11^th European Bat Detector Workshop
Mura, Catalonia

6. - 10. September 2024
the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park

Accommodation - Objectives - Registration - Catalonia

Bat Fauna - Program -Travel instructions - Proceedings

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In connection to the European Bat Research Symposium every three years, it has since 1991 been a tradition to organize a bat detector workshop just before or after the conference.

The next workshop will be organized  in 2024 in connection to the 16th European Bat Research Symposium (located at Tarragona, Catalonia). The workshop will be located in the village Mura which is in the edge of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park. The village and park is located just north of Barcelona.

The aim of the workshop is to get field training in practical bat work. This includes the use of various detectors, both active and passive. But also improve our skills on bat call analyzing software.

The workshop is being organized by Leif Gjerde from the Nordic Chiroptera Information Center - NIFF (e-mail: niff@flaggermus.no; mobile phone: + 47 40228817), in cooperation with the staff from the Natural Science Museum of Granollers.

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Check this web page for frequent updates
Last updated 8 August 2024

Registered participants: 20

Armenia: 1
Belgium: 1
Catalonia: 0
Czeckia: 1
Egypt: 1
England: 2
France: 1
Germany: 2
Italy: 2
Lebanon: 3
Norway: 1
Saudi-Arabia: 2
Spain: 1
U.S.A.: 2

Workshop offers ▲

We have been able to obtain some sales offers for people who attend the workshop:
  ● Pettersson Electronik: 20% discount on all hardware produced by Pettersson, and 66% discount on BatSound 4.7.
  ● Titley Scientific: 10% discount on all products they manufacture, including software.
  ● Apodemus: 10% discount on Apodemus products (BatLure, BatCounter and accessories). Offer limited to one item per customer.

All offers are valid if purchased from 6 September, and within September. Any orders must be made direct with manufacterers.

Our accommodations will be at th hostel Els Caus, which is located in the village of Mura Mura is located at the north edge of the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park. However, the park surrounds the village on three sides.

The cost for the accommodations is a total of 184 euros for four nights. This include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you decide on finding your own accommodations, the cost at the Els Caus Hostel is:
 ● breakfast - 6 euro
 ● lunch - 15 euro
 ● dinner - 15 euro

We will have our lectures and workshop during the day at the Els Caus hostel. In this way we save travel between events and meals.

Registration: 200 euro
4 nights with food: 184 euro

The objective of the workshop is to improve training and knowledge of the latest technology and experience on field identification of flying bats. The mixture of novice and well experienced bat workers (and everything between) enhances the learning process by self awareness and development.
      The target group is idealistic bat workers (enthusiasts/idealists, NGO's and scientists) who is or will work with bats in the future. Students and NGO's may apply for reduced fee. Commercial bat workers will be excepted if there is space.

• Learn the basic theory of bat identification with the aid of ultrasound devices.
• Field training in using active detectors, such as the Petersson (D240X, D1000), the AnaBat Walkabout and misc. flat screen versions.
• Learning how to operate the passive detectors produced by Pettersson (D500x), Titley (AnaBat models) and Wildlife Acoustics.
• Analyzing bat calls by using software from Pettersson (BatSound), Titley (Anabat Insight and AnaLook) and Wildlife Acoustics (Kaleidoscope).

The results from our surveys will be published in the proceedings for the workshop.

Equipment we so far know will be available for testing are:

Passive detectors

• AnaBat Express (Titley Scientific)
• AnaBat Swift (Titley Scientific)
• AnaBat Chorus (Titley Scientific)
• D500x (Pettersson Elektronik)
• SongMeter 2 (Wildlife Acoustics)

Active detectors

• Pettersson (D100, D240x, D1000x, BatSound Touch)
• Titley Scientific (Walkabout)

Software

• BatSound 4.4
• AnaLook + AnaBat Insight
• Kaleidoscope

Analysing bat sounds in Hungary during the 7th EBDW.

Chris Corben demonstrationg a car mounted microphone in Lithuania during the 8th EBDW.
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For every participant we need to know when you expect to arrive, and if you are travelling by car. We need to be notified of this as early as possible.

Registration is open.
No deadline for registration. We accept registrations as long as the hostel has capacity.

Please contact Leif Gjerde on e-mail niff@flaggermus.no and notify us...

1. Your motivation for joining the workshop (the workshop is for people working with bats, or planning to do so!)
2. the time you expect to arrive
3. if you travel by car
4. what detectors you will bring (if you have any)
5. title of talk (if you expect to have one)
6. abstract of talk (if you are having a talk). (Deadline 1. July)
7. if you bring with your own food or not

The workshop is carried out on a low budget principal, meaning everything is based on self cost.

