British Bat Calls: A Guide to Species Identification

book on bat calls has been published by Pelagic Publishing. Written by Jon Russ, it gives a very clear explanation on how echolocation and bat detectors works. There are colour illustrations of sonograms for each species of British Bat and also includes a very useful selection on bat social calls.It covers heterodyne, time expansion and. frequency division It is well set out and great a for quick reference.

Knowledge of bat echolocation, calls and identification using bat detectors and programs such as BatSound has grown significantly in the last decade. In this practical guide Jon Russ and contributors (Kate Barlow, Philip Briggs & Sandie Sowler) present the latest data in a clear and concise manner.

The book covers topics such as the properties of sound; how bats use sound; bat detection methods; recording devices; analysis software; recording techniques and call analysis. For each species found in the British Isles, information is given on distribution; emergence times; flight and foraging behaviour; habitat; and echolocation including parameters for common measurements. Calls are described in the context of the different technologies used (heterodyne, frequency division and time expansion). Various spectrograms are displayed for each species using examples from both BatSound and AnaLook. An echolocation key is included with the book.