dawn chorus

nature sounds

An ongoing compilation of dawn recordings made in South Australia, excluding those dawn recordings made at Deep Creek Conservation Park, which are being compiled together here: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/sets/dawns-of-deep-creek-a-seasonal-study.

Dawns of South Australia

今年の夏は暑い！少しでも涼を感じて頂ければ幸いです。

150803_0002S3

We can feel cool atmosphere when we hear this cicada's chirp.
Recorded at Higashi Awakura Town in Okayama

Higurashi Cicada

Chirping of Insects in Autumn

IDCD 2016 

Not the best conditions for recording the dawn chorus. The rain began a little after 2am and didn't let up. The microphones were placed low to the forest floor, which essentially close-mic'ed the raindrops hitting the leaf mast. Koa leaves lie almost completely flat, so rain drops sound like they're hitting cardboard.

Dawn Chorus 2016 Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve

Dawn Chorus Roodee Mere Wirral UK

160531_0021S34.mp3

TASCAM DR-44WL

Kajika Frogs and River Stream

A feature length recording of the dawn chorus in May!

Location:  The farm, near Sandwich, Kent
Date:  22nd May 2017 
Time:  03:45
Recorder:  Sound Devices 744T
Microphones:  2x DPA4060s

Dawn Chorus On The Farm

Morgenstimmung in der Zeit von 5:00 bis 7:00 Uhr.
Aufgenommen im Müritz-Nationalpark am 29.04.2017.

Technik: Neumann KU81i Kunstkopf an Sound Devices 722 Rekorder.

Atmo - Morgenstimmung / Dawn Chorus Müritz Nationalpark (Binaural Stereo)

The dawn calls of Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) in a suburban area on a Sunday morning. This is the closing phase of their chorus, which lasted for almost half an hour, from the first to the last call. Noisy Miners are very common in this area, but this kind of intense, insistent, and somewhat monotonous (but nevertheless interesting) dawn calling is a fairly recent phenomenon; perhaps it's seasonal (Spring). It quite overwhelms the more familiar relaxed dawn warbling of the Australian Magpies.

Recorded with  a pair of MKH 8020/8040 Straus-Pakets in AB array with 50 cm spacing into a MixPre-6.(Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on land of the Kaurna people that is now a suburban residential area.

Photo credit: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

2019.10.27 Noisy Miner Dawn. Spring.

Brecklands dawn chorus

After recording https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20191102-eucalypt-forest-spring-late-afternoon-avian-improvisations-over-bronzewing-ostinati, became very curious about what this place would be and sound like at first light. Made a first recording with a PCM-D100 on 9.11.19 (might upload that later); and then this one, one week later, on 16.11.19, with a pair of MKH 8040s in NOS array into a MixPre-6-II. (Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on land of the Kaurna people that is now a Conservation Park.

2019.11.16 Eucalypt Forest. Late Spring. Dawn. With Bronzewings.

After making a short morning recording at this Stringybark forest in Deep Creek Conservation Park while passing through (https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20191124-stringybark-forest-morning-late-spring-early-summer-with-black-cockatoos), I returned again two weeks later to make another much longer recording, from before first light till after sunrise. The sulphur-crested cockatoos made their appearance about half an hour before sunrise, and their performance continued for almost an  hour and a half. This short clip begins just a few minutes after sunrise. 

Recorded just after 6 am (ACDT) with a pair of MKH 8020s in AB array with 50 cm spacing into a MixPre-6-II. (Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on land of the Kaurna people that is now a Conservation Park.

2019.12.07 Stringybark Forest. Sunrise. Early Summer. With Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos.

On Friday 20th December 2019, a day classified with a bushfire danger rating of 'Catastrophic', with temperatures in the 40s C and strong winds blowing, a bushfire broke out at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills, and raced south-eastwards through plantation pine forests, native eucalypt forests, and farmland. It burned for several days. At latest count, 86 homes were destroyed, and one person died in the fire.

The passing bushfire grazed the edges of the Cudlee Creek Native Forest Reserve, which was otherwise thankfully spared. Having intended for some time to make a dawn recording there, I decided to do so on Christmas morning. There were still a few small fires burning in other parts of the extended bushfire zone, and there was some risk of morning winds fanning new fires in those areas; however, the main danger in this area was falling burnt-out trees. I made a daylight reconnaissance of the Reserve on Christmas Eve, and talked with a CFS (Country Fire Service) volunteer whom I met doing his patrol. I chose a location, and returned before first light on Christmas Day to make this recording.

It was very windy (partial damage to adjoining pine forest exacerbated the windy conditions: the intact pine forest would otherwise have greatly dampened the wind), and the position I'd chosen for the microphones was completely exposed to the wind. So, the calls of the birds are mostly tenuous and faint. But that seemed metaphorically appropriate, given the context.

If one listens carefully, one can hear a difference between wind noise made by the gum forest and, occasionally, that made by a stand of old undamaged pine trees not far from where I was recording, due to the differences in the sizes and shapes of their leaves. The low frequency rumbling noise is the sound of the engines of CFS firefighting vehicles patrolling the fire tracks throughout the area. 

I am extremely grateful to the CFS volunteers and local police officers who granted me a couple of hours to attempt this recording. I hope to return at dawn again, in a cooler and wetter season.

Recorded with a pair of MKH 8020/8040 Straus-Pakets in NOS array into a MixPre-6-II. No processing. (Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on the land of the Kaurna people that is now partly Native Forest Reserve, and partly State Forestry native eucalypt and radiata pine plantation.

2019.12.25 Native Forest Reserve. Dawn. Christmas Day. Bushfire's Edge.

First Light has broken, but the birds haven't woken. It really does sound as if raucous Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo is doing the rounds of the valley, determined to wake everyone up and get them singing. Very, very gradually, as if reluctant to wake up and get to work, the birds and insects begin their calls and songs, and start hunting for breakfast...

This is the final section of a recording made from around 3 am to 6:30 am with a pair of MKH 8020/8040 Straus-Pakets in AB array with 62 cm spacing into a MixPre-6-II. (Best listened to with good quality headphones with a flat frequency response.)

Recorded on land of the Kaurna people that is now a Conservation Park.

2019.12.29 Eucalypt Forest. First Light. Early Summer.

Spring. A Local Dawn.

2020.10.05 A Local Dawn. Spring.

𝔈𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔫 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱, 𝔞 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔇𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔅𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤.

2020.10.05 A Local Dawn. Spring.

𝕳𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕭𝖊𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