Looking for The Next Bat Detector for Review! To be Featured on Live Webinar @ The BatAbility Club!

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:

• Bat detector/recorder
• Parabolic Dish Microphone system
• Hydrophone system
• Night vision device
• Thermal imaging device

I'm also well experienced to test & review other non-traditional equipment:

• Moth Trap (see this NHBS page for examples)

Happy bat detecting!

A Post to Accompany Today's Live Webinar On The BatAbility Club

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…

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:

Protist 1

Protist 2 

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:

• Brightfield
• Polarization
• Phase Contrast
• Fluorescence
• DIC (Dual Interference Contrast) - An expensive technology!

I plan to add more excellent links to this post soon!

I'm very keen on Microscopy, and I have no shortage of things to share...

Until next time,

Happy bat detecting! Pond dipping!

The Next Book To Be Reviewed: ‘Sound Identification Of Terrestrial Mammals Of Britain & Ireland’

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 

What do you do when you first pick up a book? 

The majority of you, will open it up to the table of contents - so far, so good, nothing strange there. 

I’ll tell you what I do. I go to the table of contents, scan through and pick out whichever chapters appeal to me most…

I make a mental note of the page numbers, and check out each of them in order. 

When I picked up this book, I made a mental note of page 13, and page 295. 

Survey Equipment & Field Techniques   Page 13

Insectivores - Hedgehogs, Moles & Shrews   Page 295

And those chapters did not disappoint!

Why those chapters? Easy: I love Tech, gadgets, and field recording techniques!

And, I’m very keen on Moles and Shrews!

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.

Review: The Ranger - From Titley Scientific

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 Scientific

It features:

• Three microphone ports.
• The ability to choose from a wide range of microphones.
• With Titley‘s currently available microphones, many different combinations are possible.

The Quick Start User Guide.

Two audible microphones, and one omnidirectional Ultrasonic microphone.

A quick peek at the Titley ranger powered on.

The Ranger’s main specifications are as follows:

• Physical size: 194 x 123 x 50mm (7.64 x 4.84 x 1.97 inches).
• Weight: 478 Grams (16.86oz.) without batteries.
• it may be powered by: 4 or 8 AA size batteries, external power sources, or solar (optional kit available).
• Sample rates: 500, 384, 320, 192, 96, 48, 44.1, 32, 24, or 22.0 5 Ksps.
• Frequency range: 20Hz to 250kHz.
• 2 SD cards supported (up to 1TB each)
• GPS - The Ranger performs daily fixes, and supports GPS enabled transect mode.
• 3 Channels: 1 Front mounted, ultrasonic or acoustic, two sides (acoustic only). simultaneous recording.
• Headphone jack for FD output (ultrasound) and stereo acoustic.
• File Output: Full spectrum (wav), ZC, GPS (.gpx), Temperature (.csv).

The Ranger unattended bat/wildlife sound recorder, has the ability to use many different microphones. Among the commonly selected options are:

• Low-profile, side-mount, audible microphone product code: AAAB028 current price $99 US 
• *Remember to always check Titley’s website for prices*
• Omni directional acoustic microphone AS-0 product code: AAB016 V1 $225 US
• Directional Ultrasonic microphone US-D product code: AAAB013 V1 current price $325 US 
• Omni-Directional Ultrasonic Microphone US-O V3 product code: AAA012 V3 current price $199 US

The Ranger arrived to me, here in New York (from the headquarters in Australia) in a heavy-duty, black plastic bag with embedded bubble wrap:

And inside of that black package…

And finally upon opening the box:

Remember that your (chosen) microphones are under the cardboard flaps.

Additional specifications: 

• Housed in a camouflage, weatherproof/shockproof (IP67) with tripod mounting hole.
• 2.4 inch color LCD touchscreen display.
• Warranty: Recorder 2 years, Microphones 1 year.
• Lockable security box, microphone, extension cables, power lead, and solar panel Kit are all available options.

Some additional items of interest include:

• The microphones are indeed “weatherproof, and highly sensitive”.
• When testing the headphone jack, with default settings, the output was very sensitive and accurate. As sensitive as any microphone I’ve ever tested.
• Batteries are stated to last 100 nights (ultrasonic) or 700 hours acoustic (depending on temperatures).
• The Ranger may be configured as: mono or stereo – acoustic, as well as Ultrasonic – simultaneously.

The new Ranger, deployed on carbon fiber tripod (on my deck).

The resulting recordings (Northern Barred Owls & Coyotes, will be featured on my YouTube Channel soon...

Here's an unboxing video:

Additional accessories available, include:

• Chorus and Ranger security box and cable lock product code: AAAB032 $145 US *Please remember to check the Titley website for current prices*
• Solar panel kit for the Ranger (is provided with everything needed). Solar Panel for Ranger or Swift product code: AAA034 $120 US
• Ranger accessories bundle: case, microphone cable, and USB cable product code: AAAB035 current price $70 US

Quick Start User Guide:

• Informs you of AnaBat Insight software (With QR code).
• Refers you to the user manual (via QR code).
• Firmware updates, Titley website, AnaBat user community, and YouTube channel are all provided via QR code squares.
• Microphone care guide.
• How to start recording with your Ranger.
• Inserting microphones.
• Selecting, recording mode: a.) custom, b.) day only, c.) dusk and dawn, d.) Night only, e.) continuous
• Select microphone settings.
• Information about GPS.
• Final checks, etc.
• Testing/ensuring all is OK using the magnet on lanyard.

