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bats

In the darkroom, you see by hearing

Posted on 15 September 2015 5 Comments

In the past few weeks, PJ and I decided to step up the pace and go for nightwork. The plan was to photograph bats in France. We knew a good but very small cave where brandt’s bats Myotis brandtii swarm. Photographing bats is teamwork: lots of driving, little sleep, lots and lots of gear to transport… so lots of helping each other.

KAR_5992

Our man cave: nothing but a shady hole in the ground. Underneath is something to be described as a largely empty cave where a few dozens of bat winter.
But in August and September, this cave is like… well the word that comes to mind is a sex club, where horny bats swing by to get lucky. Then they leave again, sometimes to come back just moments later. They both listen and talk, and try to score.

A darkroom, as such. Where PJ and I were the illuminati, shedding flashes on their hedonistic nocturnal caprioles.

As always, the  day started less sexual and included many hours of preparing the camera systems.
We first checked into our hotel:

IMG_0975Nature, better than therapy.

IMG_0974Phone pic of PJ overlooking the battlefield, where heavy rain was a nuisance.

PJ_150905_3084Four cameras placed in and outside the cave, flashes covered with plastic bags (lifesaver PJ!) and laser beams traversing the entrance. If an animal passes the beam, the main flash triggers seven more flashes to light the animal simultaneously. Cameras are operated in bulb mode.

Here some results of the nightwork:

KAR_6014Brandt’s bat (Brandts vleermuis, Myotis brandtii) entering the cave. Wide angle

PJ_150905_8371Bechtsein’s bat (Bechsteins vleermuis, Myotis bechsteinii) entering the cave. Wide angle. This bat entered the cave several times so we took many pics of it, and it is funny to see how constant their movements are. Always at the same place did this individual enter. In this pic, the camera was already photograhing for some time so we got some residual light in the forest behind. Other pics are just black in the background because the camera wasn’t operated that long in bulb mode before a bat triggered the flashes.

KAR_5712Brandt’s bat swarming in the cave, photographed with wide angle close to ceiling.

KAR_5713Yes you are seeing it right. This brandt’s bat has a got an erected gentleman’s sausage.

I think this summons the atmosphere quite correctly: Click here

KAR_5741Bechstein in the cave.

KAR_5944Geoffroy’s bat ( ingekorven vleermuis, Myotis emarginatus) inside the cave

KVG_9735A lot of social activity taking place. 200mm

 

KVG_9742Bechstein’s bat at full speed

KVG_9828 - kopie

For this type of photography, having lots of megapixels is good. You don’t know exactly where the bat will pass the barrier. Hence you can crop it. Also, when you get it right, the images are super sharp. Eg. a crop of this brandt’s bat from the 36MP D800E original:

voor cropMouth open because of echolocation. As such, in the darkroom they see by hearing.

KVG_9849Acrobatic Geoffroy’s bat.

PJ_150830_2917

Many people think we just photoshop these bats into good scenic pictures. Which indeed would be easy to do. As proof however following images show one and the same Geoffroy’s bat photographed at one moment, by two cameras.

KAR_6015      KVG_9922   PJ_150905_3117 Daubenton’s bat (watervleermuis, Myotis daubentonii) leaving the cave.

It was mega! The bats definitely weren’t the only ones getting lucky.

Posted in: Dieren | Tagged: bat, bats, chiroptera, myotis, myotis bechsteinii, myotis brandtii, myotis daubentoni, myotis emarginatus, vleermuis

Team obvious high on speed?

Posted on 2 October 2013 Leave a Comment

What me and Pieter-Jan love doing most, is high-speed photography on bats.

This takes time, skill, lots of gear and quite some practice, but after several years and many tips from René, we finally start getting decent flying bat images.

Some of these I wanted to share with you.

The principle of bat photography is to make an infrared system which triggers a master flash, subsequently triggering many slave flashes. Your camera is in bulb mode and is operated manually. Always beter to use as much cameras as possible, to increase the chance of getting a fullframe image.

_KAR1713-2

 Testing the gear

_KAR1696

First bats arriving whilst testing

 

_KAR2926 copy

Brown long-eared bat Plecotus auritus

 

KAR_1680

 Brandt’s bat Myotis brandtii

_KAR1839

 

_KAR1882

Bechstein’s bat Myotis bechsteinii

_KAR1912goed

 Bechstein’s bats tend to inhabit older forest

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Whiskered bat Myotis mystacinus hunting insects

 

_KAR1999

Self portret. PJ, thanks for everything.

