Surf Sounds
Recorded at Mattole Beach on the Lost Coast of Northern California.
Microphones: AT3032(x2), head spaced and baffled similar to a Jecklin Disk.


Download option is MP3 320 kbps.

Surf at Mattole Beach, Northern California, 2010

Recorded October 11, 2013 during the Rattlesnake Canyon Back Country Fence Pull with the Oregon Natural Desert Association. Late at night while tent camping a couple of the volunteers heard what they described as a "tree-roosting hyena."

Luckily that night my recording gear caught these sounds from up a hill maybe a third of a mile away.  It sounds to me like a western screech owl - especially the more classic trill call near the end.

This recording was greatly amplified to make the subject sounds audible.  While listening, consider this area was quiet enough I could not hear any ambient background to my naked ear. 

Microphones: two AT3032 spaced about 8 inches, strapped to the trunk of a burnt juniper snag. 
Recorder: Sound Devices 702
Temperature: probably about 38 F. 
Cloud cover: partly cloudy.
Wind: calm  < 3mph
Moon: first quarter

Download as MP3 320 kbps.

Western Screech Owl, 2013-10-11, John Day Basin

A recording from a peace march in Portland in 2003. 
In this clip a musical ensemble marches by while playing When The Saints Go Marching In.

2003-03-15 peace saints

Enjoy this 1 minute excerpt from the 48 minute track: Cliffs Sing of Coyotes
Play or download the full length version at:
http://oregonsoundscapes.com/track/cliffs-sing-of-coyotes

-----------------------------------------------------
Cliffs Sing of Coyotes
Poorwills and Owls at Dawn
Basalt Escarpment and Sagebrush Steppe
September 08, 2013 5:09 am
Lake County, Oregon

Recording and album art by John Hartog.

Track Length: ~ 48 minutes
A live, real-time recording.

Best when listened to on good headphones or good speakers in a quiet setting. Give this recording ten minutes or so to develop as it starts slowly.

These coyote voices were heard only indirectly, as a subtle resonance beneath a massive extent of basalt cliffs - as quiet breaths of natural music.
lyrics
--------------------
Vicinity of Location: Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, Warner Wetlands, Poker Jim Ridge.

Natural Sounds:
Common Poorwills
Great Horned Owls
Pacific Chorus (Tree) Frog
Tree Crickets
Resonance of Air and Land
Ambient Echoes of Distant Coyotes

No obvious anthropogenic (human caused) noise.

Edits:
Amplified with EQ to highlight resonant ambience.

Cliffs Sing of Coyote (excerpt)

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) with the wind. Recorded April 25, 2011, Lake County, Oregon.  The microphones (Shure WL183) were positioned at ground-level, spaced about six feet with the tree trunk in the center.  The juniper was about 15 feet tall and 15 feet wide, and surrounded by sagebrush and bunchgrass.  


Jh-20110425-1202 juniper-wind (12min)

2023-06-29  20:52
on a trail into Sutton Mountain Wilderness Study Area
Wheeler County, Oregon

Mourning doves are singing a beautiful duet, common nighthawks are calling while in flight above and field crickets are chirping among the juniper and bunch grasses. 

The Sutton Mountain Wilderness Study Area has recently been proposed to be a new national monument. Visit the following web address to find out more:  https://onda.org/new-national-monument-proposed-for-sutton-mountain/

Mourning Dove Duet

Recorded in N. Central Oregon near Highway 218 between towns of Clarno and Fossil.
Low frequency sound around 75 Hz
Recurring on and off all morning, for duration's up to an hour. 
Three syllable call repeating approximately every 10 to 20 seconds.
Suspect wild turkey, though I am not finding this call on the web.

