Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Blyth's Reed Warbler's habitat in the late morning. Alam-Pedja nature reserve, Estonia June 5, 2021

The recording starts at 7 am. It's raining a little. Close-up of swallows. Redwing(his dialect or subsong) and other birds can be recognized in the background. It is an interesting fact that the Swallow (Hirundo rustica) was chosen as the national bird of Estonia on November 26, 1962 in Tartu

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Sharing the habitat with swallows one night. Soomaa National Park, Estonia May 23, 2021

This is a compilation preview of my second album from Alam-Pedja which is available here: https://andruskannel.bandcamp.com/album/alam-pedja-soundscapes-in-an-abandoned-farmhouse-nature-recordings

This is my second album that contains nature recordings from the Alam-Pedja nature reserve from Estonia. When the first album presented with ​​how Alam-Pedja sounds through the year and in different habitats then the concept of this album is one day and in one selected location in Alam-Pedja. All recordings are made in the yard of an abandoned farmhouse located in a deep forest. I'll listen one day through audio recordings I made in May 2020 and 2021

Some information about the old farmhouse. The farmhouse was built for forest workers in 1938 during the time of the first Estonian republic. Up to 15 people lived there at the same time in 1956 and in 2004 the last resident of this farm died. Since then, the farm is empty.

Equipment:
Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

released June 15, 2021

Preview of a nature recording album: Alam-Pedja soundscapes in an abandoned farmhouse

The picture is in the same place this morning when I recorded the soundscape. The river is Emajõgi (Mother river). The river connects the two largest lakes of Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus and is the second largest river in Estonia by discharge and the only fully navigable river. The banks of the Emajõgi provide habitat for very different species including Great Reed Warbler.

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

River soundscape with Great Reed Warbler. Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia. Mai 28, 2021

It's half past seven in the evening. The color of the sun is turning golden but it is still hot. It is 26 degrees outside. There are no boat owners or passengers in the harbor. There is one small building in the port where a ticket seller sits despite the fact that the last ferry of the day to Piirissaare departed half an hour ago. The water of the lake sings against the ferry's landing bridge. There are swallows nesting right under the bridge and motor boats can be heard from the lake

The sound of Lake Peipsi in Laaksaare boat harbor. Field recording. Estonia June 30, 2021

Half flooded polder area near the city Pärnu. There was some kind of water collection well, and the birds loved to rest on the metal roof of that well. At the same time, there are many young birds in the reeds. The microphones are almost under that roof. There are smaller village roads around. The voices of swimmers can be heard from the seashore and the paraglider flies in the sky.
Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Inside the colony of Black-headed gull(Larus ridibundus) Field recording. Estonia July 7, 2021

One slightly older recording which I recorded during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020. Forest with thrushes and cuckoos in the foreground, ural owl and bittern in the background

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Forest Full Of Cuckoos. Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia. Mai 29, 2020

Once the birds have nested, it is the turn of the wasps. The recording was made in a small village. In addition to wasps, the village road, dogs, grasshoppers and the wind can be heard. Headphones recommended but it can be scary for some

The European hornet builds a nest inside the bird house. Estonia. August 05, 2021

It was a very windy day. Summer breaking point. The hot and dry summer started to get rainy and cold. The strong wind that day was a sign of that change. The grass in the meadow was dense and high, and deep inside, there was a grasshopper. I carefully moved the microphones under the grass near the grasshopper. The grass worked very well as "dead cat" or natural "wind muff" and the wind roared in the nearby trees and meadow. After recording, I sank the camera where I heard the grasshopper to look at the place from the grasshopper's perspective.

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Grasshopper and Wind in Soomaa National Park, Estonia. August 12, 2021

Crisp morning and wet spring forest on the first of May 2021 in Alam-Pedja, Estonia.  Redwing sings high on the top of the tree. His song seems a little poorer or shorter than it usually is. Maybe he's a young bird and this is his first spring. Nevertheless, the whole piece of the forest is full of his song. Suddenly, two black woodpeckers arrive and take full attention. This is a section from a longer recording

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Spring forest with redwing and two black woodpeckers in love.

The audio recording was made in a place where I loved fishing when I was a kid. I'm experimenting here. I usually listen to the place and then choose a place for microphones. This time I'm going to do with microphones like I usually do with a camera when i take a series of pictures. I try to convey the place from different points of view. Listening to this sound recording, you can imagine yourself as a fish, for example, or an otter coming out of the water, swimming around under a bridge and diving again.

Fish gaze. Soundscape under the Audru highway bridge. Estonia, July 5, 2021

In this recording you can hear the forest sound of what I love the most. Birds at different distances sounding through clean, calm air, free from anthropogenic sound.
Some facts about the place taken from Wikipedia: Soomaa National Park (Estonian: Soomaa rahvuspark) is a national park in south-western Estonia. Soomaa ("land of bogs") protects 390 km², the park was created in 1993. Soomaa is Important Bird Area since 1989 and a Ramsar site of protected wetlands since 1997 and a Natura 2000 area since 2004.

Tascam Dr-100 MK III digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Handmade phantom powered Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. 24 bit 48kHz

Crystal  Clear Spring Morning In Soomaa National Park, Estonia. May 23, 2021

Song thrush, 1.17 cranes, female snipe in the background, 5.43 male snipe begins to sound, chaffinches, a small leaf warbler... 12.30 two jays begin to chat

Forest sound early morning at 6 o'clock. Keeri-Karijärve Nature Reserve on April 17 2016. Estonia

Recorded with phantom powered Primo microphones, Azden mixer and Tascam Dr 100 III recorder. There is Equisetum in the picture. Took picture right there where I did recording.

