12 August 2021

Had a couple of microphones deployed for passive monitoring of diurnal bird activity in a forest area not far from where I live.  One night the mics captured a moose with calf approaching. They walked  by at some distance when they for unknown reason turned around and passed by very close. Had it not been for the tree ”ear” placement, I fear the mics could have been completely trashed. Moose not just sound big, they are big in real life. 

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

Primo-EM172s

Moose coming almost too close

29 Aug 2021

Two Whooper Swans talking at midnight during a nonattended diurnal recording session at the Gulf of Bothnia

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

Primo-EM172s

Trumpet fanfare Whooper Swan

4 Sep 2022

Last year I captured calls from two chatting adult Whooper Swans at the Bothnian coast. This year they were accompanied by two juveniles. One night the conversation between the swans was intense, it almost felt listening to a concerto.  

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

Primo-EM172s

03_06.14

Whooper Swan concerto

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

18 May 2024

Rustic Bunting breeds in swamp forests in the northern Palearctic boreal region. It is a long-distance migrant with Fennoscandian birds overwintering in eastern Asia. There has been a strong range-wide population decline in RB and it has been classified as globally threatened. In recent years there are hopeful signs of a stabilization in population numbers, at least locally. 

Rustic Bunting is one of my favourite birds, and I have spent many hours searching them home and abroad. The best time to find them is in May upon arrival when they are most actively singing. One should preferrably listen in the early morning hours, even before sunrise. I compiled a sequel of sound clips recorded during the same morning in an attempt to capture the Rustic Bunting soundscape.

Clip #1 Setting the scene. Early morning hour and still pretty dark and damp in the swamp forest. Mics placed as tree ears close to a calmly floating creek. RB has been singing since sunrise and is now joined by Eurasian Siskin, Song and Mistle Thrush and Cuckoo. #2 Closing in, thirty minutes later. The singing choir has multiplied, and one can now also hear Redwing, Willow Warbler, Black Woodpecker, Brambling and Common Redstart. #3 Close range. The singing RB male exposes its rusty coloured breast, perched high in a birch with a displaying Wood Sandpiper in the background. Stereo-mounted mics in a parabolic dish.

Botsmark, Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (64.26 N, 20.14 E)

_00.15

Rustic Bunting – the gem of boreal swamp forests

Soundscape from the small, abandoned Mirnoye village located at the eastern bank of the Yenisei River, Central Siberia, early June 2017. An intensive choir of mostly newly arrived migratory birds fill up the acoustic space. Species heard include Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Common Rosefinch, Lanceolated Warbler, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Tree Pipit, Black Woodpecker, Common Cuckoo, Oriental Cuckoo, White's Thrush, Fieldfare.

Recorded with a Sony PCM-M10 recorder, stereo-mounted Primo EM172 capsules  in a parabolic dish.

Siberian Soundscape 1

Soundscape from the dark coniferous taiga at the eastern bank of the Yenisei River, south of Mirnoye, Central Siberia, early June 2017. A choir of birds including Siberian specialists such as the Yellow-browed Warbler (the high pitched whistling sound), White's Thrush, Siberian Blue Robin, Oriental Cuckoo, Red-flanked Bluetail among others can be heard. A distant Black Woodpecker working on a tree trunk can also be heard.

Recorded with a Sony PCM-M10 recorder, stereo-mounted Primo EM172 capsules in a parabolic dish. Level 7, high gain setting on the recorder, 6 dB amplification in post.

Siberian Soundscape 2

Did an experiment placing two stereo-mounted Primo EM172 capsules on the opposite sides of a tree trunk, connected to a Sony PCM M-10 recorder to capture the sound of Arctic Loon at a lake side not far from my home during a night with very little wind. Gain was set to high, level 5. 

I got almost ten hours of continuous recording. It was interesting and a bit saddening to learn how the strong the noise from human activity was even in the middle of the night. Airplanes were flying over, and in the first part one can clearly hear the voices of a party at a firewood some km:s away. The wind picked up from 3 AM and out competed the sound of the loons.

I like the Primo capsules a lot, but in almost complete silent environments like this they fall short in terms of noise. But upgrading to something better will cost a lot more money…

I compiled two sessions of loon sounds in this track. A +8 dB noise reduction, 6 dB amplification and a 100 Hz high pass filter were applied in post.

Loon night

Nocturnal bird sounds from the western bank of the Yenisei river at the small village of Mirnoye, Central Siberia, early June 2017. The commercial boat traffic on river Yenisei is quite extensive, and the rumbling sounds from the boats is far reaching. 

