This call at around 10 PM yesterday night confounded me. Since it was in a territory of Ural Owls I thought it must be one their many calls. But then friends of mine recalled something called the "Devil's cackle" by Eagle Owls. It is an alarm call made by both the male and the female but you do not hear it often. Although I did not hear any Ural Owl in the recording, I wonder if it was an Ural Owl that made the Eagle Owl a bit nervous.

Uppsala, September 18, 2024.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 as tree ears

The Devil's Cackle

From my forthcoming album "Oak and Ash" . Based on A.A. Cameron's strathspey and the Irish jig "Three Little Drummers"

Oak and Ash

Strathspey Drummers

It’s human nature for each generation to criticize the generation that preceded it, often using them as a convenient scapegoat for all that’s wrong in the world. The current large target is my own generation, the Baby Boomers. I recently overheard a group of young people—mid-20s—complaining at length about their belief that the Boomers constitute a waste of flesh who never contributed much to society. Respectfully, I beg to differ; this is my response, along with a plea to ALL generations to think twice about that conclusion.


Episode 289-The Generational Blame Game

Dans les chardons on entend l’Anthidie à manchettes (Anthidium manicatum) qui s’affaire à collecter les poils des feuilles ce qui lui vaut le surnom d’abeille cotonnière.
« Anthidium manicatum est une espèce d'hyménoptères de la famille des Megachilidae. Comme d'autres espèces de son genre, on l'appelle abeille cotonnière à cause de son comportement : gratter les poils des feuilles comme celles de la Molène Bouillon-blanc ou de l'Épiaire laineuse qu'elle met en boule et qu'elle transporte sous son corps pour en revêtir son nid. »
source Wikipedia : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthidium_manicatum

European wool carder bee
In the thistles, we can hear the Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) busily collecting hairs from the leaves.
“Anthidium manicatum is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. They get the name "carder" from their behaviour of scraping hair from leaves such as lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina). They carry this hair bundled beneath their bodies to be used as a nest lining.”
source Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthidium_manicatum

Abeille cotonnière

https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/sets/quiet-dawn-of-souls-first-light-two-locations

2023.02.19 Quiet Dawn of Souls. First Light. Location β.

2023.02.19 Quiet Dawn of Souls. First Light. Location α.

Tawny owls' midnight calls at the hidden disappearing lake valley, surrounded by deep forests.

Midnight Spooky Owls - Cerknica Lake, Slovenia 19.8.2025

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!
MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

WE DON’T BLOODY CARE
AS LONG AS PROFIT’$ THERE!

HO HO! HO HO!
PACK YOUR BAG$
OFF YOU GO!
HERE’$ YOUR TICKET
YOU CAN $TICK IT!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

HO HO! HO HO!
MILLIONAIRE!
BILLIONAIRE!

MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

____________________________

According to FlightRadar24's aviation statistics, in August 2025 the highest daily seven-day moving average of global flights was 259,858, with the actual number of flights peaking on 7th August 2025 with 276,831 in one day. As you will see from the graph in the track image, cited from FlightRadar24's 2025 statistics (covering January to August 2025), the number of daily flights just keeps increasing... And we keep hearing of new international runways and terminals being planned and built in many countries and cities.
____________________________

This recording was made on Wednesday 19th August 2025 in a eucalypt forest in the foothills of Adelaide, just three kilometres (approximately two miles) from where I live, during mid afternoon. A pair of Clippy EM172 omni microphones, plugged into a Zoom F3, were clipped onto tree twigs and left alone while I continued walking, enjoying a sunny winter's afternoon stroll, surrounded by numerous familiar species of local native birds. And, of course, numerous jets.

Some might say, "Well, the birds and other native animals carry on their lives, despite the noise and all that goes with it. So what's the problem?" Yes, indeed, they do, as best they can, because they must, and have no other choice, unless or until they become endangered or extinct; and so do we, because we, too, must, and have no other choice. But isn't THAT precisely the fundamental problem? To put it quite bluntly: aren't we being forced to live - to survive - under the rule of a kind of environmentally toxic fascism, dictated by an inflexible, irrational, and insensitive political economy?

I believe wholeheartedly in a free world. But I absolutely do not endorse the ancient lie that 'justice is the advantage of the stronger', and that those who have contrived economic, political, military, financial and cultural advantage have the putative right to tell us what 'justice' is, and to tell us what we are required, even against our wills, to suffer, in order that their own 'advantage' rules. Nor do I believe that - let's say, for the sake of the argument - if one million people are persuaded to subscribe to, support, and hence also enjoy the ample benefits of, such an irrational and unjust political economy, that the objection of one thousand, or even one hundred, or even one dozen, unpersuaded people who disagree with and reject that way of being and doing things for fundamentally valid and true reasons should be overruled and subjected, merely on the basis of a numerical count! A 'majority' is not necessarily 'right', merely by being a 'majority'!

Let's not forget that Hitler was voted into power 'democratically' by a majority of voters. As Hitler recognised, very early in the game, the simplistic concept and system of 'democracy' can be very conveniently and readily manipulated by persuasion through ideology and mass media. 'Democracy' and 'Fascism' do not necessarily stand in logical opposition. When hegemonists and dictators cannot control by persuasion, they will resort to force. And vice versa. No one has yet resolved the fundamental problem of how to actualise a genuinely 'free society'... And what, indeed, IS a 'genuinely free society'...?

2025.08.19 MORE JET$ IN THE AIR!

Night Soundscape captured by DPA 5100, mixed down to stereo

Night Soundscape at USJ 2 garden

Projekt 4 - 2025-08-21 14.25

Mole cricket or European NightJar
This was recorded at island Srakane on kayak trip in October 2023- Small waves on small beach. 
Sennheiser MKH40 and Zoom F6 recorder.

Adriatic Islands Ambience - Mole Cricket Or NightJar  at night small beach

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

The Devil's Cackle

Bo Söderström

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