Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory

Bat Surveys - 2017

2017 bat survey map

Bat Survey - 2016

Director Bill Mueller and board member Robert Holzrichter participated in acoustic surveys as part of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Wisconsin Bat Program last year. Using devices that detect bats’ ultrasonic echolocation calls, they and other surveyors recorded bat activity while driving transects in diverse regions of the state between June 1 and July 15, 2016. Together, the surveyors recorded a mean of 33.4 calls per detector-hour, the lowest average since surveys began in 2013. Big brown bat, silver-haired bat, eastern red bat, and hoary bat experienced increases in mean encounters frequency, but encounters of the cave species most heavily affected by white-nose syndrome (eastern pipistrelle, little brown bat, and northern long-eared bat) declined across all regions. The Observatory houses AnaBat detectors that volunteers can use to participate in monitoring program.

On a state-wide basis, according to the DNR's Wisconsin Bat News, "night-time research by Wisconsin conservation biologists is helping unlock the summer habitat secrets of several bat species threatened by white-nose syndrome, including the state's smallest bat, the eastern pipistrelle, or "pip" for short. Shown here, the pip weighs about as much as a nickel and has a wingspan of up to 10 inches, consumes small beetles, wasps and flies, and can live up to eight years. While its winter hibernation sites are relatively well known in Wisconsin, almost nothing was known about their summer habitats in the state until now. That information will help better guide recovery efforts in the likelihood that white-nose syndrome dramatically reduces their populations." . 

Bat Monitoring - 2012: State Wildlife Grant

The Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory (hereafter described in this report as WGLBBO) was awarded a State Wildlife Grant in 2011 (SWG 11- CAT2 -009); we carried out the field work and other activities described below in 2012.

Included in the activities funded and carried out as part of this grant were (a) bat ecology and monitoring workshops, (b) enlisting and training volunteers to do acoustic monitoring for bats, and (c) coordinating a group of paid surveyors doing a set of WDNR ”Batlas” routes.

Bat Ecology Workshops

Bat ecology and monitoring workshops/presentations were organized and presented by Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory staff conservation biologist William Mueller throughout January - September of 2012, at most of eastern Wisconsin’s nature centers, and at an array of other public facilities including community centers and public libraries. Workshops covered topics that included bat species of Wisconsin; general ecology and myths concerning bats; migratory species and hibernating species; status of Wisconsin’s bats, economic and ecological importance of bats; bats as providers of ecological services; how volunteers and citizens can assist in bat conservation; threats to bats including White Nose Syndrome and its spread, and wind power and bats; use of acoustic monitoring technology; providing bat houses, roost surveys by WIDNR, and information regarding the Wisconsin Bat Monitoring Program.

Locations and dates of workshops are given below in Table 1.

Table 1

Location

Dates

Approximate Number of Workshop Attendees

Brillion Nature Center

23 February and

24 May

11 and 13

Ledgeview Nature Center

19 May

4

Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary

23 April

15

Woodland Dunes Nature Center

24 January and

23 May

22 and 18

Riveredge Nature Center

22 March

24

Mequon Nature Preserve

11 July

18

Retzer Nature Center

24 April

11

Peninsula State Park Nature Center

22 February and

7 May

35 and 5

Bubolz Nature Preserve

21 February and

2 May

8 and 11

Bong State Recreation Area

21 April

10

Henry Ruess Ice Age Center – KMSF Northern Unit

18 April

12

Hawthorn Hollow (Kenosha)

19 April

17

Harrington Beach SP

23 June

27

Seno Environmental Center (Burlington)

17 May

22

Sanderling Nature Center (Kohler Andrae SP)

27 April

55

Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

9 May

15

Scandinavia Public Library

7 August

23

Waupaca Public Library

12 June

21

Navarino Nature Center

10 May

13

Havenwoods Environmental Center

20 June

6

Paid BATLAS Surveys

Paid surveyors did an extensive subset of WIDNR previously-chosen BATLAS routes (Table 2). We coordinated these surveys with the help of Paul White of WIDNR; (WIDNR personnel and volunteer surveyors also conducted other routes during 2012). One surveyor (Angela Jackson), a UW-Milwaukee graduate student, coordinated her surveys with WGLBBO, her major professor Dr. Glen Fredlund (Director of the Conservation and Environmental Studies Program and the UW-Milwaukee Department of Geography) , along with Dave Redell and Paul White of WIDNR, using the data collected as part of her master’s thesis research at UW-Milwaukee.