20240422_mystery

Recorded Live: 2011-08-21 21:38 PDT
Clatsop County, Oregon
This short, four minute, excerpt features some interesting sounds of North American Beavers (Castor canadensis), chewing, vocalizing, swimming, and tail splashing.
Also available available as a free download in 320kbps mp3, or 16 bit FLAC at <a href="http://oregonsoundscapes.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">oregonsoundscapes.com</a>
The Soundcloud download is 16bit wav.
Copyright 2011 John Hartog, all rights reserved.



Beaver Lake - just after dark

Great Horned Owls and a Western Screech Owl
Recorded within the John Day River Basin, Wheeler County, Oregon February 28, 2009, around 4:00 am.

An unlikely exchange between predator and prey, Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) and a Western Screech-Owl (Otus kennicottii) call during pre-dawn stillness with a background ambience of distant wind though juniper and rugged terrain. 

To make space on my SoundCloud account, the long version was deleted and replaced with this short version.  The 16 minute version of this recording is still available for listening, and as a high quality digital download, and also on the physical CD album Oregon Soundscapes, all available at:  
http://oregonsoundscapes.com

Great Horned Owls and a Western Screech Owl (3min)

Black Oystercatcher - Arch Cape Rocks 
Arch Cape, Clatsop County, Oregon,June 1, 2008, dawn.

Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) call while circling over the rocky shore at low tide.

To make space on my SoundCloud account, the long version was deleted and replaced with this short version. The 12 minute version of this recording is still available for listening, and as a high quality digital download, and also on the physical CD album Oregon Soundscapes, all at:
 http://oregonsoundscapes.com

Previously posted comments:
Rock Scallop 6 months ago @Binaural Brisbane: It was cool, probably around 45 degrees Fahrenheit , on that spring morning at dawn, but actually pretty comfortable since the winds were so calm.
Binaural Brisbane 6 months ago:  Very nice recording, it sounds cold there

Black Oystercatcher - Arch Cape Rocks  (90 sec)

Dawn Awakening - Ochoco Mountains
Recorded in the Ochoco Mountains, Crook County, Oregon, May 20, 2007, around 4:15 am. 

Once the forest voices are tuned, a sweetly singing Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) leads the dawn chorus.  

You may also notice yellow-rumped warbler, dark eyed junco, great horned owl, long-eared or flamulated owl, saw-whet owl, Wiliamson’s or red-breasted sapsucker, red-breasted nuthatch, chipping sparrow, common raven, brown creeper, western tanager, and American robin. However, some of those may have been in another section not included here.

To make space on my SoundCloud account, the long version was deleted and replaced with this short version. The 12 minute version of this recording is still available for listening, and as a high quality digital download, and also on the physical CD album Oregon Soundscapes, all at:
 http://oregonsoundscapes.com

Special thanks to, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart, and Mark Phinney, for help with species identification.

Dawn Awakening - Ochoco Mountains  (3min)

Ocean Mist - Cape Falcon
Recorded along the Pacific Coast Trail over Cape Falcon, Clatsop County, Oregon, December 19 2004, around 8:45 am.

Cloud impaction of coastal fog and mist soaks spruce, fir, and pine until droplets fall from the trees like rain on the ferns and salal below.  A large winter ocean swell brings relaxing deep breath sounds of surf sieved though smoothly rounded gravel. The surf sound is softly distanced by long shear drop to the pocket beach below.

To make space on my SoundCloud account, the long version was deleted and replaced with this short version.  The 12 minute version of this recording is still available for listening, and as a high quality digital download, and also on the physical CD album Oregon Soundscapes, all available at:  
http://oregonsoundscapes.com

Ocean Mist - Cape Falcon (3min)

Beaver Lake  2012-04-22  07:30
Soundscape from a hilltop campsite above the beaver dammed outlet of the lake,  recorded just outside the foot of my tent while I remained quietly still inside.

Animal Species: American robin, Pacific wren, varied thrush, common raven.
Anthronoise: Periodic bursts of distant highway traffic.
Geophysical: Water in nearby cascading stream, soft wind gust though trees.

