Gorgeous reverb on the booming bittern! Fantastic recording, so many lovely wetland species present here!

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It's half past seven in the evening. The color of the sun is turning golden but it is still hot. It is 26 degrees outside. There are no boat owners or passengers in the harbor. There is one small building in the port where a ticket seller sits despite the fact that the last ferry of the day to Piirissaare departed half an hour ago. The water of the lake sings against the ferry's landing bridge. There are swallows nesting right under the bridge and motor boats can be heard from the lake

The sound of Lake Peipsi in Laaksaare boat harbor. Field recording. Estonia June 30, 2021

Recorded at Grundskatan, Bjuröklubb, morning the 16 May 2018. A wet area with much leafy trees (alskog) near the shore of the Bothnian bay, Bottenviken. The two Woodpeckers were foraging at the trees.
Gear: two Sennheiser MKH20 in stereo on a Jecklin disc. Recording was running for about 30 min.

Frogs and White-backed Woodpecker

Haunting Red Deer rutting in the forest of Orléans

Thrush Nightingale
recorded
Sikkalahti, Finland 
2am 5th June 2002

This performance is unusual in the almost continuous delivery, rather than separate strophes with intervals between.

nightingale after midnight

the pond and the trees beyond with quiet inside

Late morning in Palupõhja village Alam-Pedja nature reserve, Estonia. Different little birds are chirping in the trees next to the village road when suddenly a black woodpecker comes and bangs his drum four and a half times. The recording was made in the late morning of April 17, 2023

Equipment used: Zoom F3 digital recorder An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. Recorded 32 bit 48kHz

Black woodpecker drumming

30 May 2023

To get good recordings of birds you have to come close. On way of achieving this is to work with concealed microphones. It’s not easy to predict where the target bird/s will be, and I regularly fail in my attempts, but occasionally I succeed. I scouted a semi-open sandy area – a former tree seed orchard –  where I had encountered lekking Black Grouse last year, and hid a small stereo lavalier microphone overnight in the crown of an isolated small pine tree. One by one the Black Grouse males arrived in the late evening hours and immediately began displaying around the small pine tree.  

Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (63.39 N, 19.54 E)

Primo-EM172s

01_01.05

In the middle of the Black Grouse lekk

The echoes of Eurasian Cranes are bouncing from forest edges in countryside landscape of Rõuge parish, Estonia. It is a distant corner of southern Estonia with only a few farmhouses in sight.
The song of skylarks is filling early morning spring air, goldfinches and a northern wheatear are vocalising nearby, looking for a suitable nesting site next to a small country house and several old oak trees. Other birds in the recording: wood pigeons, eurasian cuckoo, willow warbler, crow.

Spring morning soundscape in southern Estonia countryside

From dusk to dawn with two pairs of cranes and one or two single male contenders. In this recording you will hear almost infrasound (80-200 Hz) growls and heavy panting as the males chase each other in the wetland and of course the trumpeting of cranes through the night. An amazing experience to be this close. Huddunge, Uppsala. April 9, 2024.

Mixpre 3ii + Lewitt 440 Pure in ortf

Cranes like you never heard them before!

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Not sure what is the connection between these two Tawny Owls. During previous weeks, couple of young owls wandered into my country house garden from time to time and seemed to be playful. Maybe now they are trying to be more mature but still playing around with their voices? 
Anyway, this is a lovely-sounding duet as they happen to sing in harmony (minor third?).
25. July 2024, Peebu village, southern Estonia.

A little night music by Tawny Owls

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AMB82 Nature Roomtones: Deserts 3

Recording 4222.	Wetland Night (1).	12th May ’24 – 10.51pm.		10m05.	Near School Garden.		440’s & the MixPre3.  At nineteen seconds the distant Common Cranes begin to call.  They stop at 3m27.  Species present are Sedge Warbler, Common Snipe, Corncrake and Spotted Crake, Bittern, Common Sandpiper and Lapwing.  At around 6m35 some birds fly over.  Rated 9.
Sunday the 12th of May 2024. Woke up a bit late, around 3.45am or so, got ready as quickly as I could and went first to the garden and placed the NT4 (Omni capsules) at the old house at the end of the Nature School garden and pointing up at the big trees.  Made my way to the piece of forest where I had been recording the evening chorus along the new road, set up the 8020’s going into the MixPre, 56db gain, I had this recorder going by 4.30am.  Then onto the meadow at the end of the new road, had it recording by 4.47am.  I missed a little of the start but there was no way to always wake up on time, didn’t know why the phone alarm would not work, it was probably only something simple.  The weather was beautiful and calm, quite cold at only 3C, there was a slight frost on the grass when going back to the house.  Nothing to do while the systems record, only stand there keeping away from the mics but keeping watch, being aware of a rogue shower for instance, and maybe if anyone was around, unlikely but good to keep a casual watch.  Back at the house I soon put the recorder out again, this time outside the door (MixPre & 8020’s) as the sounds in the garden were very nice.  Slept for a lot of the morning, later before lunch I got a text from Andrus saying he was around for a lot of the morning but he knew I might be sleeping.  I would not have minded if he knocked on the door, however we met up and talked for quite a while.   The British people staying at the other house were very good and appeared at the door with the bread and something else I wanted from the shop.  After tea I went to the piece of forest along the new road to record the evening chorus.  Had all three recorders out, the MixPre3 with the MKH8020’s, a gain of 65db.  The NT4 and the X8 and finally the Warm Audio 84’s with the DR100.  I wanted to capture the chink-chink calls at dusk of the Blackbird.  Oddly they didn’t do much of it that evening and the bit that I got was mainly distorted.  Back at the house I noticed that the sounds coming from the opposite side of the river were interesting so I set up the Lewitts and the MixPre and let it record for a while, the first minutes are best, this is where the very distant Common Cranes trumpet, the sound reverberating around the area, taking a few seconds to die away completely.

Wetland Night (1) - 12th May 2024 at 10.51pm - Palupohja

Psarocolius montezuma recorded at a nesting colony, near Turrialba, Costa Rica. 5.30am 2nd March 2018. Primo 172 mics AB to SONY PCM-M10
Overall winner of 2019 Competition of Wildlife Sound Recording Society
https://simontelliott.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/some-birds-have-all-the-luck/

Montezuma Oropendola

Spellbound (Acoustic)

A cabinetmaker by trade.  I have been recording birds for over 42 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.

Wetland Night (1) - 12th May 2024 at 10.51pm - Palupohja

Fintan O'Brien

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