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[Knightsbridge]

not boasting, but I'm a bagpipe regular (which now gives my id away to many - oops!)...

first time I piped in the stars today and midway thru one energetic tune (just as it really got dark) a bat swooped at least 5 cms past my right ear.. out of the corner of my eye i noted it did a loop, returned and we came a full frontal face to face!!! 2 cm from impact it branched up its wings and sped off into the night! I stopped playing as i felt quite awestruck - was this accidental or was it purposeful? so i began another tune and sure enough either the same one or another did the same thing. Could have stayed longer but those mossie were eating me alive.

What does this mean? My questions are: Were the bats attracted to me due insects flying around me? Or was it because they liked/ disliked the music? Or did the loud music skew their echolocation?

Any bat biologist help me to get the right answer - much appreciated. So fascinating...

[TBWG]

Knightsbridge, on 2009-07-03 19:31:01, said:

not boasting, but I'm a bagpipe regular (which now gives my id away to many - oops!)...

first time I piped in the stars today and midway thru one energetic tune (just as it really got dark) a bat swooped at least 5 cms past my right ear.. out of the corner of my eye i noted it did a loop, returned and we came a full frontal face to face!!! 2 cm from impact it branched up its wings and sped off into the night! I stopped playing as i felt quite awestruck - was this accidental or was it purposeful? so i began another tune and sure enough either the same one or another did the same thing. Could have stayed longer but those mossie were eating me alive.

What does this mean? My questions are: Were the bats attracted to me due insects flying around me? Or was it because they liked/ disliked the music? Or did the loud music skew their echolocation?

Any bat biologist help me to get the right answer - much appreciated. So fascinating...

Were you by any chance playing a Meatloaf number?

TBWG

[Patsycat]

Do you play this sort of stuff?



Red hot chili pipers

[JohanV]

Very interesting, indeed.

It seems possible that they were reacting to something in the sound.
I guess this leaves the goal wide open to jokes about bagpipes/scottish etc. but I will refrain from that, as I am a sound engineer and acoustician
with a deep interest in this kind of stuff.

I would assume they were reacting to overtones that might be unhearable to humans - that is > 20.000 Hz.

Could you possibly try to repeat the event but using a CD recording instead of live bagpipes ?
If you do, try to play it at 'natural' sound level, which I guess would be quite loud.
This would be a good test as CD's filter out all ultrasounds.

Maybe they were trying to make you shut up ? You could have been disturbing their navigational system..

Also, as a defence against bats many insects have developed a habit of 'dropping dead' or hiding when they hear high-frequency sounds,
which is why the moquito-repellant ultrasonic devices work. Perhaps you were scaring their dinner ??

Please post any updates on this thread.

Best regards
Johan

[Patsycat]

Perhaps Meatloaf, Bat out of hel_l?