Birders,
For anyone interested in their local bat fauna I’d recommend 3 steps:
1- Join the Australasian Bat Society. Its cheap ($40 I think- less than a tank of fuel), they are doing groundbreaking research but are also really committed to PR for bats (boy do they have their work cut out!). The ABS have an excellent forum where its easy to connect with bat-people: I have found the experts in the bat world to be amazingly friendly and approachable. There is none of petty jealousy, backbiting and elitist posing which blights certain other wildlife pursuits I could name. There are a lot of people involved in bat work in Victoria so Paul you will make plenty of new friends who will be keen to lend you a hand. See http://ausbats.org.au/
2- Search for bat records from your area on the ‘Atlas of Living Australia’. This is an amazing searchable database of fauna records which is easy to use and is growing all the time. I have been using it for mollusc twitching here in SW WA and I am just staggered by the detail available. Its not comprehensive yet, but it is evolving at a rate of knots. http://www.ala.org.au/
3- Get a bat detector. These devices are frankly sensational fun. They use a variety of methods they convert ultrasound into noise you can hear (or see in the case of the fancy-pants models). There is no need to buy one of the multi-thousand dollar models used for high-end research (although the price and user-friendliness of those is dropping fast so watch this space). I started out with a simple heterodyne detector (a Magenta Bat4- I still use it on fieldwork) which I picked up for less than $100. Using these cheaper machines for ID is harder in Australia than Europe but is certainly not impossible. Like bird song, bats species have certain sound-patterns and frequencies they use regularly so you can often figure out what you are listening to with a bit of practice. Terrific fun!
Getting ‘into’ bats is a fantastic journey which I would strongly recommend to anyone. There is so much to learn about this fascinating (and sometimes vilified) creatures- you will not regret it!
Mark Carter ===============================
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