A cool clear winters morning just after dawn in Nightcap National Park. An Alberts Lyrebird calls in his breeding territory in the moist sclerophyll of the ridge-top into the adjoining subtropical rainforest gullies thick with Bangalow Palms.

Lyrebirds at Nightcap

Three species of rainforest fruit pigeons dominate the dawn chorus in this section of Bangalow palm forest in Nightcap National Park, 18 months after the big fires.  The metronomic Wonga pigeon is keeps time, with the "oom-coo" call of the White-headed pigeon and the the rising hooping coo of the brown cuckoo dove chiming in periodically. King parrot, tree-creepers and several other birds also perform in the background.

Three Fruit Pigeons

Two microphones 1.5 metres from the display vine of the adult male Alberts Lyrebird capture a small segment of his display which features mimicry , percussive sounds, feather beats and the rhythmic rolling song that accompanies his dancing on the vine. The sounds include mimicry of several Satin Bower bird vocalisations, rosella and the "gronking" song. This is his dusk sign-off display before entering the safety of his roost tree high in the subtropical rainforest canopy. Queensland scenic rim at 900m ASL.

Alberts Lyrebird Mimicry-Displaying

A gloomy daybreak in the cloud sheathed warm temperate rainforest at 800m at Mt Clunie means that the crickets and insects still sing but the Grey Shrike Thrush welcomes the day with some beautiful song phrases. Many of the usual dawn-chorus suspects are sleeping-in hoping the sun will come out after weeks of misty rain and thunderstorms from Cyclone Seth.

Daybreak in the Cloud-forest,  Macpherson Range

Dawn soundscape in the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforests at Oxley Wild Rivers NP. After months of heavy rains in this steep forested gorge landscape, waterfalls are roaring in the background with a superb lyrebird warming up for winter breeding season displays with over an hour of continuous song, mostly mimicry of many species including the Glossy Black cockatoo.

Oxley Wild Rivers La Nina Soundscape

A Noisy Pitta comes close to the microphones to call "Walk-to-Work", and join Alberts lyrebird, Eastern Whipbird, Shining Bronze Cuckoo, Bassian Thrush, Rufous Fantail, Yellow-throated scrubwren and White-browed scrubwren and others . A mist hangs around the dripping warm temperate rainforest on a fine spring morning after several days rain and a very wet year. The hip-pocket frog, Assa darlingtoni, calls in the background. Bar Mountain, Border Ranges National Park NSW, Australia.

Noisy Pitta joins the Rainforest Dawn Chorus

After winter breeding season, on a spring dawn in the dripping forest on a rare clear morning, an Albert Lyrebird sings the local territorial "whistle song". No mimicry or fancy display, just "I'm here, this is me, ", as he joins the very vocal and close Yellow-throated scrubwrens along with Logrunner, Whipbirds, Shining Bronze Cuckoo, Tree-creepers, Lewin's honeyeaters, White-browed scrubwrens and others.

Border Ranges Spring Morning: Alberts Lyrebird joins the chorus

Philoria loveridgei: phour (4) minutes of phrog phlatulence.
A cool temperate antarctic beech forest soak is the venue for this burrow dwelling (thus the variation in pitch), daytime performing endangered frog species.  It could be a junior boys school dormitory but the birds in the background give it away.

Flatulent Frog Quartet:

Three or four male Eastern Whipbirds call at dawn in subtropical rainforest at 900m in Border Ranges NP. Each male has a differently pitched lead note in the whip call which is often followed as a duet by 2 notes from the female. At this time of day males are calling perhaps affirming their territory whereas later in the morning they will feed and forage and females will respond with the 2 note chew-chew call.

Eastern Whipbirds Collins Creek Rainforest Dawn

Australian native stingless bees, Tetragonula carbonaria, settling in for the evening. Bee conversations. Microphone 8cm inside hive entrance.
Recorded with a DPA 6060 subminiature lavalier microphone into a Sound Devices MixPre3 (2) at 192kHz 32bit Float.

