascinating).
The image on the front cover of the book, is of a Red Deer stag (Cervus elaphus) calling (by Philippe Clement)
Seeking the next bat detector (or wildlife sound recording device)
To be featured on Live Webinar/Presentation for The BatAbility Club, to air in June/July. Also, a full written review here on the blog.
If you are a manufacturer of any of the following, and would like to have your equipment featured, please contact me:
Happy bat detecting!
An Addendum Post - To Accompany Today's Live Webinar On BatAbility Club (on The Microscopy of Pond Water).
April 8th 2023
Below, are some of what I consider the “better” Links…
For some excellent examples of some of the things I wanted to show, visit this gentleman’s site.
Micscape Magazine (microscopy-uk.org) is a virtual online “Headquarters” for all things microscope-related in The UK. It provides very well-organized resources for learning more about the world of microscopy - I can’t recommend it enough!
Here is a wonderful online document; which basically provides a concise education on microscopic organisms. Along with their place (and our place) in the grand scheme of things, all in just 31 pages!
Here's a Link with lots of great information available - Including a Microscopy Primer, the anatomy of a microscope, and other topics.
Even more detailed information, and especially brand/model-specific info, may be found at the major microscope manufacturers’ sites. They are: Olympus, Nikon, Zeiss, and Leica/Leitz. They’re often referred to as "The big four".
A Link from Leica
A Link from Nikon.
A Link from Zeiss.
A Link from Olympus.
Below are some direct links, to the various types of microscopes I discussed - From none other than one of my favourite online stores - NHBS! As I suppose is the case with many of you (Naturalists, Biologists, Scientists, et al) I feel like "a kid in a candy store" whenever I visit NHBS... Now, if someone would be kind enough to send me a Gift Certificate... 😁
Stereo Microscope:
Binocular Compound Microscope:
In an effort to demonstrate the variety of colours one may come across - Some pond water organisms I've recorded in years past - YouTube Videos:
There are more! Located in a Playlist named 'Microscopy - Pond Water Samples'
The (free) User Manual for The Nikon Labophot microscope (the one I currently use).
A YouTube video discussing a DIY, cell phone-based solution, for those wanting to see fluorescence microscopy. It's a fairly recent video, posted only 4 months ago.
Now, if you've made it all the way through this post, to this point - You deserve to see the following incredible videos - You've "earned" it!
Here's a link to a very comprehensive, but entertaining YouTube video, which basically goes through almost all of the microscopic creatures you'd encounter, while examining pond water samples.
It would take years of exploring, to see the diversity of creatures shown in this video. Not only are almost all of the most commonly encountered creatures covered; but they are shown using many different microscope techniques:
The Spring of 2024 is here, and it’s associated weather is fast approaching.
I’m sorry to report that there really aren’t any new bat detectors, to test & review for the BatAbility Club (followed by a detailed /written review here on the blog).
The upcoming live webinar/presentation, for BatAbility Club Members on April 8th will basically be everything you’ve always wanted to know about examining pond water with a microscope! It will very likely cover several related topics as well.
The next book to be reviewed here is: ‘Sound Identification Of Terrestrial Mammals Of Britain & Ireland’ by
Neil Middleton
Stuart Nelson
Huma Pearce
Until next time,
Happy bat detecting Mammal recording!
P.S. If you are manufacturer of microphones + parabolic dishes, and would like to have your equipment reviewed (in June/July) - Contact me.
The Ranger is a brand, new, cutting edge, wildlife recorder, which has just been released from Titley Scientific.
Building upon the success of their Chorus and AnaBat Swift Titley has developed a fully customizable, long-lasting, wildlife recorder.
Photo credit: Titley ScientificIt features:
The Ranger unattended bat/wildlife sound recorder, has the ability to use many different microphones. Among the commonly selected options are:
Coming soon to The BatAbility Club! Review: The Song Meter Mini Bat 2 From Wildlife Acoustics