Birds at dawn. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Foggy Bottom

Forest birds singing during mid-morning in the Sunklands area in the Ozark Mountain region of southern Missouri. Listen for the prominent wood thrush, plus carolina wren and yellow-throated warbler. Recorded 15 May 2021.

Sunklands Mid-morning Bird Chorus

Varied Thrushes singing along a forest trail near Ozette Lake in the Olympic National Park. Listen also for a Swainson's Thrush and Winter Wren, along with the gentle gurgle of a nearby stream. 2 August 2021. Please Listen with headphones.

Ozette Lake Forest Trail

A pair of Western Screech Owls call together against a backdrop of calling insects and a small stream.  Recorded in Chiricahua National Monument, October 2014.

Owls and calling insects - Chiricahua NM 141024

Really close wolf howl - January 2025. SASS. 

Wolf Recording 13th Jan 2025. 18:39

A recording made between first light and sunrise in a plantation pine forest adjacent to the Western River Wilderness Protection Area near the northern-western coast of Kangaroo Island. The pine forest was incinerated during the unprecedently severe 'Black Summer' bushfires of 2019-2020. Five years later, natural regrowth from surviving pine seeds and eucalyptus seeds is surging from the soil around the charred trunks of the still-standing burnt-out forest. Young pines and eucalypts have grown above human head height and densely pack the understory of the much taller dead pine trees, which creak, knock and crack in the wind. The scenery and soundscape of the forest in the dawn twilight was at once eerie, mysterious and magical; suffused with the dark, muted sound of the nearby coastline and the gentle wind stirring the forest, but also embroidered with the occasionally clear and bright, but more often soft and distant, calls of bird species such as the Australian Magpie, Common Bronzewing, Brown Thornbill (ssp. zietzi*), Crescent Honeyeater, Crimson Rosella (ssp. melanoptera*), Grey Currawong (ssp. halmaturina*), Grey Fantail, Grey Shrike-thrush, Little Wattlebird (ssp. halmaturina*), Red Wattlebird (ssp. clelandii*), and Superb Fairy-wren (ssp. ashbyi*); and the gentle hopping and rustling of Tamar Wallabies fossicking through the forest, feeding on sprouting grasses and the supple leaves of young trees. It's a moderately long recording, but with deep listening at a quiet time, and in a mindful frame of mind, (and through good quality headphones or speakers,) it can provide an engaging, immersive, intriguing, and informative experience. [*Note: these sub-species are unique to Kangaroo Island, having evolved during its long period of isolation from the mainland. There are sixteen local endemic sub-species in total.]

2024.12.09 Dawn in a Burnt-out Pine Forest. Early Summer.

White ibis flock takeoff from roost in early morning - cypress hammock in Florida.

Recordist: Jack Heinemann

Ibis Moment -- Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, U.S.A.

Fifth year in a row on different Capercaillie leks. This year started out slowly at 04.10 AM and about 5 males were displaying without much enthusiam until 07.30 when four females arrived. All of a sudden I had 15 males in front of the hide! Where did they come from. Wonderful recordings of the (almost) infrasound (32 Hz) when the males go "blind". If you listen carefully you will also hear mating of Pygmy Owl and hear when the Capercaillie males go quiet when a Goshawk calls in the distance.

Uppland. April 17, 2025.
Zoom F3 + AudioTechnica BP4025

Capercaillie lek with infrasound

Short and Sweet: A challenge to our government and our politicians--all of them--to do their jobs. In good conscience, I can't NOT post this audio essay.

Episode 287-When in the Course of Human Events

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

Midnight Spooky Owls - Cerknica Lake, Slovenia 19.8.2025

EmuDawn2

Nature recordings, primarily from the western United States.  For the stories behind my recordings, visit my blog: www.wildmountainechoes.com.

Owls and calling insects - Chiricahua NM 141024

Wild Mountain Echoes