(Earlier file was mistakenly deleted)

Siberian Soundscape 3

13 October 2017

A misty, wet and calm day in an old forest reserve searching for Siberian Jay and Capercaille, but with little success. Ravens were active, calling and flying around. I stopped recording when the wind started to pick up and the rain began.

SD MixPre-3 with stereo-matched Sennheiser MKH8020s mounted on opposite sides of a tree trunk

Into the old-growth forest – Ravens in the mist

23 March 2018
Overnight recording in pursuit of Ural Owl which I had heard calling at the site one week earlier. Not so this calm but cold (-15C) night. My eleven hour long session produced calls from distant Boreal Owl and Red Fox. Tree stems cracked throughout the night in the low temperatures. The most interesting session acoustically, occurred during dawn when Great and Willow Tit began singing. Drumming woodpeckers and Ravens were present, and one can hear the fluttering wings of a Hazel Grouse flying by. I was surprised to hear the calls from two over-flying Two-barred Crossbills listening through the files back home (not in this file).

SD MixPre-3 with stereo-matched Sennheiser MKH8020s mounted on opposite sides of a tree trunk

Forest dawn with cracking wood

8 April 2018

A long, cold and snowy winter is finally coming to an end. Just after dawn during a nocturnal unattended sound recording in an old forest. Black grouse is on the leks, and the voices of overflying Whooper swans can be heard. Chaffinches are migrating, and the local Willow tits have begun singing. Black and Great Spotted woodpeckers are drumming, but Ravens steal she show acoustically. Feels good to be alive.

Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (63.56 N, 20.20 E)

SD MixPre-3 with stereo-matched Sennheiser MKH8020s attached to a tree trunk. Amplified 6 dB, 100 Hz low cut filter in post.

Into the old-growth forest – spring advancing, woodpeckers and Raven come alive

11 June 2018

At midnight silence prevails in the old taiga forest between Europe and Asia. Only a couple of duelling White's Thrushes are heard in the calm night.

Eastern foothill of the northern Ural Mountains, Russia (60.07N/59.63E).

SD MixPre-3, Primos

Nocturnal song of the White's Thrush

12 June 2018

While the summer nights in the taiga is the realm of the White’s Thrush, the dawn is owned by other songbirds. In the intense and diverse choir of bird voices in the early morning hour one might identify Red-flanked Bluetail, Garden, Blyth’s Reed, Willow, Arctic and Greenish warbler, Oriental Cuckoo, Black Woodpecker, Willow and Coal Tit, and Olive-backed Pipit. 

Eastern foothill of the northern Ural Mountains, Russia (60.07N/59.63E)

SD MixPre-3, Primos

Dawn choir, Northern Ural Mountains

3 January 2019

I spent a morning at a baiting site in pursuit of recording calls from White-tailed and/or Golden Eagle in northern Sweden. Three different Grey-headed Woodpeckers frequented the site, spending most of their time working on pieces of pig tallow nailed to tree trunks in the surroundings. A piece of tallow was attached to a pine stem at which I had placed my microphones.  One can hear a woodpecker fly in and land, working its way up the trunk towards the mic. The woodpecker came very close, but I guess it decided that the metallic surface of the mic made it bad food. At 05:58 a cracking tree trunk scares the woodpecker. Northern Ravens can be heard calling and flying around. 

Robertsfors commune, Västerbotten County (64.06N/20.30E)

Sennheiser MKH 8020s, Sound Devices MixPre-3 recorder, gain setting +55dB, 80 Hz low cut filter, no post-processing

Grey-headed Woodpecker working a tree trunk

21 February  2019

Another day spent at a baiting site for eagles in northern Sweden. Woodpeckers abounded this morning, with at least two Great Spotted Woodpeckers (GSW) and three Grey-headed Woodpeckers (GHW) visiting the site. The woodpeckers worked pieces of pig tallow nailed to tree trunks surrounding the baiting site throughout the morning hours. GSW can be distinguished from GHW by its higher pecking frequency. Calls from a distant Black Woodpecker can be heard in the beginning of the recording. Northern Ravens flew around and called intermittently. Other visitors at the site included Magpie, Hooded Crow, Great, Blue and Willow Tits. 

