(UNMASTERED, recorded on 2021-04-27)
Pacific Wrens are the Red-winged Blackbirds of the forest.
Don’t get me wrong -- I love both. They have lively, spritely personalities with unqiue vocalizations. The problem is that they JUST WON’T SHUT UP, and they’re incredibly loud. They’re the aural equivalent of obnoxiously purposeful photo bombers.
My interactions with Pacific Wrens go something like this:
Me: Oh, there’s a lovely Varied Th--
Wren: HEY!!!!! DID YOU SEE THAT VARIED THRUSH OVER THERE? DID YOU HEAR IT MAYBE? IT’S REALLY COOL! BY THE WAY HAVE YOU HEARD  PACIFIC WREN LATELY????!??
Me: I was really just tryin--
Wren: HEY!!!! IT’S ME AGAIN!! DID YOU MISS ME? I SEE YOU’RE TRYING TO FIND THAT VARIED THRUSH. I THINK IT FLEW OFF. FORTUNATELY I’M HERE TO SING IN YOUR EAR!!!!!!
Me: Oh, that unfortu--
Wren: HEY!!!!! HAVE YOU MET MY FAMILY YET??? THEY’RE RIGHT HERE WITH ME IN THE NEXT FIVE TREE!! THERE WAS A GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET HERE EARLIER BUT IT DIDN’T SEEM LIKE THE VERY FRIENDLY TYPE AND FLEW OFF AFTER WE ARRIVED!!!!
Me: Ah, that’s why I don’t hear it anymo--
Wren: HEY!!! THAT VARIED THRUSH IS BACK!! YOU SHOULD GO RECORD IT!! IT’S RIGHT BEHIND ME. NO WAIT. IT’S GONE AGAIN. SHY LITTLE BUGGERS, AREN’T THEY?????
Me: --
Wren: HEY!!! I SEE YOU HAVE A PARABOLIC DISH THERE! I BET YOU CAN HEAR THINGS FROM FAR AWAY REALLY LOUD THROUGH THAT THING. HANG ON A SEC. I’M GONNA FLY TO THAT TREE OVER THERE, THE ONE YOU’RE POINTING AT WITH ONLY ONE KINGLET AND NO PACIFIC WRENS IN IT AND I’LL SING TO YOU. SEE IF YOU CAN HEAR ME.

"WREN, WINTER (10-30-10) humboldt cyn, patagonia hills, scc, az -01" by Sloalan is marked with CC0 1.0

Pacific Wren

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now. I was gifted this song last night by a little Swainson's Thrush that lived around my campsite. An excerpt from a 15 minute performance. I hadn't been ready to record yet (I was making supper). This beautiful bird perched approximately 9m away and about 3m upon a Red Alder, at the edge of a cut clearing surrounded by young Western Hemlock and Redcedar. It was dusk and most other nearby birds were silent. I'd like to think they were enraptured but the thrush.

This excerpt is directly from the SD card, unaltered except to fade-in and fade-out. I tried to stay quiet, but I do have a tendency to unconsciously wiggle from time to time, so there may be a slight shuffle or two. A few flies pass by.

Honestly, I'm feeling pretty lucky right about now.

(technical for those interested: recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6 microphone: MicBooster Pluggy, mounted in a Wildtronics Universal Parabolic dish) original wav recording at 24bits, 192k, feel free to reach out if you'd like to hear/ license the original or full recording or more recordings from the same location)

A Swainson's Thrush Gift

A brief snippet from an overnight "tree ears" recording I made out in the Staircase area of Olympic National Park. Around dusk, a Hairy Woodpecker drum reverberates through the dense mossy forest and sounds almost like the forest is snoring... The distant wash of the North Fork Skokomish River adds a lushness to the soundscape that gets me ready to take nap.

This recording is best experienced with headphones, as the tree ears mic set-up creates a pseudo-binaural listening experience. Recorded with a pair of LOM Usi and Mix Pre 6. 

Please contact me @ maxwellsmith.net for licensing.

Hairy Woodpecker - Sleepy Forest at Dusk - Olympic NP, WA

A Chorus of Varied Thrush, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Pacific Wren, Flycatchers, American Robin, and the occasional squirrel. I set-up my overnight tree ears rig to capture the sounds of a small, grassy, forest clearing on the Graves Creek trail. Not so fun fact, this recording was made on June 28th, which is now the hottest day ever recording in this part of Washington. Fortunately, it was nice and cool in the rainforest at dawn. 

