Name: Common Whitethroat in song at Sandemar Reserve by Wild Bird Acoustics
Duration: 7 min 50 s
Description: A long recording of a Common Whitethroat in song on a windy morning at Sandemar Reserve, Sweden. A nice ambience here from the wind through vegetation, whilst a Skylark sings in the background. Recorded with a Tascam FR-AV2 and matched pair of Sennheiser 8020 microphones.

Recorded at: Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park, NT
Date/time: 20 August 1990, 8am
Environment: Desert, rock outcrops, freshwater pools
Description: A lone male dingo began calling near my camp.  Birds in the background include Horsfield Bronze-Cuckoo, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Singing Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Galah, dotterel, Crested Bellbird, Grey Shrike-thrush

NFSA title No. 1221379
Track No. 22

These sounds were gathered by Vicki Powys during a three month recording and painting expedition to Northern Australia in the winter of 1990. This collection includes highlights such as the shrieks of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo soaring overhead and the close calls of a lone Dingo which - at the time - was identified by internationally respected wildlife communities both in Australia and abroad, as the only known recording of such.

"I had recently bought a small four-wheel-drive car and a tent and had set off with a twofold purpose - to explore the landscape for painting and to record wildlife sounds. The sounds would later evoke the places every bit as much as my sketches and photographs. My recording gear was fairly basic, using a compact cassette (Sony WMD6C), with two ‘tie-pin’ microphones in a quasi-binaural setup for stereo sounds. Despite the limitations of the equipment, the sounds are still very evocative for me, of those times and places. The dingo that I recorded at Palm Valley (Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory) was later hailed by the British Library of Wildlife Sounds as ‘the only known recording of a lone dingo howling, in the wild’." Vicki Powys, 2014.

Information on the database of Vicki Powys' wildlife recording work (to-date)is available via the NFSA website at
www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/search-collection

General Note: Vicki Powys has been recording and writing about bird song since the 1980's. Her recording expertise includes developing stereo configurations specifically for wildlife recording based on the SASS (Stereo Ambient Sampling System) design. Vicki is also a key member of the AWSRG (Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group).

You can find out more about her at
www.caperteebirder.com

Vicki Powys - Dingo

Midwife Toads Dusk Chorus

Corn Bunting is a very common bird on the continent but a very rare breeding bird in Sweden. Its numbers have gone up during the last 10 years or so and it breeds in Scania, Halland and Öland. Photo: Hans Norelius

Peppinge, Scania. May 12, 2025
Mixpre 3ii + Wildtronics stereoparabolic dish

A rare sparrow with a simple song

Quite an anonymous songster in the reedbeds. During the last couple of years it seems as its population in southern Sweden has decreased for some reason.

Silvåkra, Scania. May 12, 2025
Mixpre 3ii + Wildtronics stereoparabolic dish 

Reed Warbler close up

I spent an entire morning trying to record the Golden Oriole but it proved very difficult. Always on the move. When it finally came close it only uttered its quite harsh warning (?) call.

Vombs furu, Scania. May 12, 2025
Mixpre 3ii + Wildtronics stereoparabolic dish

The elusive Golden Oriole

A long recording of a Common Whitethroat in song on a windy morning at Sandemar Reserve, Sweden. A nice ambience here from the wind through vegetation, whilst a Skylark sings in the background. Recorded with a Tascam FR-AV2 and matched pair of Sennheiser 8020 microphones.

Common Whitethroat in song at Sandemar Reserve

We have found four nests of Great Grey Owls within a few km of each other. To monitor the nest success I put up a droprig recorder about 500 m from one of the nests. It starts out slowly at midnight, a Woodcock flies by several times and a Great Grey Owl utters a warning call for unknown reason. But then the pre-dawn chorus took me by surprise. Such volume, such rich repertoire. Here you will hear Nightjar, Wood Lark, Red-backed Shrike, Black Grouse, Cranes, Whooper Swans, several species of thrushes and warblers, many of the forest tits. etc. Enjoy!

Uppsala. May 29, 2025.
Clippy EM272 as tree ears + Zoom F3

Boreal mire dawn chorus

Curlew has almost vanished as a breeding bird in Uppland but still a few pair linger on in boreal forest mires. I have for a long time wanted to record this disappearing song. This morning I was lucky!

Svinasjön, Uppland. June 8, 2025.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM 272 as tree ears

The most beautiful song of all - Curlew over the mire

I was out kayaking in Lake Tämnaren when I spotted a calling Bittern very close in a canal. Often when you hear a Bittern close up you hear the "inhalation" but I never before heard the ticking noise preceding the inhalation. I wonder if this is something all bitterns do before calling to increase the pressure!? In the background you hear Black Terns, probably the largest colony in all of Scandinavia with about 100 pairs.

Sörsjön, Tämnaren. June 8, 2025.
AudioTechnica BP4025 + Tascam FRAV2

Bittern calling 5 m away from the microphone

Purchase the album and support my work at https://melissapons.bandcamp.com/album/nocturnal-sounds-of-the-atlantic-forest

Nocturnal Sounds of the Atlantic Forest - twilight

For details : www.loiseauson.com/en/beaver01/
Pour détails : www.loiseauson.com/castor01/

Beaver & Common Loons - Castor & Plongeons huards

Irish field recordist, now residing in Sweden. I have a deep interest and background in birding, which is reflected in my sound recordings. Follow my podcast, Wild Bird Acoustics, on all podcast providers!

Common Whitethroat in song at Sandemar Reserve

Wild Bird Acoustics

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