Warm and beautiful morning in the woods. 20th May 2017 Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia

General atmosphere in the Silver Birch Wood near Palupohja in the Alam Pedja reserve Estonia. My friend Fintan O'Brien and I went for a walk down river, we both had our equipment and we both recorded nearly the same sound, our microphones were about 10 meters apart. Copied the first part of the text of Fintan.  But when I listen now recordings they almost like made different places. I thought that they would be identical. It is very instructive. Recorded with phantom powered Primo microphones, Azden mixer and Tascam Dr 100 III recorder.

Atmosphere with Wind, Great tit and Chiffchaff in song - 20 May 2017 - 12.04pm

The night is over. Gradually gets lighter. Silence replaced the singing of birds. 
Recorded with phantom powered Primo EM172 microphones, Azden mixer and Tascam Dr 100 III recorder.

Early morning in old forest at 3:37. Soomaa National Park, Estonia on Mai 27 2017

Manija is one of the smallest islets in Europe where people live on. The size of the island is 2 km² There are currently 35 permanent residents.
It was quite windy during the recording and I had to additionally cover the microphones with my sweater :)

Manija Island Soundscape. Estonia, July 9, 2017

November. Dark. Wet and windy forest. Water droplets fall from tree branches. There is a dried pine tree and woodpecker at its top.
Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

November Sound in Alam-Pedja, Estonia. November 12, 2017

The landscape here is frozen although the March Sun melts rapidly. In the calendar, winter lasts a few more days and the explosion of spring is no longer far off when all these birds arrive here.
Recorded with phantom powered Primo EM172 microphones, Azden mixer and Tascam Dr 100 III recorder, 96,0 kHz

Creaking tree in the wind. The sound of Alam-Pedja. Estonia, March 18, 2018

In the morning at seven.. April's forest here belongs to the thrushes. Image is taken where my microphones heard the soundscape. Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Forest Sound in Alam-Pedja, Estonia. April 26, 2018

In the evening at 20.30 Blackbird and Robin sing a duet. In the backround Cuckoo is heard. Recording ends with Woodcock flying up. Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Edit: Replaced file. Cut out wind in the beginning that sounded like a distant car for me. Soomaa is very rich in nature, but there is very difficult to get recording without human produced noise. The main problem is the airplanes. There is not enough deep forest to hide from them. There I always find myself thinking how noise our planet is and how tolerant are we about it.

Small walk through the forest. Soomaa National Park, Estonia on April 30 2018

In the beginning Whitethroat sings silently. The bird hides itself in the bush and is acting there quietly. Black woodpecker makes a sound. Then Whitetroat begins to sing louder and two wood pigeons become companions of him. Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Common Whitethroat singing in Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve. Estonia, May 06, 2018

Early in the morning. Sun rises. Black grouses are heard from the bog and tree pipit sings aloud. Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Tree Pipit and Black Grouses early in the morning. Alam-Pedja nature reserve. May 25, 2018

Arrives in Estonia at the end of May and at the beginning of June already ends the singing. Therefore, the opportunity to listen to him does not last long.  Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Blyth's Reed Warbler. Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve. May 26, 2018

It was news that May was the warmest and driest May in the last fifty years in Estonia. And then after cloudless morning without warning, the little storm came out of nowhere. 24-bit, 48000 Hz, Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Ambient Forest Sound with Slight Rain and Thunder. Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve. June 2, 2018

Raining, goes dark. I am inside the hut and waiting for the cranes. 24-bit, 48000 Hz, Tascam Dr-100 MK III, Azden mixer, primos.

Waiting For The Cranes. Matsalu National Park, Estonia On September 15, 2018

This is an 8-minute summary of the album which is available here: https://andruskannel.bandcamp.com/album/alam-pedja-soundscapes-through-the-four-seasons

Alam-Pedja is vast protected wilderness area covering 342 square kilometres. It is situated in Central Estonia northeast of Lake Võrtsjärv, in a lowland area called the Võrtsjärv Basin and consists of rivers, their floodplains, various bogs, and some very different types of forests. There are very few people living there so that the human population density is comparable to that of wolf, bear and lynx. There are few roads so the forests and bogs are not too fragmented. Since 1997 Alam-Pedja has been recognized as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. In 2004 it was designated a Natura 2000 site.

In this album we hear recordings made in the mornings, in the day time, evenings and at nights from different types of habitats in Alam-Pedja. These soundscapes cover the springtime through summer to late autumn. Album starts with a soundscape recording where still lasts winter time. The listener gets a good idea of ​​how Alam-Pedja sounds through the year, gets a feel for the spirit and majesty of this wild area. Recordings were made over two years; 2017 & 2018.

My special thanks to fellow nature recordist Fintan O’Brien for valuable advice and help.

Alam-Pedja soundscapes thtough the four seasons

Alam-Pedja soundscapes through the four seasons (Preview)

April 20, 2019. The recording begins at 7.37 in the morning. I really like diversity of birds in Matsalu but recording is somewhat difficult because there are no natural obstacles (thick forest or mountains) to preventing noise from the roads. It's not technically pure clean recording. It's a sketch, the groundwork, note in my audio notebook.

A walk through the landscape of Matsalu National Park, Estonia.

The clock is 6 am and the weather is beautiful. The recording begins 5 am and was 1 hour and 20 minutes long. This is a seven-minute cut from it. I recommend listening to it with headphones.

Early morning Soundscape from Alam​-​Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia. May 22, 2019

Preview of the audio recording of how a night in the woods turns into a morning, Original slow 52 minutes long progression is avalaible for listening here: https://andruskannel.bandcamp.com/track/forest-soundscape-from-night-to-morning
The recording was made on the morning of May 23, 2020 in the Alam-Pedja nature reserve in Estonia

Andrus Kannel

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