Table 2

Date

Location

Survey Type

Surveyor

06/21/12

Rock Lake

Lake

Jackson

06/26/12

Fox Lake

Lake

Keenan

07/30/12

Fox Lake

Lake

Keenan

06/28/12

Sinissippi Lake

Lake

Keenan

07/21/12

Big Cedar Lake

Lake

Keenan

07/26/12

Como Lake

Lake

Jackson

07/10/12

Lac La Belle

Lake

Keenan

06/29/12

Lake Beulah

Lake

Sadler/Keenan

07/31/12

Lake Butte des Morts

Lake

Keenan

07/29/12

Lake Winnebago

Lake

Keenan

07/17/12

Little Lake Butte des Morts

Lake

Keenan

07/14/12

Long Lake

Lake

Keenan

07/12/12

Partridge Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/24/12

Pewaukee Lake

Lake

Keenan

06/30/12

Powers Lake

Lake

Sadler

07/08/12

Powers Lake

Lake

Jackson

07/31/12

Unnamed Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/11/12

White Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/19/12

Crawfish 2

River

Keenan

07/13/12

Illinois/Fox 4

River

Jackson

07/16/12

Illinois/Fox 7

River

Jackson

07/29/12

Rock River 10

River

Emerson

07/09/12

Rock River 6

River

Keenan

07/05/12

Rock River 8

River

Emerson

07/09/12

Wolf River 1

River

Emerson

07/10/12

Wolf River 2

River

Emerson

06/19/12

 Seven-mile Lake

Lake

Emerson

06/20/12

 WI River7-03

River

Emerson

07/17/12

Big Arbor Vitae Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/18/12

Big Arbor Vitae Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/19/12

 Forest Lake

Lake

Emerson

07/24/12

 Crescent Lake

Lake

Emerson

Volunteer Surveys

We coordinated, trained and assisted volunteer surveyors in completing a number of acoustic monitoring routes for bats in many southeastern Wisconsin locations. Examples of monitoring route results as mapped by WIDNR from bat acoustic data are given below. 

To understand the maps and their symbols, please see this (abbreviated) legend from the WI Bat Monitoring Program.

“The maps display the route surveyed superimposed on an aerial photograph. Bat encounters along the route are indicated by a symbol that represents the species or group”. These symbols are explained below:

pdfRT2010_16Aug12.pdf404.34 KB

pdfRT2090_30Aug12.pdf499.69 KB

Species & Groups

Within Group Classification

image001  High Frequency Group (HFG) includes:

image002 Myotis

image003 MYLU = Myotis lucifugus [Little brown myotis]

image004 MYSE = Myotis septentrionalis [Northern long-eared myotis]

image005 Labo / Pesu

image006 LABO = Lasiurus borealis [Eastern red bat]

image007 PESU = Perimyotis {=pipistrellus} subflavus [Eastern pipistrelle]

image008 Low Frequency Group (LFG) includes:

image009 LACI = Lasiurus cinereus [Hoary bat]

image010 Epfu / Lano

image011 EPFU = Eptesicus fuscus [Big brown bat]

image012 LANO = Lasionycteris noctivagans [Silver-haired bat]

Notes

  • Currently, some species are grouped together to prevent misidentification (e.g. EPFU and LANO, and the Myotis species) due to similarities between calls.
  • As additional reference calls / passes from species of known individuals (identified in hand after capture and recorded upon release) are added to the reference library we will further distinguish within each species group.