I found this post via Shirebound's journal. It's fascinating. So, what causes this signal on the radar? Is it the heat of their bodies? Thanks for posting.
From what I learned in my one and only class on meteorology, weather radar emits radio waves and measures the strength of the returning waves and then shows those targets on the screen, but I'm not sure if that's affected by the target's temperature or simply its mass?? I can read a weather radar but figuring out the science behind it has always eluded me!
I thought it might be a storm or some meteo thing... ours does that.. but by golly. BATS!!!!! that place where the circle emerges must be HUGE!!! is there a cave or something there? and the other little blue dotses are from roofs and barns and places... ye gods. At least they shouldn't suffer from nightly bugs too much then!!!
I think it very likely is a cave. I know that San Antonio, Texas, is famed for its bats. This one is new to me, though... I'll have to do some research on it when I find the time. I believe there's also big caves in Oklahoma somewhere that have similar evening emergence of huge amounts of bats. I've also read that as interesting as it is to stand and watch bats emerge in the evening, it's also just as fascinating to watch them all return come dawn. I'd love to see that in person! I'm going to have to set my alarm sometime to see if their return shows up on radar.
and the other little blue dotses are from roofs and barns and places...
The rest of the blue dots (as well as the green, yellow and orange) are more prosaic and boring: scattered rain showers of various strength and duration. It's just the rapidly expanding circle in the center that signify the bats.
Yeah, I did think maybe the other 'dots' were rain or something as there were some yellow and orange... like our meteo do. But that swirl of bats. I bet it would be noisy there too... despite their being so silent individually, in a crowd like that the air must make rushing noises! and I can hear their peeep peeps... I have very high treble hearing... loathe the bass booms. my poor radio is tweeked up to the highest treble.
Gosh... that is wonderful. My neighbour had about fifty in her roof when I was at TOH. She had one of those little rectangular 'airing' window things in the roof and they went in and out of that. Kept the mossies away too!
I have very high treble hearing... loathe the bass booms. my poor radio is tweeked up to the highest treble
Oh golly, we could never live together and listen to music on the turntable, because I'm the complete opposite, always turning the bass way up! LOL Higher pitches hurt my ears, generally, which I think is partly why I prefer male singers to female. I like the lower register baritones and bass voices.
Back to bats, though... I read one article describing the whooshes and vibrations of all those wings flapping and all the chittering. It must be incredible.
Thank you! I was going to post all the pics as a sort of time-lapse, but that was taking forever and I found a website where you could upload your photos and it'd turn them into a .gif for you. Very cool stuff.
Whoa. That is so awesome! I suppose it's logical that a big enough group of bats could show up on radar, but I certainly wouldn't have expected it to look like that. That must be one huge population!
It's so amazing... and I wonder if it happens every night in the summer in various spots on the planet and I've just never been lucky enough to be looking at radar at just the right time and place.
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Thanks for posting.
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From what I learned in my one and only class on meteorology, weather radar emits radio waves and measures the strength of the returning waves and then shows those targets on the screen, but I'm not sure if that's affected by the target's temperature or simply its mass?? I can read a weather radar but figuring out the science behind it has always eluded me!
Thanks for stopping by. :)
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That is really splendid stuff.. thanks EVER so.
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and the other little blue dotses are from roofs and barns and places...
The rest of the blue dots (as well as the green, yellow and orange) are more prosaic and boring: scattered rain showers of various strength and duration. It's just the rapidly expanding circle in the center that signify the bats.
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Gosh... that is wonderful. My neighbour had about fifty in her roof when I was at TOH. She had one of those little rectangular 'airing' window things in the roof and they went in and out of that. Kept the mossies away too!
Bless. and I hope one day you get to see them!!!!
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Oh golly, we could never live together and listen to music on the turntable, because I'm the complete opposite, always turning the bass way up! LOL Higher pitches hurt my ears, generally, which I think is partly why I prefer male singers to female. I like the lower register baritones and bass voices.
Back to bats, though... I read one article describing the whooshes and vibrations of all those wings flapping and all the chittering. It must be incredible.
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