On the subject of batteries…

• I installed the Duracell optimum batteries to start with. They only lasted about one full overnight session.
• The energizer batteries, I replace them with fared much better: providing several nights of recording.
• Those were replaced with Kodak brand AA batteries.

This was definitely a case for eneloop brand batteries. And I promptly ordered some.

The Ranger creates several file folders by default, whenever it records. These are Recordings – main folder/root, which then contains three subfolders: Acoustic, FS Ultrasonic, Simultaneous. This turned out to be very convenient in practice. 

The latest firmware adds, a host of brand new features!

Things I like - Generally speaking:

• The features it has.
• The fact that it can use 2 audible and 1 ultrasound microphone simultaneously.
• It’s robust design (similar to previous models).
• The ease of deployment – easy to choose/preset mode selection.

Detailed Battery status 

One of my local bats, just having a snack...

Having a look at a Ranger FS recording (just a peek at the spectrogram) with AnaBat Insight software.

Amoung some of the interesting, and/or unique features of this new unit, are things like:

• The ability to input an Asset Tag Number.
• Ability to set the sensitivity of the attached microphones, etc.
• Being able to set what the voltage level should be, for external power cutoff (the default is 10v).

Pros:

• With microphones supplied: it is extremely sensitive.
• Creates clean, accurate, recordings.
• Default settings, produced excellent sound quality recordings – well balanced/no clipping.
• Excellent/detailed battery status information.
• Ease of deployment – easy to choose modes – via mode button.

Cons:

• May be considered relatively expensive.
• Bluetooth connectivity would've been nice.

Obviously, Titley wildlife sound recording products have a loyal following, worldwide; and for good reason: They produce professional-level products. Their recorders are used and trusted by many of the world's top researchers, et al.

Those who are loyal customers of Titley, will be happy to see many of the great features they have come to expect from this brand. Things like:

• Ease of deployment.
• Accurate, professional audio recordings.
• A myriad of customization features, as well as scheduling, etc.

Currently, you can order the new Ranger units, right on Titley's website!

I plan to add some more Ranger-specific tips & tricks to this review soon... There will also be some audio files...either here, or on my YouTube channel.

Some additional tidbits: I've recently learned that one (US-based) group studying wolves, sets their recorders to:

• Record between 6am - 6pm
• 22kHz sample rate, 12dB of gain
• 200-750 for mid max frequency
• 1.5 to 60 second recordings

Also, that coyotes typically vocalize at 600Hz on the low end.

Another (US-based) group, studying Barn Owls:

• Set their recorders to record at 30-60 minutes after sunset / and 30 minutes before sunrise.
• Set their sample rate to 12kHz - for Barn Owls (24kHz for other owls).
• Often record in 30 minute blocks
• Set their gain to 24db
• Frequency 1.5 to 3.3 Hz
• Detection length to 0.3 to 1.2 seconds
• Maximum inter-syllable gap to 0.001

Until next time,

Happy bat detecting!

The Ranger Bat & Wildlife Sound Recorder - Addendum To Recent Presentation For The BatAbility Club

This post serves as a follow up, to the recent presentation I gave, for the BatAbility Club - On The brand new Ranger from Titley Scientific.

• The live webinar/presentation review went very well; all the major points and features were well covered for The BatAbility Club (members). I just want to take this opportunity, to add a few extra bits of info:

Just some minor items which I didn’t get to mention, since we ran out of time.

To reiterate: It arrived here, for testing and review –  directly from the source – Titley’s headquarters in Australia.   

I’m happy to inform you, that the brand new Ranger, recently developed by Titley Scientific, is everything you would imagine it to be! 

It boasts:

• Outstanding sensitivity.
• Perfect, highly accurate, distortion-free recordings; with superb resistance to clipping.
• Super-easy deployment via one mode button.
• Robust built-in GPS, which integrates seamlessly with the system.
• A headphone jack and the ability to do transects.

These are in addition to it’s built-in features, which are immediately obvious when glancing at Titley‘s web page on the Ranger. Things like:

• 3 microphone ports & the ability to use all three simultaneously.
• The ability to choose from, and use several different models/combinations of microphones.
• Two memory card slots - each able to accommodate SD cards up to 1TB in size.
• Easy to use colour touch screen.
• Ability to utilize 8 AA sized batteries.
• Option to be powered by solar panels.

In addition:

The ability to produce and append useful meta-data to each recording.

Superior built-in organization in relation to file folders (multiple folders automatically generated).

The option to fully, and easily customise many of the unit’s individual features.

I have more to add! To be continued…

Happy bat detecting!

Stock photo by Titley.