Hear ‘em Sing… Again!

Contributed by: Discovery Center Bird Club

A reported 9000 Americans are turning 60 each and every day. Add to that the 4-6 million combat veterans from a variety of wars fought over the past 5-6 decades and it translates into a few age and noise-related hearing disabilities. More people than ever before are suffering from some form of hearing loss. Along with the day-to-day challenges, are recreational limitations particularly given rapid growth in birding across the country. The high frequency songs produced by many birds cannot be heard by those who face auditory limitations.

Recently, Discovery Center and Bird Club member Duanne Swift, a Viet Nam veteran with a 70% high frequency hearing loss, participated in the Master Naturalist program. The program requires completion of a “Capstone” project whereby participants select a longer term project that will benefit the environmental education needs of the communities they live in. Swift selected a project he called “Hear ‘em Sing” whereby he would raise enough money for the North Lakeland Discovery Center to purchase Song Finder units to be available to loan to birders with high frequency hearing loss.

This electronic high frequency sound reduction unit is the brainchild of Lang Elliot of Cornell NY, an active birder who lost his ability to hear many birds as a child. Song Finder, fits on your shirt pocket and includes a headset. The unit divides high frequency bird songs (above 4000 Hz) into notes that most people with hearing in the 2000 Hz range can hear easily.

The Northwoods is a hotspot for many wood warblers, as well as other species, and when the leaves appear each spring birders rely heavily on being able to identify the songs of birds in order to determine their presence in the area. Swift hopes to raise enough money to purchase several Song Finder (www.hearbirdsagain.com) this fall. The units will then be available for loan at the Discovery Center in Manitowish Waters. Those wishing to contribute should send checks to North Lakeland Discovery Center, PO Box 237, Manitowish Waters, WI 54545 Attention: Hear ‘em Sing project.

Looking for Bats

By: Licia Johnson

The Bat Crew with the WI Department of Natural Resources down in Madison have been working hard this summer trying to locate the Northern Long-Eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis).  It is one of the four bats listed in WI as threatened, due to the fact that they hibernate in caves and mines and therefore are susceptible to White Nose Syndrome.  For more on WNS please visit www.whitenosesyndrome.org.  This is a bat not very common in Wisconsin, and has been recently looked at to be placed on the federally endangered species list.  Bat biologists have spent most of the summer traveling around the state in search of this elusive bat.  Visiting different sites, they go out at night and attempt to mist net the bats as they fly through the forest.  These are small nets that will catch the bats, allowing the biologists to remove, weigh, measure and examine the bat. The goal is to locate the Northern Long-Eared bat (specifically lactating females), put a small transmitter on their back, and later locate them using radio telemetry equipment at their roosting sites.  These females roost alone or with a few other females under tree bark and in crevices, and rarely in man-made structures.  We were lucky enough here at the Discovery Center to host a group of biologists who were studying these animals at nearby sites in the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest.  I was further lucky enough to join them one evening in June on one of their excursions…

We broke into three teams, each in a different location.  We set up the mist nets and then waited.  Throughout the night we caught many bats, at my station they were all Little Brown Bats.  They were removed from the nets, weighed, measured, checked for signs of wing membrane deterioration and then released.  We had a few males, one lactating female and one very pregnant female, which was interesting this late in the season.  

  

Caption: All captured bats were measured (forewing), weighed in a pill container and checked for wing membrane deterioration.  (photos by Licia Johnson)

 One group did manage to catch a Northern Long-Eared Bat and put a transmitter on her.   

Caption: Each bat gets tagged with a transmitter that is less than 5% its body weight. The tag is attached using non-toxic surgical glue that comes off after a couple weeks.  The transmitter batteries last 5-10 days. (WDNR PHOTO)

  (moth photo by Licia Johnson, squirrel photo WDNR)

There were a few critters that managed to get caught in the nets during the night, including Prometheus Moths and Flying Squirrels- all released without harm!

The Wisconsin Bat Crew finished up their studies earlier this month.  More information to come on what they found.  For more information on the federal listing of the Northern Long-Eared Bat please visit: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/mammals/nlba/