>On Mon, 28 Feb 1994, Barry Donovan wrote:
>
>> Jerry, is there any further information on the use of a shotgun
>> microphone by Howard Kerr to locate wild bee colonies in wooded
>> areas?  Is it a practical method of locating colonies?
>> Thanks.
 
Barry and Jerry,
 
   A couple of years ago I tried out a parabolic reflector and centrally
emplaced microphone, a rig that I had successfully used for recording
insect sounds in the field several years ago.  I had hoped to actually
locate some of the "aerial pathways" of foragers as they flew between their
colonies and point source flower patches, as well as to hear the ventilator
sounds from the colonies themselves.  This device was very sensitive -- one
could hear spoken conversations from a quarter mile away in good
conditions.
 
   The device didn't work.  First of all, one has to aim exactly at the
source of sound, something quite difficult to do if one does not know where
that sound is precisely coming from.  Secondly, line of sight is almost
essential to detect the sound of a colony, and vegetation, etc. muffle
sounds  Finally, colonies are usually located in quite out-of-the-way
places (see our abstracts in the last December issue of the American Bee
Journal (p. 870).
 
   A better possibility may be use of a device invented by Hayward Spangler
at the USDA bee research laboratory in Tucson.  He has a "gun" that is
aimed at moving objects that have some frequency of movement component.
The gun converts visible signals from the object to sound.  He even records
the sounds of dancing bees from through the glass sides of observation
hives.
 
        The bee hunting techniques provided in the reference I sent a few
moments ago can be very efficient with practice and perception.
 
                                                Adrian
 
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