Native Beehive Late Afternoon

A midsummer thunderstorm approaches during the dusk chorus which has transitioned from birdsong to insects, with the pulsating rhythmic cicada song. Heavy rain was to follow and the Nightcap National Park subtropical rainforest became alive with many frog species, including the Mixophyes fasciolatus pictured eating a large spider.

Insect chorus and evening storm: Rocky Creek

A wet autumn night in old-growth tallowwood forest in northern NSW. A yellow-bellied glider calls from one side, and another returns serve from the other side.

Yellow-bellied Glider CALL & RESPONSE

Old growth wet sclerophyll eucalypt forest in northern NSW, A cool showery autumn night. A southern Boobook owl calls amidst the insect chorus of crickets, and the odd Owlet Nightjar call.

Boobook Meditation

Recorded on a showery cool autumn night in old growth Tallowwood forest in the Nimboi-Binderay National Park.

Nimboi Dawn Soundscape

A lagoon at night in the western Queensland desert. An insectivorous bat hunts moths and beetles along the shore and this snippet of audio records the echolocating sonar  with frequency increasing as the bat closes in on its prey, followed by a snap of its tiny jaw and audible chewing of the victim!

BAT SNACK

A fragment of early morning chorus at Sawpits Creek in Bowra Sanctuary western Queensland.

Bowra Sanctuary Morning

SAWPITS LAGOON DAWN CHORUS

Predawn is welcomed by Eastern Yellow Robin and Golden Whistler in a stand of Coachwood forest understory within old growth Tallowwoods towering 60m overhead.  The morning bird and insect chorus gradually builds to a complex crescendo which includes many species, among them the Superb Lyrebird, Bassian Thrush, Pouched Frog (Assa darlingtoni), some dingo howls, and some mystery sounds I can't identify! A steady breeze blows high in the canopy and the background thrum of insects reflects the rich biodiversity.

Daybreak In The Coachwood Forest, Nimboi.

Recorded at Nimboi-Binderay National Park. 20 minutes of the more interesting sounds out of an 10 hour overnight recording. Yellow-bellied Glider calls, Southern Boobook, Australian Owlet Nightjar, Sugar Glider, and something skulking around the sclerophyll deep litter close to the the microphone rig busily chewing around 11:30-12:00min (I'm guessing an Eastern Quoll or Bandicoot. The Greater Glider pictured is actually silent and does not vocalise.

There's Something Out There : Creepy Night Sounds

Dawn on a farm at the edge of the Werrikimbe wilderness brings a quartet of Australian Magpies to welcome the rising sun with a warbling song and conversation. They perch atop a farm gate, all in a row, to sing.

Mooraback Morning Magpie Meeting

Wompoo Pigeon Big Scrub Loop

Soft vocalizations by adult Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo in treetop canopy 8meters overhead, some wind and running water background and King Parrot and Victorias Riflebird in background

Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo Mt Hypipamee

This frog sounds as if it is carrying a Geiger Counter walking towards some uranium. It was in creekside vegetation in Mebbin NP. Please correct me if my ID is wrong!

Litoria Pearsoniana: Cascade Tree Frog

Parkers Bridge Friday Hut Rd Binna Burra NSW, a few days before commencement of works to replace it. One of a series of recordings archiving the sound of the vanishing wooden bridges (large wooden xylophones played by motor vehicles)as they are being systematically being upgraded to silent :( concrete bridges in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

Parkers Bridge Binna Burra Friday Hut Rd PONTOPHONY #4

A morning of misty rain in old growth 800 year old wet sclerophyll Tallowwoods at Norman Jolly Memorial Grove in Nimboi-Binderay NP in Northern NSW. Scrubwrens, Golden Whistlers,Whipbirds,Treecreepers,LewinsHoneyeaters, gerygones, Eastern Spine-bills, and distant Paradise Rifle-bird and a Superb Lyrebird, among others . A constant buzz of bees and insects in the flowering  eucalyptus canopy 55 metres overhead. Sennheiser MKH 8040 DIY SASS stereo array into SD 702.