I specifically selected this portion of the recording because it highlights the musicality of varied thrush. While their songs don't have much movement in terms of pitch, the central frequency of each individual song can vary over a range of 2-6kHz, while also varying in depth of harmonics. When singing together at dawn, their sing notes combine to construct a peaceful morning melody that resonating through the dense forest.

This "tree ears" recording is best experienced with headphones, as the  mic set-up creates a pseudo-binaural listening experience. Recorded with a pair of LOM Usi and Mix Pre 6. Please contact me at maxwellsmith.net for licensing or if you wold like to hear the FULL dawn chorus recording :)

Varied Thrush Melody at Dawn - Quinalt Rainforest, Olympic NP, WA

Birds and rain drops in cloud forest of Costa Rica

Birds and Rain in Cloud Forest Costa Rica

The winds of an oncoming storm begin to blow through a stand of tall lodgepole pine, creating swells of tension. As the storm approaches, a performance unfolds in which the winds control the dynamics and the trees and birds play the melody. 

Recorded in May 2016 - Cascade Lake Trail, Yellowstone National Park Whyoming

Field Recordings by Maxwell Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Trees Creaking in the Wind - Cascade Lake Trail, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Brokenstraw State Forest - Panama, NY:

Recorded with Rode M5’s in stereo ORTF into a Mixpre 6

The southern entrance of the state Forest consists of a very dense and dark stand of Spruce and Pine trees. This portion of the forest doesn’t actually constitute the natural forest structure of area. In fact, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted this specific conifer stand back in the 1930’s in an effort to reforest agricultural lands. Today, local efforts to regenerate the natural forest structure have involved thinning these stands to allow light to reach the forest floor and give broad leaf trees a chance to regenerate. This portion of the forest, however, has remained untouched by these forestry management strategies 

These tall skinny conifer trees comb the winds that blow from Lake Erie rolling across the hills of western New York State. You can physically locate the breeze as it slowly moves through the forest, and you can hear the surrounding landscape react to the change in atmosphere. This lack a variety in tree species restricts the diversity of wildlife in this area, but the dense tree structure provides a tight, yet lush acoustic character that I find rather ominous.

Breezy Conifer Forest - Brokenstraw St. Forest, NY

Coastal soundscape recorded at Cape Lookout National Seashore in mid-June. Hear a wide diversity of seabirds/song birds, insects, crickets, against the lull of the Atlantic ocean on the coast of the Outer banks, NC.

Recorded with a spaced-pair of Usi Pro's into a mixpre6.

Please contact me at maxwellsmith.net for licensing sounds. Thanks!

Sea Birds, Insects, and Distant Waves - Cape Lookout National Seashore, NC

The Lyre Conservation Area sits just east of where the lyre river empties into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This soundscape composition, featuring two different recordings captured on a crisp fall morning in November, encapsulates the distant booming of waves heard from the edge of the mossy forests and the soothing splashes up close on a rocky beach.

Soundscape Composition - Lyre Conservation Area, WA

Coyotes and Wolves seemingly not wanting to be outdone, their howls drown in the lush reverberation of a deep basaltic-walled glacial valley.

Grey Wolves were all but extirpated from Washington early in the last century. They've been on a slow but steady recovery now for decades, assisted by a few relocated individuals from Canada. While still a species of high concern in the Northwest, occasions of hearing their cries are thankfully becoming more and more common.

This is not without controversy, unfortunately, as ranchers fear their livelihoods will be destroyed and hunters express concern over the competition for game animals. My general feeling is this is good, however. The mass numbers of humanity living in former wolf territory and the introduction of highly destructive and invasive farm and game animals such as cattle, pigs, chickens, bullfrogs, pheasant, etc, have had long-lasting, oft-permanent destructive consequences on our ecological systems. That wolves are able to reclaim some territory on their own despite the historical effort to eliminate them is a testimony to their tenacity as a species.

The challenges are great, though, and humanity does not make it easy for other apex predators to survive in a world we claim as our own to despoil at will. Wolves need help all around North America. To help recovery efforts and the benefits they can provide, consider supporting a conservation effort such as The International Wolf Center https://wolf.org or a sanctuary and rehabilitation center such as Wolf Haven International https://wolfhaven.org. For more information on their spread and recovery in Washington, read this informational pamphlet from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife https://bit.ly/2NvfgXW

image credit: "File:Grey Wolf Portrait.jpg" by Jean Beaufort is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en?ref=openverse.

Varied Thrush Melody at Dawn - Quinalt Rainforest, Olympic NP, WA

Maxwell Smith

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