Rookery at Dusk - Schull (Excerpt)

Lapping Waves and Boats - Schull

Benjamin's Bedtime Story - 'How The World Was Saved' (The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem)

We have Starling chicks living in the ceiling. They hatched last week and their cheeps have been getting a little bit louder every day. By placing my microphone behind the vent I can get a good recording of them, and without disturbing them. I’m not sure if the nest is in the vent tunnel or in the ceiling above it. Whenever a parent comes back with food they start cheeping like mad.

It’s exciting having Starlings live in the ceiling! They’re very good mimics of the sounds they hear around them, whether it be the songs of other birds, human voices or car alarms. Mozart heard a Starling in a shop window singing one of his tunes, so he bought it and kept it as a pet. The Starling could not only sing his tunes, but could also improvise on a theme. I wonder whether the music I play in the kitchen might be heard from the telegraph poles in the autumn?

Recorded with a Roland R-07.

Starling Chicks

Geevagh, Co. Sligo, Ireland, 19/06/2019

Recorded on a calm sunny day with a Zoom H1, positioned as close to the surface of the water as possible.

Babbling Stream

Bats on the River Lee, by the Kingsley Hotel.

Recorded on a Roland R-07, internal mics, at 96khz 24bit, an experiment to see if the mics could pick up the calls. When I got home and lowered the pitch of the sounds I was delighted to find that they can.

The first section is played at 1/10th speed. You can really hear the way they're using the sonar. The faster clicks are used when they're honing in on an insect.

The second section is 1/4 pitch, but at normal speed, so it retains an accurate sense of movement.

Based on the little bit of research I did, I think these are Common Pipistrelles, but I'm not sure.

Edit: The main frequency is too low to be a Pipistrelle, the bats in this recording are Leisler's Bats. There were also Pipistrelle bats present but their calls are too high-pitched for my microphone to detect.

Bats on the River Lee

A mother duck bringing her nine ducklings to feed in a small muddy puddle in the grass on the edge of the pond. I'd seen them use this puddle the previous day so in the morning I left my microphone there and waited for them to come along. Their cheeps, wing splashes, beak snaps and bloops, and the sounds the mother uses to talk to her chicks are all amazing. While they were feeding two hooded crows flew over (to try and catch a duckling for breakfast). Mother duck chased them away, and you can hear me running across to scare the crows too. Recorded with a Zoom H1.

Ducklings Feeding, Atlantic Pond, Cork City

The Starling chicks left the nest earlier in the week. Here they are a few days before leaving, with much huskier voices than they had at the start.

(The Starlings in the picture aren't the same as the one's in the recording).

Recorder on a Roland R-07.

Starling Chicks at 3 weeks

Having been out to record them a few more times I’m now fairly certain these are Leisler’s Bats. This recording was taken a bit further upriver, opposite Atkins Hall (as pictured), formerly St. Anne's Asylum.

Recorded 13/05/2020 on a Roland R-07.

Leisler's Bats on the River Lee (1/5 Speed)

Go to Work!

I feel elated
like a pond skater, skating
across a deep dark lake

(Except that a pond skater
wouldn't be feeling my elation.

It may or may not
be feeling its own.
& I may or may not
be feeling mine.)

benjamin burns

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