NORMAN JOLLY GROVE Mid MORNING

Sooty Owl Call Jenolan Caves NSW

A flock of the critically endangered species, estimated 12 individuals, paid a rare  the Hunter coast to feed on flowering Swamp Mahogany. Resident for a week they remained in a small area of forest including Banksia, Angophora and E. robusta. This was a ? feeding or contact call. two males calling from mid-canopy taking a break from the blossom to sally and glean insects and sing.

Regent Honeyeater visits Myall Lakes

As daylight fades and the mist rolls in on the warm temperate rainforest mountain top, 2 endangered species combine with the evening breeze through the canopy above: Loveridges Mountain Frog (Philoria loveridgei) is a rare and endangered species that build hidden nests or burrows in moist soaks and bogs. The pitch of their somewhat flatulent call varies depending on how deep within the burrow the frog is located. The Rufous scrub bird is a cryptic largely ground dwelling species which is often heard within its very limited range, but seldom seen. Its call is very variable but always strident and penetrating and unmistakeable in tone.

ENDANGERED ENSEMBLE

Night gently transitioning to day in the misty World Heritage Listed Gondwana rainforest amongst ancient Antarctic Beeches. On this January morning the subdued dawn light of the cloudy mountain top meant that the night shift of insects, cicadas and frogs continued well after the day shift begins at first light. For most of the year Eastern Yellow Robin leads the chorus but it is silent or absent on this morning. The frog calling is the "Pouched", "Marsupial" or "Hip-Pocket" frog, Assa darlingtonii, named for the brood pouches on the males, where the tadpoles travel to after hatching. (Thanks Jeremy).White-throated treecreeper is first followed at 4:30 by Alberts Lyrebird calling a little tentatively out of breeding season. Other species in this recording include Lewins Honeyeater, Brown Cuckoo Dove, Satin Bowerbird, Yellow-throated Scrubwren, White-Browed Scrubwren, King Parrot, Crimson Rosella, Bassian Thrush, Grey Shrike-thrush, Grey Fantail, Green Catbird, and the Eastern Whipbirds are feeding in pairs with an adult and a juvenile together. 
The recording begins 5 minutes before first light and continues till five minutes after dawn. Altitude 1140m ASL. Sennheiser MKH8020 in Iso-Binaural Stereo, SD702.

Gondwanan Forest Awakens

The dawn chorus on the Winter Solstice in cool temperate rainforest. A chilly westerly breeze rushes through the canopy overhead on this mountain top forest, but at ground level it is calm on a clear mist free morning after a week of showery  weather. At this time of year the dawn belongs to the male lyrebirds, who are establishing their breeding and display territories . Thus far  this winter their song and dance display has not commenced properly but they are working up to it by singing their territorial or Whistle song interspersed with mimicry of mainly Satin Bower-bird, and a couple of other species. The mimicry "full-monty" later in the season will include another half dozen species including kookaburra and King Parrot, Crimson Rosella, and others, and a spectacular dance display on a vine platform.
Other species on this recording include Logrunner, Eastern Whipbird and White Browed Scrubwren.

Winter Solstice Rainforest Dawn

Cool temperate rainforest dawn on the last day of winter at a trickling waterfall. In this stanza of the morning concert, Eastern Whip-birds dominate. There are several individuals calling which can be distinguished by the different frequencies of the lead note in the whip-crack call. The first is at ~1700Hz, followed by 2700Hz, followed by a third bird whose lead note is at 3400Hz.

Whipbirds At The Waterfall

Northern Wollemi, Gospers Mountain: 13 months after Australias biggest ever bushfire, when 5 separate blazes merged into one megablaze, the ecosytem is recovering. On the ridges the devastation is still obvious and recovery slower but in the deep gullies and canyons in this sandstone country have survived relatively unburnt. Superb lyrebirds bred this last winter as evidenced by nests on rock ledges and rock wallabies also have endured by sheltering deep in the rainforested canyons. Microbats , owlet nightjar, tawny frogmouth and southern boobook owl are heard and a cuckoo calls plaintively all through the night. Golden Whistlers dominate the busy dawn birdsong but there is a very complex  chorus. Recording begins 60 minutes before first light.

Big Scrub Sounds

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