This storm induced nocturnal chorus was recorded near midnight at Deal Island WMA, Somerset County, Maryland. There are Green Treefrogs and Southern Leopard Frogs calling in the foreground. Additionally, there are several species of singing insects; Greater Anglewing, Slightly Musical Conehead Katydid, Black-legged Meadow Katydid, Saltmarsh Meadow Katydid and several species of tree crickets. There was a lot of vehicular traffic that threatened to ruin the recording session. It finally settled down around 11:30 PM, thankfully.

Frog and Insect Chorus

Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) (Gråtrut) doesn't like my presence close to a lake in the middle of the forrest. You can also hear a Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)(Drillsnäppa), Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)(Gök) among others.
It was a calm and early morning just after some rain.

A forrest lake with Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)

Wolves hunt down and kill their prey. A Wild boar in this case. You can also hear Red Deer.
(Vargar jagar vildsvin och dödar ett av dom).

Here is the story before the recording starts.

I was out photographing/recording. It was late, but the full moon helped lighting up my surroundings. I had the recorder in rec/pause and my headphones on, so all sounds around me was amplified like I usually have. Since I was trying to photograph animals. I was camouflaged. I rarely use a hide. Suddenly I heard that the ducks, lapwings and other birds to the left of me, flew up in the air worried about something. I looked in that direction with my binocular and then I saw two wolves coming in my direction. They were about 200m from me. The female (smaller) was about 50m ahead of the male. She stopped when she was about 40m from me a little to the left. She probably “sensed” that I was there… She sat down and looked around. The male wolf came straight at me since he was to the right of the female from my view. He stopped at about 30m from me. He stared at me or in my direction for 5 minutes… I was leaning to the left in a not so comfort position so I said to myself, please go now… my back hurts, but he didn’t. Instead, he lay down in the grass… and he continued staring at me (or my not camouflaged mic). I was completely still and after a few minutes he started to look around instead. The female passed him and lay down further away to the right of me. After 10-15 minutes he joined her. They changed positions a few times and seemed to be in no hurry. Then the female started to target a red deer bull. She crawled on her stomach closer and closer. The male followed about 30m behind her. She got closer and closer and when she had about 50m left to the red deer she got in to full attack. The male wolf followed and they both attacked the red deer bull. The deer defended himself really well with his big horns. He attacked the wolves so they had to back off a few times. The wolves continued their attack from two directions for a while, but then they gave up and lay down in the grass. After a while they tried again, but the deer still defended himself really well. He didn’t make the mistake to try and run. They gave up again and the walked away to the edge of the field and lay down just inside the forest. After about 20 minutes I heard a familiar sound. Wild boar heard was incoming…

Here my posted recording at soundcloud starts, since there was just breathing sounds and sounds when wolves and deer move in the grass previously, so not much to listen to.

Wolves' wild boar hunting (Canis lupus lupus)

Distant thunder rolls in the background while cicadas make a racket in the summer sunshine.  Redeyes (Psaltoda moerens) give buzzing & yodelling calls and Southern Black Squeakers (Pauropsalta encaustica sp.) give persistent dee-dee-dit calls.  The storms later brought heavy hail to areas 60 km to the south.
Capertee Valley, NSW, Australia, 13 February 2012, 3.54 pm, 27 degrees C, 26% humidity, dry woodland habitat.  MKH8020s in DIY SASS to Sound Devices 702 recorder, volume 57.2.

834 CICADAS & THUNDER 130212

Raven in Vermont

All around the pond, dry leaves on the ground are rustling. Slight movements reveal frogs making a slow progress towards the pond, where hundreds of their conspecifics already are establishing themselves. These are common frogs, Rana temporaria, emerging from damp places where they have spent the winter. During most of the year, frogs do anything to stay hidden from predators. Their appareance make for a great camouflage and their habits equally so … apart from their behaviour at the pond. Some males cannot wait until reaching the pond before making a stop and start croaking in the direction of the pond. If the rest of the frog’s year is characterized by silence and stealth, they now try to make as great an impression as frogly possible, croaking their hearts out in order to impress upon a female. 

This recording is made above water and you will hear the massive chorus mixed with the splashes of moving frogs.

Vår i grodpölen / Spring in the frog pond

Several fire-bellied toads calling at the edge of fishponds in Poland (also marsh frogs and great reed warbler nearby). 8:30pm 5th june 2004. My favourite amphibian music.

Fire-bellied Toads in Poland

A new source of anthronoise against our increasingly rare natural soundscapes?
I know what it sounds like - one of those tiny UFOs thought to be in league with the Sasquatch humanoid army.   It is more likely, however, an aerial drone sneaked out under the radar on  on this super moon night to buzz unsuspecting cattle out on the public range. 

What? Fellow sound recordist Curt Olson believes it is ducks flying over.   This would not be the first time I have been fooled by a nature sounds sounding artificial - humming birds like Harleys, or buzzing insects like a drone of highway engine noise.

Mics: AT3032 in SASS style baffled boundary array.
Recorder: Sony PCM-M10
Post processing: none.

Jh-120506-0123 ufo m10-3032

3 minute audio sample from the 70 minute nature sound album; "The Monarchs of Tetepare", available for download from http://www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=109

The white-capped Monarch is a small bird of the flycatcher family, found only on a few islands in the central Solomon Islands. At 4.20 am, on the rainforested island of Tetepare, they begin their hauntingly beautiful predawn singing.

Each bird gives a series of single, pure-note whistles - hesitant and slightly tremulous. At first only one or two birds call, ethereal and hypnotic in the night. The magic develops as more birds join in, each bird singing its own pure note, together making an organic music; a kind of elfin choir in the forest.

A chorus of nocturnal insects call softly, along with wildlife characteristic of these Pacific islands; eyelash frogs, 'kissing' bats, megapodes, white-eyes and koels. The sound of waves breaking carries faintly from the distant reef.

This album is a single continuous recording, presenting a natural phenomenon only heard occasionally and in this unique part of the world.

------

Andrew comments:

There are times in our field recording when we come across something utterly unexpected and wonderful. This was one of those occasions.

The amazing thing for me in hearing these birds was the realisation that together they were singing in a musical scale; to be precise a minor scale. To hear this 'musicality' in nature was uncanny, and I was just fascinated, amazed that these birds were doing this. 

Read more about this here: http://www.listeningearth.com/blog/music-of-the-birds-the-whistling-monarchs-of-tetepare-island

'The Monarchs of Tetepare' - Album Sample

Kubah's forests are pulsing with life, and the soundscapes that can be heard in this national Park are among the most incredible I have ever experienced. This recording features the incredibly powerful sounds of Empress cicadas, along with the melodic song of the White-rumped Shama, and the rhythmic ' te-hoop 'calls of Golden-whiskered Barbets.

This sample is an excerpt of the track "Dusk Rhythms" from the album Rhythm of Kubah - https://wildambience.com/albums/rhythm-of-kubah/

Dusk - Empress Cicadas & White-rumped Shama

Dusk - Empress Cicadas & White-rumped Shama - Recorded in Borneo's rainforest

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


Jh-120506-0123 ufo m10-3032

John Hartog

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