How to Analyze Bat Calls

1. Find a program to use.  Now there is a large selection: Avisoft, Bat Acoustics, Raven, Analook Batsounds etc. and the prices range from free to hundreds of dollars.  If you have PC the options are endless, for Mac's you are much more limited. I chose Raven, cause it is free and works on Mac.
2. Open the sound file in the program.  These files are huge (2GB for an hour and a half of sound).
3. Scroll through the file until you find something that is a different color than the background (you can change the colors on most programs).  I have been using a gray background with the calls are darker gray, because that is what is preset.
4. Use the program to measure the length of the calls and the peak frequency (the frequency when the call is the strongest).  Use these numbers to guess the species based off articles other people have written.  My guess for the one above is Lasiurus ega, in the family Vespertilionidae.
5. When you find something weird that doesn't remotely resemble a bat call, ignore it.
6. Count all of the calls for every species until you get through all of your recordings.  Right now I have done 11.5 hours out of 204 hours that I have on my computer.

Now you too can spend your days counting black dots on a computer screen.  In case you are curious the Lasiurus ega looks like this:

And now that I have wasted time making this blog post, I will go back to counting.  Wish me luck!