At 3.04am I set off on the motorbike to one of my favourite places in Ballinvally woods.  (Near Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland) When I arrived I could see something had changed, the distant trees seemed different somehow.  Had the well grown piece of forest that I record in and even camped in last year been harvested ?  It had.  I knew it was time and was even surprised it had not been harvested last year as the trees were of a good size, some were even huge.  It would have been nice if they had left the work for another week or more, I could then had made the final recordings there before they cut them all down.  
Half way down there on the left is a scrubby open area, so I set up the Tascam and a pair of Rode NT2A microphones under a few small native trees, these are near a stream in-between two lots of plantation pine forest.  I set the gain at 46db and left it there to record while I went down the road to take a look at the devastation and try find somewhere to record and quickly as the dawn chorus had almost begun.   There was a mountain of timber to my right.  Just past this is another piece of forest, not as tall as the old part but likely to have birds singing there, so I went in and set up the Sennheiser MKH8020 microphones and the Sound Devices MixPre3 recorder.  There was one plus about the situation and that is that the birds that used to be in the cut forest had no choice but to pile-in to the forest I was now in and this appeared to be the case as the birdsong seemed to be more dense.  In one of the recordings it sounds like I was moving about, but rather it was a Sika deer, I wouldn’t have moved but what if it tripped over the cables and pulled down the expensive 8020’s ?  So I quietly showed myself, the deer saw me and moved away.  I started and stopped the recorder quite a few times as various jets flew over.    It was a cool morning, partly cloudy, dry and calm.  Later having processed the recordings I saw that the Tascam and NT2A’s picked up practically nothing else but a Wren singing,  that means that the bird sang intermittently for about three hours as the two files add up to three hours ten minutes.   The levels were perfect, minus three db generally, only two songs in three hours went slightly above zero decibels.  I kept about 36 minutes worth.  The MixPre files are amazing, even though the species to be heard are very limited, the overall recordings are good and I am really pleased with them.  A Songthrush kept the action going and in the distance I heard sheep at a higher level than I have heard them before in that part of the woods, some Crows added a nice texture to the chorus.  Recording 3664.     I took the pictures with my smart phone, the Samsung Galaxy J5 Duos.

Dawn Chorus (4) 19 June 21 at 5.06am in Ballinvally Woods

A cabinetmaker by trade.  I have been recording birds for over 40 years.  Even as a seven year old I loved to hear the sound of birds. 
I believe that birdsong is a perfect reflection of the natural environment and yet a part of the experience of the environment.  
Over the years I have made some wildlife films and videos.  For wildlife recording I have been around Ireland, Wales, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Belize, Guyana, Brazil, Peru and Costa Rica. At the moment I have 26 albums of birdsong/nature, most of which can be found here for free download in high quality F.L.A.C. format.
  
Birdsong is Spiritual Medicine,
a Natural Treasure 
and a Companion to Silence.

Dawn Chorus (4) 19 June 21 at 5.06am in Ballinvally Woods

Fintan O'Brien