Note: Information from the workshop will be available to the public. This means that pictures, names of participants, abstracts, power point presentations and manuscripts from talks will all be made available in our Proceedings and/or web-pages. If you have problems with any of this, you need to contact the organizer to agree on an alternative solution.
      Members of terrorist organizations will not be permited to the workshop. If you are from a country in war, you need to clarify this with the organizer before registration is accepted.

Deadline registration:
As long as hostel has available space

Deadline abstracts
10. August 2024

Deadline manuscript
30. August 2024

Payment details:

IBAN number:
NO31 1506 86 10661

SWIFT/BIC code:
not required

Address:
Nordisk Informasjonssenter for Flaggermus, Postboks 394, N-2001 Lillestrøm

Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park ▲

The Natural Park of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac is made up of the massif of Sant Llorenç del Munt and the Obac range. It has a protected area of ​​13,694 hectares distributed between the counties of Bages, Vallès Occidental, and Moianès. The topography of this entire area is very rugged, full of cliffs and channels, with torrents and streams in all directions. Geologically, conglomerates predominate, forming a relief similar to the neighbouring massif of Montserrat.

Landscape

The park encompasses two massifs: that of Sant Llorenç del Munt, culminating in the mentioned peaks of La Mola and Montcau, each over a thousand meters, and the Serra de l'Obac, not as elevated; its highest peaks are Castellsapera (939.3 m above sea level), the hill of Castellar (931 m above sea level), and the hill of Tres Creus (929.7 m above sea level). Both mountain ranges are separated to the south by the Riera de les Arenes (a tributary of the Riera de Rubí) and to the north by the Estenalles stream. The central point of the park is the Estenalles pass (870.4 m), where there is an information centre.

Flora and fauna

Predominantly Aleppo pine forests give way to Scots pine and Austrian pine at higher elevations. Holm oak forests dominate, enriched above 800 meters with species like rowan and boxwood. Cliff areas host unique plants such as living fossils like Ramonda myconi and endemic Saxifraga callosa. Spring brings a vibrant display of wildflowers, including thyme, lilies, tulips, and narcissus.

The park boasts extensive forests, stunning cliffs, and towering crags, providing optimal conditions for refuge, breeding, hibernation, and migration for numerous vertebrate species. The diverse ecological environments within the park support distinct faunal communities, ranging from typical rock-dwelling inhabitants to animals found near farmsteads and woodland fauna. With nearly two hundred vertebrate species, including carnivorous mammals like the stone marten, genet, fox, and badger, the park plays a crucial ecological role. Wild boars have notably increased, leaving traces despite hunting pressure. Squirrels, rabbits, and diverse bird species, such as blackbirds, pigeons, and jays, are commonly observed. Raptors like the short-toed snake eagle, hawks, and falcons occasionally grace the sky, while rare sightings may include vultures and possibly the golden eagle. Noteworthy are wintering colonies of the Schreibers' long-fingered bat. Reptiles like the Montpellier snake and Lataste's viper inhabit rocky ridges, and amphibians, including colourful salamander larvae and various toad species, thrive in mountain springs.

Climate

It has a subhumid Mediterranean climate. Therefore, the main forest that develops here is the evergreen oak forest, and there are also pine forests, although there are significant cork oak forests, such as those of Les Teixoneres or Sot de la Bóta.

More information of the park is available here.

The parc administration web-page is unfortunately only in Spanish or Catalonian.

The species list to the right is taken from The Atlas of European Mammals (de Beaufort et al. 1999). Since, additional species have been described from Catalonia, the list is not complete.

Species
At least 27 bat species have been found in Catalonia (see list on right side). The region is diverse in habitats, and includes everything from Mediterranean Climate to Alpine mountains. In the list we have marked in green the species we most likely will encounter during the workshop. Marked in blue are species we might encounter if we are lucky.

Bat Research in Catalonia
The BiBio Research Group (www.bibio.org) has a long tradition of coordinating successful biodiversity monitoring programmes. They coordinate four monitoring programmes in Catalonia, based on citizen science. The programme covers a wide range of taxa, including bats (www.batmonitoring.org), as the core part of their research lines. More particularly, they investigate population trends of common and endangered species and how they are affected by global change.
      The target species which are being monitored for population trends are Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Hypsugo savii, Barbastella barbastellus, Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum, R. euriale and R. hipposideros.
      We hope that the workshop will be of mutual benefit for BiBios' Bioacoustics Monitoring Group and our workshop participants.

