A 4 minute sample of our With the Cranes in the Karoo soundscape. It is dawn in the Karoo Gariep Nature Reserve and a wonderful array of birds are calling from the edge of the dam and surrounding grasslands: Blue Crane, South African Shelduck, Egyptian Geese, Blue Korhaan and the brilliantly coloured Bokmakierie (plus a flock of Merino sheep!).

With The Cranes In The Karoo

The loud shrieks of the Tree hyraxes are a common and unmistakable sound in Mt. Kenya and other highland forests. Tree Hyraxes are medium-sized mammals living in the canopies of tropical forests. They are shy and only move at night, to forage for food or look for mates. As the night unfolds, so do the calls, eventually quietening down, and then rise once more in the wee hours of the morning.

Call of the Tree Hyrax

One of the alarm calls of the Eurasian Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes. 

This sound is a great cluse to nearby trouble. The trigger might be a cat or a person (perhaps you), but it could also be a fox, stoat or something else low to the ground that might otherwise pass you by.

Wrens also make a briefer, stonier 'tck!' sound. 

Audio by Klankbeeld, provided via Freesound under Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0 DEED https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Image by Siegfried Poepperl via Pixabay

Wren - alarm call

The song is a couple of high notes followed by a lower twittering - the same pattern as blue tits use in many of their other calls. 

High-high-high low-low-low-low. 

This version is adapted from a recording by Aubrey John Williams as shared by the British Library, to focus on the typical song pattern. 

Recording date
1979/05/27

Recording locations
Rye Grove, Windelsham, Surrey: OS Grid Reference(493500,163500)

Recordist
Williams, Aubrey John

Reproduced under creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Published by British Library: https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/blue-tit-song-surrey-england-may-1979

Blue Tit song

This recording was made by Michel Veldt and is reproduced by kind permission. More information accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/651446.

The image is of a male Red-backed Shrike in Slovakia, taken by Radovan Václav. It is reproduced under CC license CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

xeno-canto

Red-backed Shrike - calls and song

Recorded in Georgia, USA, by a reader of Shriek of the Week:

"We have been hearing it in you neighborhood at Roswell, Georgia for the past 8 months. It comes perhaps 2 times per week and the sounds  occurs up to 3 times over about 2-3 minutes at most. 
My Merlin Bird ID app never recognizes the sound."

Mystery Two Tone Shrill Sounding Bird Call

A herd of red cows approaching us from front and passing by on a warm September noon of 2019 at the hills of Southern Urals. Lots of energetic mooing, shepherd shouts and whistles, some birds chirping and moderate wind. I love this recording for its brutal and raw energy.
Recorded with Nevaton VR FOA mic into Zaxcom Fusion 12, decoded to binaural with Harpex-X plugin. Please listen on headphones for correct spatial reproduction.

Red Cows at Southern Urals_BINAURAL

For a long time I wanted to record a really surrounding, enveloping and moving wind through reed. I found the perfect conditions at the forest lakes in Karelia. This track sounds like some witches are chattering around, whispering their spells. 
Description: LAKE MARSH-near wooded shore. Summer. Morning 10 55. Wind gusts rustling, whispering, chattering scary through dry reed and leaves, Birds chirping faint. Mic surrounded by reed, facing shore
Recorded with Nevaton MC50 Quad into Zaxcom Fusion 12. Stereo Mix of Front and a bit of Rear channels.
This recording is a part of the "Northern Europe Vol. 2 Lakeside Ambiences Summer" sound effects library

Wind Through Reed Gusts Rustling Whispering Chattering Scary_ST MIX

A rookery in Landshut recorded early on a Sunday morning. There are at least 1000 rooks, jackdaws and a few crows roosting here in the centre of town. This area with many trees and two small streams incorporates the local hospital, the swimming baths and a town park. There´s not much human sound to hear except for the church bells which, I think give the recording an acoustic fingerprint of birds using the town as a safe refuge to roost. They come from a large area surrounding Landshut. 

Rookery-Landshut #1

Really close wolf howl - January 2025. SASS. 

Wolf Recording 13th Jan 2025. 18:39

A sunny July day, not too hot...not to cold. Recorded with a Stereo SASS - nature sound.it + trying out my new tascam X8. Wanted to record for a days but the weather took a turn and decided not to bother. Still, a nice recording experience.
Recorded in the Owl Mountains, Poland. The same location I recorded the wolves back in jan-march.
Species: Woodcock


A series of woodcock territory loops

🐞Conservation Storyteller 
🐞Tour Leader 
🐞Author
🐞Field recording Grantee https://earth.fm/artists/martha-mutiso/

With time, I hope my recordings will make a great contribution to conservation, film, and the existing archives of nature sounds and wildlife acoustics.

https://ecoescapades.org/

Call of the Tree Hyrax

Martha Mutiso