Dawn chorus

Färnebofjärdens National Park in the northern part of Uppland is a big wilderness area. In this recording I put the Zoom F3/Clippy microphone up over the night close to a beaver hut. Beavers can be heard when walking close by and when smacking their tails against the water. Surprisingly a family of otters came by in the morning. Otherwise you can hear ural owl, tawny owl, crane, redwing, songthrush, green sandpiper, common sandpiper etc in the recording. 220514. Färnebofjärdens NP

Dusk to dawn chorus in old-growth forest, Färnebofjärdens NP (May 14, 2022)

Although on the decline (?) there are still quite many Ural Owls breeding in Uppland. In the end of this recording you will hear when the male comes with food to the female and young. They are quite vocal in mid-May in the very early morning hours. This is a passive recording, I would not dare stand so close to Ural Owls otherwise. Really aggressive at their nests. During the night a Tawny Owl came too close and was chased off by the Urals. 220517

Dusk to dawn chorus with Ural Owls and Tawny Owls (May 17, 2022)

Morning recording from our garden surrounded by horse pastures and agricultural fields. Tree sparrow, blue tit, skylark, pheasant breed nearby. In the middle of the recording some unknown raptor passes by and all birds warn. 220521. Hågaby

Dawn chorus in my garden in Håga by (May 21, 2022)

Dusk to dawn chorus in my garden in Håga by (May 23, 2022)

From midnight to around 8 o'clock in the morning. A drop rig close to Hågaån, near Kvarnbo, Uppsala, Sweden. 220527

Dusk to dawn chorus along a small creek Hågaån (May 27, 2022)

Passive recording on a clearcut just west of Uppsala from 8PM June 5 to 6 AM June 6, 2022. The morning chorus dominated by blackcap and songthrush, in the background cuckoo and redbacked shrike. At dusk a pair of pygmy owls called.

Dusk to dawn chorus on a forest clearcut (June 6, 2022)

Two generations discuss what it’s like to be a teenager in 2025 vs the 80’s

Mind The Gap

La Jolla, San Diego

Potok Waterstream medium MKH8020 MKH40 in mix

Potok Mono MKH40 in Mkh8020 stereo Waterstream medium

A field recording using leaf audio contact microphone + field amp, listening in on the secret life beneath the Poplar Tree. Poland 2025 (Owl Mountains) 

Life Beneath the Poplar

A sound of insects beneath a Poplar Tree, some stridulation and sound of distant crickets also picked up by the mic. 

A peaceful, meditative natural soundscape: the gentle wind through coastal forest; the deep roar of the Southern Ocean a mile away; and, immersed within the matrix of these elemental forces, a dispersed, quiet, but alive and recovering, early summer dawn - announced quite emphatically at the beginning of this recording by a nearby Red Wattlebird. (The Red Wattlebird's early 'wake up' calls are the only louder passage in this entire piece. It's a Red Wattlebird subspecies (Anthochaera carunculata clelandi) that is found only on Kangaroo Island.)

Recommended listening: Good quality headphones with a flat frequency response (preferably open-backed); or good quality stereo monitors. Relaxed deep meditative listening at a quiet time with minimal interference from extraneous noise. 

A note on the track image: The panorama photograph was taken from the middle of Snake Lagoon, facing the eastern forest margin of the lagoon. The recording was made from within the forest itself. At the time the photograph was taken, on 5th December 2024, Snake Lagoon, like most of the inland lagoons of Kangaroo Island, was dry, although its fertile soil floor was nevertheless green with flora, richly fertilised by the droppings of Kangaroo Island Kangaroos and Tammar Wallabies feeding on that same flora. Its dryness was due to a protracted period of unseasonal drought, a drought that was a major contributing cause to the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020. Those bushfires also raged through the coastal forests surrounding Snake Lagoon, which are seen, here, in this photograph, four years after the bushfires.

Related track: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20241205-wind-and-red-wattlebird-snake-lagoon-early-summer. (An excerpt from the first part of this longer recording, featuring the dawn calls of the Red Wattlebird.)

2024.12.05 A Windswept Early Summer Dawn at Snake Lagoon, Kangaroo Island.

Dawn chorus on the wetland. You can hear these species on the recording: great reed warbler (primarily), common cuckoo and mute swan
Date: 8. 6. 2025
Time: 4.05 - 5.30 am
Weather conditions: temperature 16°C, wind: 2m/s, partly cloudy
Place: Vranovice, South Moravia
Equipment: Telinga parabolic dish

Great reed warbler - dawn chorus on the wetland

COMMON SANDPIPER (Actitis hypoleucos)
SONG IN DISPLAY FLIGHT

This sound-portrait of a Common Sandpiper on its breeding grounds reveals the insistent and highly rhythmic "sewing-machine" song, given  as the bird circles around the loch side just after midnight on the 6th June 1997.  At times, insects drone close against the windcage.

The atmospheric roar of distant breakers on the Uig Saltmarsh can be heard in the background, along with "bleats" from Snipe, and faint calls from Ringed Plover and Greenshank.

The title of the piece is the Gaelic name for this species, meaning literally "Fidler-Bird by the Loch".

Uig Saltmarsh, Timsgarry, Uig Penninsula, Isle of Lewis.

Captured with  a Sony MZ-R3 Portable MiniDisc Recorder, using a pair of Sennheiser K6ME66 short-gun electrets.   Note that this is my only Soundcloud item in which I have used electret microphones and a non-linear recorder

Fidhleirbord - An - Locha - Common Sandpiper

Field sound recordist and archivist of vanishing sounds in natural Iandscapes. Highly commended in the Sound of the Year Awards 2024 - Best Natural Sound.

Dusk to dawn chorus in old-growth forest, Färnebofjärdens NP (May 14, 2022)

Bo Söderström

Related tracks