Weather: Wind calm. 34 degrees Fahrenheit.  

Mic /Array:  Shure MX391 boundary microphones (x2),  mounted parallel, forward facing, spaced 8.5 inches, mounted on a foam ball baffle for quasi-binaural stereo.  Height above ground ~ 30 inches. 

Recorder: Sony PCM-M10

Download as mp3 192.

For personal review only - all rights reserved.

Pacific Wren and Varied thrush near Beaver Lake.

Mystery Sounds: unknown owl vocalizations
South Fork Crooked River, Crook County, Oregon 
May 4 2012, approximately 1 hour after dusk.

Recorded outside the foot of my tent with AT3032 microphones and a SD702 recorder. There are also some rustling and sounds in the vicinity from other campers in our group settling in for the night.  
Edits:  the recording was amplified approximately 12 dB over natural, several car doors and one stomach grumble were edited out.  

If you have a guess which species might make such sounds, please feel free to comment.

My guesses: short-eared owl, long-eared owl, or western screech owl.

John Hartog
rockscallop.org

campsite mystery owls

2012 May 6  06:36 hrs
Recorded just over a hill from our camp along the South Fork Crooked River. Crook County, Oregon.
The dawn bird chorus has settled down a bit, yet the morning is alive with joyful expressions of life.
Meanwhile down in camp most of the Oregon Natural Desert Association volunteer crew, including myself, have not yet awoken - still resting from a good long day of riparian restoration.

Species:
Anyone who can help identify the species and calls, please feel free to comment, and I will add them to this list.

Gray Flycatcher (Empidonax wrightii)
Western Meadowlark
Northern Flicker: drum call
Chipping Sparrow
Common Raven


Equipment: Sound Devices 702 recorder, two Rode NT1A microphones head-spaced,  angled 60 degrees between axes, and separated by a sound absorbing baffle.
Edits: Amplified  20 dB above natural to bring out the nuances of this quiet soundscape, equalized to balance frequencies and to minimize a low frequency tone possibly from a distant motor.

This recording has been featured on the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) website: http://onda.org/blog/sounds-of-oregons-high-desert

Gray Flycatcher, Common Raven,  Northern Flicker, Chipping Sparrow, Western Meadowlark...

I would be delighted if anyone can help identify the birds in this segment.  I am curious in particular about the call that repeats approximately every 9 seconds.  In s spectrogram it appears just below the the main chorus and centered around frequency 1400 Hertz.  As suggested in the comments, sounds as if  it is indeed a mountain quail.
Recorded in Central Oregon near the South Fork Crooked River. Habitat type: semi-arid, Western Juniper woodlands and grassland - and nearby a grassy meadow floodplain with perennial stream.

Hilltop site,  2012-05-06 05:20, bird chorus soundscape

Bumble bees on flowering shrub. Ochoco Mountians, Oregon, 17 May 2008

Jh-080517-1014 sd702-at3032-jckln bombus-sp

Within the John Day River drainage near Clarno, Oregon I recorded this interesting phenomenon on 25 October 2009 where the juniper grove up a desert canyon seamed to concentrate a channel of song bird migration.The recording captures activity happening between two juniper trees. The activity increased steadily during the first hour after sunrise until around 8:00 am when I stopped the recording of my all night session, and these are the final minutes of that recording. The American Robin seemed to be the dominant species, though the overall mix was quite varied.I am guessing this could be an annual occurrence that happens around the same time each year.  Feel free to comment.
Microphones: two Rode Nt1A with a baffle. Recorder: Sound Devices 702.

Jh-20091025-robin-crescendo

This track is made up of six short excerpts from a dawn recording made on the morning of May 7, 2012, along the shore of South Fork Crooked River in Crook County, Oregon.  

