01 May 2011, Foxley Wood, Norfolk, UK.  The sleepier birds are now awake and shouting with the earlier risers.  

Foxley Wood 05:20

Some sounds of summer 2014 from Brighton, Sussex. It is difficult to escape urban noise in a terraced street. I have wasted many hours trying to record without traffic, people, music, doors, heating systems, and so on, joining in. But this is how it is. Urban sounds, however unwelcome, are interesting too. 

Every fortnight the recycling truck visits. Separate properly or you will be shamed with yellow tape

Some sounds of summer 2014 from Brighton, Sussex. It is difficult to escape urban noise in a terraced street. I have spent many hours trying to record target birds and insects without traffic, people, music, doors, heating systems, and so on, joining in. But this is how it sounds. 

A storm system passing by. Neighbours eating al fresco caught out

Some sounds of summer 2014 from Brighton, Sussex. It is difficult to escape urban noise in a terraced street. I have wasted many hours trying to record without traffic, people, music, doors, heating systems, and so on, joining in. But this is how it sounds. Urban sounds, however unwelcome, are interesting too. 

Short, sharp shower. Neighbours were eating outside at the time

Police Eurocopter 'eye in the sky', looking for trouble.  Seagulls shout over the pulsing drone

Dusk: perched atop a conifer behind the Mounthooly Bunkhouse the 'local' song thrush is engaged in a sing-off with a neighbour. This mono recording is the omni track of the Telinga 'TwinScience', in a parabolic reflector.  I recorded the bird from four locations.  The 3rd and 4th are from the car park side, where the song echoed off the hill and back off the house.  I wonder which song the song thrush hears?

Songthrush 4ways

Mid January, 2012. Dry. Still. Temp = 0C. For a long while, as the sun went down, the quiet of this small woodland area to the North of the South Downs, was interrupted only by blackbird, long-tailed tit and pheasants strutting their stuff. But then, usually on the advancing drone of a jet whining into Gatwick, the waves of rooks and jackdaws swirled in.  They occupy a tree and then crow about it to each new flock.  I guess a few hundred, or even a thousand, birds arrived over the course of 15 minutes.  They seem to take up the trees in the centre first of all and then back-fill around it.  My mic was perhaps 25m from the epicentre, so the noise increases as the trees I was under were rented as well.  Once installed, or while establishing their territory, the metallic cries of flight change to cawwing and crowing - confrontational or chatty.  Though this is a long sequence, the cries change over time, so I at least found it interesting. These are not obviously shy birds in numbers. When it was practically dark - 40 minutes or so later, the woods were mostly quiet again, apart from me winding cables and trudging the path out. Tech stuff: recorded using Neumann RSM191, MS into Sonosax SXR4.  Mic positioned approx 1.5 metres off the ground.  Post: some noise reduction applied to jet engines, though still audible at its higher harmonics. This is a selected chronological sequence from about 40 minutes.

Rooks winter roost Tottington Woods

Date of recording: 13 May 2012, at around 12:00 EST

Location:	Aengskaersgoarden, Sweden - approximately 150km NE Stockholm on Baltic coast. 60° 28‘ 35” N 18° 04‘ 17” E

Location description: Grassy patch beside a damp ditch (photo attached)

Weather: Sunny; very light breeze; temperature approximately 14C after overnight temperature of 0 - 1 C. The previous day was rainy.

Technical:			Sonosax SXR4 recorder.  Telinga Pro-7 parabolic reflector, 'Twin Science', hand held ~ 1metre above grass.

General description:	The sound seems mechanical.  Stridulation? Lasting approx 2 seconds. Repeat after approx. 10 secs. Audible, but quiet.  There appeared to be several sources of the sound, each one to two metres apart.

Closer inspection: Careful inspection of the grass did not turn up anything as obviously making the sound, and neither did this seem to interrupt the sound being produced.

Mystery insect (?) Baltic coast, Sweden - identified as hygrolycosa rubrofasciata

Burton Pond, near Midhurst, W. Sussex. Finally a break in the weather and a glimmer of Spring. Dawn chorus recorded 13 April '13.  Beautiful and interesting location, which packs a variety of terrains into a small area, not that I shifted from the water's edge after 04:15. I have edited out a few planes and a super-keen farmer rattling a tractor around at 05:30.  I don't expect many will listen to the entire track but you may be interested to listen in at various points as the chorus develops and subsides. The ponds feed a water mill, which accounts for the faint background hiss. Geek notes: recorded using a DPA 4060 stereo rig into a Sonosax SXR4.  No effects added, but the .wav file is compressed to .mp3   

Davimon