This extract is from recordings made on the uplands above Mounthooley Bunkhouse in College Valley, Northumberland on the English/Scottish Border. A fairly heavy shower was blowing through. I sat hunched over the recorder, protecting it from the worst of the rain, when through the pitter patter in my headphones I heard a call I didn't recognise. Lifting my head slightly I peered through the rain to see a female ring ouzel land on the rocks near to my microphone. It spent a few minutes in the vicinity before departing. Meadow pipit, then skylark add their song to the sound of the departing shower.
9th May 2015, College Valley, Northumberland. Recorded with a pair of DPA4060s in a Rycote Windscreen with Windjammer (rain protection!) to a Sound Devices 702.

College Valley (extract) - Ring Ouzel

After a search spanning three counties, we found ourselves approaching Minsmere along a winding lane, windows down on the camper, ears straining for the elusive sound of our quarry. Then, through the white noise of the swirling breeze passing through the fresh-leaved hedgerow we heard the song we sought.
Parking up we grabbed our microphones and tiptoed closer, along the tarmac lane to the thicket this nightingale had chosen to sing his song.
We set-up silently and settled in, slipping into an almost mystical reverie as we listened - liquid notes flowing as a constant and delicate stream out into the night.
Common Nightingale, near Minsmere, Suffolk, UK, 16th May 2017
Schoeps CCM 4Lg and CCM8Lg, M/S to Sound Devices 633.

Nightingale Minsmere 5m52secs 160517 STEREO

Turtle Dove - Streptopelia turtur
Taking it's english name from the latin, and that from it's call, the purring call of the Turtle Dove is a rare sound in the english landscape of today. Diminishing habitat, both in summer and winter and the persecution of mediterranean hunters on migration, mean that the turtle dove may soon disappear from our shores.
Telinga Pro8 MkII omni & cardoid mixed to mono - some EQ
4.45am 27/5/2017 Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire UK

Turtle Dove Fowlmere 270517 MONO

River Rib, Hertfordshire
Tawny owlets screech from willow trees. Kingfisher calls as it draws closer.
From perch, it dives for fish.
Kingfisher calls at it flies away.
2 x DPA4060 with EQ

Kingfisher River Rib 0516 STEREO

European Greenfinch - Carduelis chloris

Telinga Pro8 MkII omni & cardoid mixed to mono - some EQ
27/5/2017 Fowlmere, Cambridgeshire UK

Greenfinch Fowlmere 270517 MONO

This spring an overwintering queen wasp emerged from hibernation and chose our shed as the site to create her colony. Colonies are usually formed below ground, as was the case in 2015, when I made this recording by the entrance hole under one of our flowerbeds.
https://soundcloud.com/mark-wilkinson1-1/wasps
After initially building a small nest with chewed up wood pulp, which dries to make a papery substance, the queen begins to lay eggs which develop into non-reproductive workers. The workers take over the care of the nest, and the queen becomes an egg laying machine, growing the colony through the summer. At the end of autumn a number of eggs develop into new queens and males, which leave the nest and mate. The new queens seek out suitable places in which to hibernate, and the males and the old colony (including the old queen) die.

2 x DPA4060 to Sound Devices 702 mixed to one mono track. 1.30am, 14/06/17, Hertfordshire, UK

Reference: Naturespot - http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/common-wasp

Vespula Vulgaris Nest At Night Barwick 140617 MONO

A dawn paddle on Sunday morning down the River Lark produced some wonderful memories and a two and a half hour recording in Double M/S. This extract is of a pair of Oystercatchers, calling as they flew close to the canoe.
River Lark, near Isleham, Suffolk, UK, 16th May 2017, 6.30am
Schoeps CCM 4Lg and CCM8Lg, M/S to Sound Devices 633.

Oystercatchers In Flight River Lark Suffolk 180617 STEREO

From 'Between the stones' on thebadgerseye.com

.......The Pirate and I made our first visit last year. Blessed with hot weather we had travelled down by car and joined the queue of cars entering the site. After a picnic bathed in the setting sun, we made the long walk up across immense grassland fields and then down to the amphitheatre of the stones. Our first view, when breaking the ridge, was most surreal, reminding me of the discovery of the sentinel in Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey – there was the stone circle, illuminated by a ring of flood-lights, hovering drones and flashing security vehicles – a message from a past civilisation bathed in the brash light and technology of the latest.

This year that first view left the same impression, but as before, once you approached the stones and joined the crowds of people, young and old, gathered from all over the world if languages and accents were an indication, the humanity of the gathering returned.

I’d taken a camera last year but for my 2017 visit I wanted to capture the atmosphere in another way. I had rigged up some tiny microphones in my hat brim, running to a recorder hanging from my neck and as the night drew on into the early hours I set it running and walked around and through the ancient site and bring you this recording………..between the stones.

Between The Stones - social history soundscape

Wood Ants Burnham Beeches 030717 MONO

10th June 2017
Joist Fen, Lakenheath, Suffolk.
Early morning. Three bitterns fly over, calling.
Mono. Telinga Twin Science Pro 8 MkII in parabolic reflector to SD 702.

Bitterns In Flight Lakenheath 100617 MONO

Grey seal pup and adult vocalisations, Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, 2nd December 2017.
What a grand day this turned out to be. The weather delivered near perfect conditions for our visit with @londonsoundsurvey - thanks Ian for the fabulous company
Schoeps CCM 4Lg and CCM8Lg, M/S to Sound Devices 633.

Mark Wilkinson1

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