Posted in: Dieren | Tagged: bat, bats, vleermuis

Biospeleology

Posted on 3 January 2012 1 Comment

Last week I went to France together with Tomas, to help in counting wintering bats in caves. In Belgium one is happy to count a few hundred bats during a single winter, in the south of France you can see thousands in a single cave.
However, due to cold mountain weather and endless presence of deep cracks -many bats hibernate as deep as possible, well tucked away- you see less species than in rainy concrete Belgium! But the numbers and the vast cave systems (some caves can be explored for more than 100 km!) turned us into very humble counters.
Here are a few images we shot.

How it’s done

Warm welcome to all mammal watchers. Now there are approx 25-30 brown bears in the Pyrenees. Numbers keep steadily increasing.

Local guy showing his personalized licence plates. We say yeah!

Preparing for duty

Greater horseshoe

Lesser horseshoe

Lesser

Abstract lesser horseshoe

Lesser

Greater and mediterranean horseshoe bats (grote en paarse hoeven)

Mediterranean horseshoe bat (paarse hoefijzerneus)

Greater horseshoe

Greater

Cool pic by Tomas: Lesser horseshoe bat

4000-6000 Schreiber’s bats

“Where’s the party at?”

Bullfinch is always nice to see. Thanks to sunflower pits we got it much closer

Ferrari red bullfinch

Posted in: Dieren, Reizen | Tagged: bat, bats, greater horseshoe bat, grote hoefijzerneus, horseshoe bat, kleine hoefijzerneus, lesser horseshoe bat, mediterranean horseshoe bat, paarse hoefijzerneus, schreiber's bat, schreiber's vleermuis

“Het klein grut”

Posted on 23 December 2011 Leave a Comment

Grote zoogdieren zijn top, dat weten we al langer. Zelfs de meest hardcore twitchers noteren als bird of the trip heel vaak een groot zoogdier, en dat heeft zo zijn redenen: Er is veel minder gekend over hun ecologie, en zichtwaarnemingen gebeuren doorgaans onverwacht. Dat maakt het zo spannend. Een paar dagen terug nog ging het nieuws van een zichtwaarneming van een  Borneose nevelpanter in daglicht (Sunda clouded leopard) de wereld rond (klik hier). Veel moeilijker bestaat er niet.

De nr 1 vogelkijker (Tom Gullick) heeft momenteel 8935 van de ongeveer 10400 soorten gezien, daar waar de nr 1 zoogdierfanaat (Jon Hall) na een leven lang reizen 1193 van de ruim 5500 soorten zag. Moeilijk dus!

Eeuwenlang verguisd, en al te vaak voor niets bestreden, deze grote woudlopers. Maar ze zijn taai, en bevinden zich steeds vaker opnieuw in onze nabijheid.

Kleine zoogdieren ontspringen vaak de dans der natuurfotografen, maar zijn minstens even indrukwekkend, en doorgaans ecologisch van groter belang dan grote zoogdieren. Super gespecialiseerde heersers van de ondergrond en het nachtelijke luchtruim. Enkel door er gericht naar op zoek te gaan, krijg je ze te zien.

Toevalswaarnemingen, zoals deze eikelmuis Eliomys quercinus en relmuis tijdens een nachtelijke wandeling, zijn heel uitzonderlijk. De foto’s zijn bovendien nooit echt goed.

Relmuis Glis glis

Ze voor de lens krijgen is nog een ander paar mouwen… En wanneer we het hebben over fotografie van kleine zoogdieren dan moeten we in de spiegel kijken en beseffen dat een dergelijke fotografie verstorend kan werken. Samen met mijn copain Pieter-Jan doe ik aan zoogdierenfotografie, wij werken samen (drie flitsers) en zijn kritisch: doe het goed of doe het niet. Beter geen foto dan een foto van een verstoord dier.

Hier enkele kleine zoogdieren die ik recent voor de lens kreeg.

Myotis brandtii

Myotis brandtii

Myotis bechsteinii

Vale vleermuis Myotis myotis

Baardvleermuis Myotis mystacinus

Grote hoefijzerneus Rhinolophus ferrumequinum


Grote hoefijzerneus Rhinolophus ferrumequinum


Grote hoefijzerneus Rhinolophus ferrumequinum

Huisspitsmuis Crocidura russula

roepende huisspits. Let op afwezigheid rode tandpunten (bosspitsmuis)

Abstracte spitser

Sfeerbeeldje:

Doe het goed of doe het niet

Posted in: Dieren | Tagged: baardvleermuis, bat, bats, brandt's vleermuis, grote hoefijzerneus, vale vleermuis, vleermuis

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