Robertsfors commune, Västerbotten County (64.06N/20.30E)

Sennheiser MKH 8020s, Sound Devices MixPre-3 recorder, gain setting +57dB, 80 Hz low cut filter, no post-processing

20190221_SD1

Woodpecker bonanza

11 April  2019

Spent a couple of nights in an old-growth forest reserve close the Scandinavian mountain chain in pursuit of collecting sounds from Grey-headed Chikadee and Siberian Jay. The weather was perfect for recording ambiences, with no wind, clear skies and decent day temperatures. During the nocturnal sessions, when the temperature dropped to -20 degrees C, I recorded inflying and displaying Willow Ptarmigans in the pre-dawn hours. When gliding through the air the ptarmigans produce a whistling sound barely noticeable in more noisy environments. The recording was edited by shortening the intervals between the incoming birds. I was fortunate to also record the seldom heard song of GHC and Siberian Jay during daytime. These tracks can be found on my Xeno-canto.org account. 

Juktådalen, Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve, Västerbotten County (65.42N/16.27E)

Sennheiser MKH 8020s, Sound Devices MixPre-3 recorder, gain setting +61 dB, 80 Hz low cut filter

Incoming Willow Ptarmigans

18 April 2019

Put up a couple of microphones in a forest patch surrounded by younger forest overnight. The dark hours were very quiet, but the dawn chorus of birds was quite impressive. In the rich repertoire of voices one might identify Common Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Great Spotted & Black Woodpecker, Great & Coal Tit, Yellowhammer, Common Chaffinch, Dunnock, Bullfinch, Siskin, European Robin, Eurasian Wren, Raven, Common Crane, and Whooper Swan. The bubbling song of Black Grouse and wing flapping from Common Wood Pigeons are prominent, but the star of the show is the Hazel Grouse. First the high pitched whistling call is heard; later a couple of birds fly in and start interacting on the ground close to the microphones.

Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (64.04 N / 20.05 E)

Sennheiser MKH 8020s, Sound Devices MixPre-3 recorder, gain setting +62 dB, 80 Hz low cut filter, +6dB in post. I did some selective cuttings in the track to reduce noise pollution from car traffic and forest cutting machines.

Close encounter with Hazel Grouse

4 July 2019

I placed a couple of microphones overnight in a forest stand in an attempt to capture sounds from a nearby Northern Goshawk nest. The wind was picking up during the first hours of the unattended recording session. Insect activity was high in the warm weather, with hoverflies flying around. I had the microphones configurated in an AB 40 cm setting. For at least 20 minutes a hoverfly used the two microphone heads as alternative resting sites.

Lake Brånsjön, Västerbotten County (63.52 N / 19.50 E)

Sennheiser MKH 8020s, Sound Devices MixPre-3 recorder

Hoverfly interference

4 May 2020

Had microphones (droprigs)placed at the fringe of a wide reed bed in pursuit of calls from Western Marsh Harrier. One late evening a Roebuck passed close by, acoustically making his presence known to the males and females in the area.

Skärjavan, Nordmaling, N Sweden (63.50 N,  19.42 E)

Primos & Zoom H1; file normalized to -3dB, 150 Hz/6 dB low cut filter in post

Agitated Roebuck passing by

30 May 2020

Had a couple of microphones hidden close to a small pond in a forest-wetland area for a prolonged recording session with the aim to capture sounds from shorebirds and ducks. One night a predator, most likely a Red Fox, came close and sniffed out the microphones, accompanied by the alarm calls from breeding Common Greenshanks. 

Malå commune, Northern Sweden (65.17 N, 18.74 E)

Primos & Zoom H1; +6 dB, 150 Hz/6 dB low cut filter in post

Sniffed out by a Fox

30 June 2020

During an unattended nocturnal recording session in a patch of old-growth forest a rain and thunder weather passed over during late evening hours. Birds stopped singing except for a Common Chiffchaff which actually seemed triggered by the rain and thunder.

Vindeln commune, Northern Sweden (64.11 N, 19.44 E)

Primos, +6 dB, 150 Hz/6 dB low cut filter in post

Chiffchaff singing in rain and thunder

15 Sep 2020

I decided to put up a couple of "droprigs" overnight along a small stream near my home in an attempt to record calls from Common Kingsfisher, a rare vagrant here in the north where I live. Listening to the sound files back home I hear lots of fish jumping, and suddenly the chittering sound from Eurasian Otters (Lutra lutra) passing close by the microphones during fishing. One can hear the calls and the breathing after diving. Good to learn that otters thrive in this beatiful stream.

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

Primo-EM172s

Lars Edenius

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