1. Rhinolophus euryale
2. Rhinolophus ferrumeuinum
3. Rhinolophus hipposideros
4. Rhinolophus mehelyi
5. Tadarida teniotis
6. Nyctalus noctula
7. Nyctalus leisleri
8. Vespertilio murinus
9. Eptesicus serotinus
10. Eptesicus nilssonii
11. Miniopteris schreibersii
12. Myotis bechsteinii
13. Myotis blythii
14. Myotis capaccinii
15. Myotis daubentonii
16. Myotis emarginatus
17. Myotis myotis
18. Myotis mystacinus
19. Myotis nattereri
20. Pipistrellus kuhlii
21. Pipistrellus nathusii
22. Pipistrellus pipistrellus
23. Pipistrellus pygmaeus
24. Pipistrellus savii
25. Barbastella barbastellus
26. Plecotus auritus
27. Plecotus austriacus

Lectures:
● The history of the European Bat Detector Workshops (welcome session)  (by Leif Gjerde)
● An introduction to the Sant Llorenç del Munt Natural Park (welcome session)
● The bat fauna of Catalonia and their monitoring program (by Adrià López-Baucells)
● The history and development of ultrasonic bat identification  (by Leif Gjerde)
● The history of Zero Crossing (by Chris Corben)
● Zero Crossing vs. Full Spectrum: what are the advantages and disadvanages (by Chris Corben & Leif Gjerde)
● The confusing market with bat manufacturers  (by Leif Gjerde)
● Auto-ID and the mine-field it represents  (by Leif Gjerde)
● Low budget, self designed, bat recorders (by Didier Mauuary)
● the Group for Interdisciplinary Studies on the Great Noctule (by Didier Mauuary)
 

Field trips:
1. Small water pond near La Mata
2. Cave emergance (some walking required)
3. Colony of R. ferrum-equinum and Myotis emarginatus in an abandoned building
4. Oak forest near La Mata
 

Daily schedual:
0900 - Breakfast
1000 - Morning session
    - Downloading last nights data
    - Analysing the calls
    - Species list for each locality
1200 - Noon session (lectures)
1330 - Lunch
1430 - Afternoon session (workshop)
1800 - Dinner
1930 - Preparing, departure and fieldwork
2400 - Filedwork ended

Chris Corben talking about zero-crossing and the AnaBat system.


Leif Gjerde deploying a AnaBat SD2 passive detector.

The workshop is held in the Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park, which is located in the region of Barcelona, just north of the city of Barcelona. It is less then an hours drive from the city.

Barcelona is an international city with travel connection internationally by bus, train and aeroplane. Below are some suggestions for more information and booking. Prices may vary a lot, and you should check different booking companies. It may be practical to have an extra day in each end of your travel, to avoid any surprices during your trip.

Barcelona Airport (BCN)
Checking flight prices and making bookings is probably easiest using Skyscanner.  A one-way trip from London to Barcelona costed on 9th of May under 100 euros.

Barcelona train station
More information and booking is possible on Trainline. On www.thetrainline.com a trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona costs from 130-200 euro each way, and takes 12-20 hours.

Bus lines
More information and booking is possible on Flixline. On Felxline a trip from Frankfurt to Barcelona costs from 500-800 euros. The disadvantage by using buslines, are the long trips. From Frankfurt it takes at least 21 hours.

We are checking possibilities for local transport from Barcelona to Mura. This will be agreed upon directly with the participants. At the worst, it is possible to get a ride with one of the participants who travel by car.

Mounting a harp trap in Ireland during the 6th EBDW.
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There will be a DVD publication after the workshop which include pictures, soundfiles, analysis and statistics.

In addition we hope to publishing the results of our bat detector workshop in a special issue of Gudnjoloddi (ISSN 0809-2362). It will be published by NIFF. The title will be "Proceedings from the 11th European Bat Detector Workshop, held in Barcelona (Catalonia) during 6th to 10th of September 2024". Leif Gjerde will be editors of the proceedings. It is expected that each lecture will be published as a separate article in the proceedings. If no manuscript is received, we will publish the abstract alone.
      There is no limitation for the length of the articles, but the contents should be relevant to the talk. The proceedings will be in English entirely. There will not be included abstracts in German, French, Catalonian or Norwegian.

Deadline for sending abstracts is 10. August 2024.
Deadline for contributing article manuscript is 30. August 2024 (or as agreed upon).

Structure of reference for the proeedings
Gjerde, Leif. 2025. A historical review through 34 years of tradition with European bat detector workshops. Gudnjoloddi (Lillestrøm) 3?: ?-?. ISSN 0809-2362.
or
Gjerde, Leif. 2025 A historical review through 34 years of tradition with European bat detector workshops. Pp. ?-?, in Proceedings from the 11th European Bat Detector Workshop, held in Mura (Catalonia) during 6th to 10th of September 2024 (Leif Gjerde, ed.). Nordic Chiroptera Information Center, Lillestrøm 2025. ? pp. ISBN 978-82-7905-???-?.

Page established 8 December 2019
Last updated 8 August 2024