Your 2024 Playback

Thrush Nightingale
recorded
Sikkalahti, Finland 
2am 5th June 2002

This performance is unusual in the almost continuous delivery, rather than separate strophes with intervals between.

nightingale after midnight

From dusk to dawn with two pairs of cranes and one or two single male contenders. In this recording you will hear almost infrasound (80-200 Hz) growls and heavy panting as the males chase each other in the wetland and of course the trumpeting of cranes through the night. An amazing experience to be this close. Huddunge, Uppsala. April 9, 2024.

Mixpre 3ii + Lewitt 440 Pure in ortf

Cranes like you never heard them before!

Lift off! This was spectacular beyond what I could have imagined. The starling murmuration at the Avalon Marshes in Somerset. Hundreds of thousands of birds departing from their roost on the reed beds. The numbers are hard to comprehend. First the silence - a timid chorus at this time of year - then the starlings start to chatter. Suddenly there is a build up of rumbling bass, like wind hitting the microphone or something about to erupt. Then the waves across the field, like ocean waves in the distance, both visually and sonically. And the lift off. The rumble becomes a satisfying silky carpet enveloping you overhead.

This repeats 3-4 times as different waves of departing starlings take flight. MAGICAL.

I edited 30 seconds at the end from when they've all left, to give perspective, so you can appreciate the decibels such a gathering produces.

Location: Shadwick Heath, Somerset, UK
Date and time: 25 February 2024, 7am
Habitat: Reed beds, Flooded plains

Gear (Associate Links):
Sound Devices 744T
Sennheiser MKH8060 and MKH30 in Mid-Side rig.
Nikon Z6-II https://amzn.to/4aWjeyZ
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM https://amzn.to/4bmU24t
Sigma 70-200 F2.8 https://amzn.to/3Wpdrxu

Starling Murmuration Dawn Lift-Off

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Recording 4222.	Wetland Night (1).	12th May ’24 – 10.51pm.		10m05.	Near School Garden.		440’s & the MixPre3.  At nineteen seconds the distant Common Cranes begin to call.  They stop at 3m27.  Species present are Sedge Warbler, Common Snipe, Corncrake and Spotted Crake, Bittern, Common Sandpiper and Lapwing.  At around 6m35 some birds fly over.  Rated 9.
Sunday the 12th of May 2024. Woke up a bit late, around 3.45am or so, got ready as quickly as I could and went first to the garden and placed the NT4 (Omni capsules) at the old house at the end of the Nature School garden and pointing up at the big trees.  Made my way to the piece of forest where I had been recording the evening chorus along the new road, set up the 8020’s going into the MixPre, 56db gain, I had this recorder going by 4.30am.  Then onto the meadow at the end of the new road, had it recording by 4.47am.  I missed a little of the start but there was no way to always wake up on time, didn’t know why the phone alarm would not work, it was probably only something simple.  The weather was beautiful and calm, quite cold at only 3C, there was a slight frost on the grass when going back to the house.  Nothing to do while the systems record, only stand there keeping away from the mics but keeping watch, being aware of a rogue shower for instance, and maybe if anyone was around, unlikely but good to keep a casual watch.  Back at the house I soon put the recorder out again, this time outside the door (MixPre & 8020’s) as the sounds in the garden were very nice.  Slept for a lot of the morning, later before lunch I got a text from Andrus saying he was around for a lot of the morning but he knew I might be sleeping.  I would not have minded if he knocked on the door, however we met up and talked for quite a while.   The British people staying at the other house were very good and appeared at the door with the bread and something else I wanted from the shop.  After tea I went to the piece of forest along the new road to record the evening chorus.  Had all three recorders out, the MixPre3 with the MKH8020’s, a gain of 65db.  The NT4 and the X8 and finally the Warm Audio 84’s with the DR100.  I wanted to capture the chink-chink calls at dusk of the Blackbird.  Oddly they didn’t do much of it that evening and the bit that I got was mainly distorted.  Back at the house I noticed that the sounds coming from the opposite side of the river were interesting so I set up the Lewitts and the MixPre and let it record for a while, the first minutes are best, this is where the very distant Common Cranes trumpet, the sound reverberating around the area, taking a few seconds to die away completely.

Wetland Night (1) - 12th May 2024 at 10.51pm - Palupohja

Hi! I'm Ángel, Sound Artist and Field Recordist. My inspiration is the natural world. I run SoundArk. offering Audio Production and Post-Production services. I'm based in the United Kingdom, and have been lucky to travel the world through my trade.

www.soundarkstudios.com
angel@soundarkstudios.com
 
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Starling Murmuration Dawn Lift-Off

SoundArk. | Ángel Pérez Grandi