Excerpt 01 - 4:15 a.m. Flowing water and a sparrow call. (Anyone know this species?)
Excerpt 02 - 4:33 a.m.  Dawn chorus begins with American Robins (A couple folks have suggested they were not tanagers as I had previously thought.)
Excerpt 03 - 5:03 a.m. A creature wades in the water.  
Excerpt 04 - 5:14 a.m Red-winged Blackbirds (What else do you hear in there?)
Excerpt 05 - 5:48 a.m. Canada Geese 
Excerpt 06 - 6:11 a.m.  (any takers?)

Listen for:
Red-winged blackbird
Brewers blackbird
Canada goose
Mallard duck
Chipping sparrow
Western meadowlark
Great-horned owl
Mountain quail
...and many more delightful expressions of nature.

Location: Crook County, Oregon, USA
Weather: calm and clear
Temperature: ≈ 30° F (-1° C)
Microphones: Audio Technical AT3032 (x2)
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10
Original Format: PCM 44.1 kHz, 24 bit, Stereo
Edits: Equalized to reduce recording gear hiss above 7000 Hz, wind rumble below 40 Hz, and an unidentified hum at 45 Hz.
Anthropogenic noise: Some sounds from distant cattle, introduced animal species, and possibly distant road or air traffic

A full two hours, real-time, from this recording can be played or downloaded at oregonsoundscapes.com on the titles Streamside Dawn and Streamside Morning Light.

Streamside Dawn, covering time of day 04:12 to 05:12:
http://oregonsoundscapes.com/track/streamside-dawn-south-fork-crooked-river-2012-05-07-04-12

Streamside Morning Light, covering time of day 05:12 to 06:12:
http://oregonsoundscapes.com/track/streamside-morning-light-south-fork-crooked-river-2012-05-07-05-12

Please take a moment to leave comments and opinions on species identifications.

Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved.

John Hartog
Natural Soundscape Recording
Portland, Oregon USA
rockscallop.org
oregonsoundscapes.com
A tribute to the world's vanishing quiet places.

Excerpts from new titles Streamside Dawn and Streamside Morning Light

Presumably western screech owls. 
Recorded October 25, 2000, late night.
9 second section from two minutes of owl dialog
The cover art is somewhat cropped for the wider view visit:
http://rockscallop.org/images/jh-20091025_spectral.jpg

For more information and a longer recording visit:
http://rockscallop.org/ear/jh_200901025_wheeler-county.html

Presumably Western Sceech Owls - 9seconds

Recorded from the berm of cobbles against the beach at Arch Cape, Oregon, 30 November 2008.  I boosted it several dB around 220Hz to enhance breathy roar of the mighty Pacific.  The photo was taken 23 August 2009very near that same location.


jh-081130-Arch-Cape-Surf

Northern Mockingbird recorded May 10, 2013 at Peters Creek Campground northeast of Christmas Valley in Central Oregon. 
Other bird sounds such as western meadowlark, common nighthawk, and brewers blackbird may be heard.
Includes some anthropogenic sounds from a sprinkler, a panting while passing by dog, people talking, and posibly the recordist's feet shuffling.  

Sound recording by John Hartog.
Photo of the actual bird by Deb Espesete.


Northern Mockingbird near Christmas Valley, Oregon.

Thank you to those who helped identify this bird song as Black-throated Sparrow.
Singing in the sage around dawn.

Recorded by John Hartog, May 11 2013 
Lake County near Warner Wetlands in Eastern Oregon.

Other species heard:
Common Poorwill
Spring Field Cricket
Western Meadowlark 

Tech Notes
Temperature: around 50 F.
Wind: Calm with occasional light gusts.
Recorder: Sound Devices 702
Microphones: Rode Nt1A (x2) baffled stereo.
Edits: Some spatial and frequency EQ applied; amplified above natural.

Cover image by John Hartog

Copyright John Hartog 2013 all rights reserved.

Black-throated Sparrow, Warner Valley, Oregon

Based in Portland, Oregon, John Hartog travels throughout the Pacific Northwest to record natural sound.



John Hartog

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