This is fantastic Lang, love the spacialisation we feel here.

Anura by others

During a mid-March visit to Big Bend National Park in Texas, I recorded this immersive binaural soundscape at dawn in Santa Elena Canyon. It features wind blowing through a dense thicket of Carrizo Cane (an invasive species from Asia that is now common along the Rio Grande), which produces clicks and clatters as gusts pass through the stiff, bamboo-like reeds. Ravens nest in the canyon and croak repeatedly as they fly up and down the Rio Grande River, their calls echoing off the steep cliffs above. Such a pleasing, enveloping mix of the sounds of the wind, ravens and reeds!. Please wear headphones for optimal immersion!

Recorded by Lang Elliott on March 17, 2021 shortly before sunrise. © Lang Elliott, All Rights Reserved.

Wind, Ravens, Reeds

I placed the microphones a few metres from a small stream in upland rainforest and left them to capture the dawn chorus. You can hear the raucous calls of Orange-footed Scrubfowl (one of Australia's three species of megapode or mound-builder) as well as the unusual wails of Spotted Catbird. Occasionally Northern Barred Frogs (Mixophyes schevilli)call from the leaf litter.

Dawn at Lumholtz Lodge

Dawn at Lumholtz Lodge, Atherton Tablelands, Australia

Enjoy this lovely late winter dawn chorus recorded around 7am on March 30, 2022, in Shindagin Hollow, near Brooktondale NY. Various birds sound off against a backdrop of the gurgle of water flowing over beaver dams. Species heard include Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Hairy Woodpecker, Mallard, and American Crow (and perhaps more that I didn't notice?). Temperature was around 28F with no wind.

© Lang Elliott, musicofnature.org

The Leading Edge of Spring

The rainforest comes alive with sound at night. Listen to the sounds of the jungle for a few minutes and you'll notice a myriad subtle changes. Long version at https://youtu.be/5mRnCsRXwv8

Night in the rainforest

It is late summer in the Finger Lakes Region of upstate New York. As night unfolds, crickets trill, their songs mesmerizing and tranquil. Then, without warning, Coyotes howl and yip, their reverberant echos reaching out in all directions. Exhilarating, intoxicating wild music, flowing deeply into the recesses of our minds.

NOTE: This is a 3-D binaural recording. Please wear headphones for a realistic spatial listening experience that wil make you think you're actually outdoors, immersed in the natural world. 

OF FUTHER NOTE: I recorded the coyotes one night in mid-July in a forested area in upstate New York. There was very little background sound, so I returned three weeks later to same spot to record crickets trilling gently. I then added the cricket chorus to the coyote track to provide a more relaxing and meditative background. Also ... long silent intervals between three different outbursts have been drastically shortened.

Recordings © Lang Elliott, Music of Nature. All Rights Reserved.

Coyote Reverberations

Braying outbursts of Wild Burros recorded at night next to Taylor Lake marsh in the Picacho State Recreation Area north of Yuma, Arizona. 6 April 2022. © Lang Elliott All Rights Reserved.

Note: This is a binaural soundscape. Please Wear Headphones for a natural, spacious sense of immersion.

Wild Burros of Picacho (with Coyote Finale)

NOTE: This is a binaural soundscape ... please listen using headphones! Otherwise, you may not appreciate the magic.

I always strive to keep my ears well-tuned, in order to perceive uplifting soundscapes that might easily escape notice, but sometimes I am not quite up to the task. Such was the case in late July of 2018.

I met up with two recording friends at one of my favorite wild areas … Shindagin Hollow in upstate New York, near where I live. We were very glad to see one another and immediately began chatting about this and that as we hooked up our recording equipment (they with parabolic reflectors and me with my binaural soundscape microphone). Then we dispersed, heading into the forest in different directions, each hoping to capture something of value.

It was then that I paused for a moment just to take in the scene … a foggy misty morning following a rainy night … the deep forest of hemlocks and hardwoods … drip from leaves in all directions … and subtle bird songs. I took a long slow breath and began to amble down the trail. At that moment, a wood thrush caught my attention, singing in the distance though quite clear. I stopped and listened more attentively … another was sounding off from even farther away, and a very faint one as well, unless I was just imagining it. And did I just hear a hermit thrush, buried in the mix?

Oh my, I almost did not notice … there, right next to the road, a lone ground cricket trilling prominently from the gravel. How could I have missed such an obvious sound? And then I detected a barred owl, hooting way off in the distance. And a mourning dove, just audible, cooing softly time and again.

Suddenly, I shook myself awake, finally aware of the miracle before me! The magic I was hoping to find somewhere down the trail was actually right next to me, fully and elegantly expressed! I did not need to walk down the trail in search of anything because nature was already showering me with an exalted mix, an elixir so pure and powerful that it thrilled my entire being, but only after I became fully receptive to it. Had I kept walking, I would have missed it entirely. Thank you wood thrush for breaking the spell of my self absorption, for unplugging my ears and inviting me into the here and now!

So finally I jumped into action … I quickly set up my soundscape mic, hit record, and prayed that nothing would interrupt this amazing concert so freely given. How careful we must be to keep our minds calm and quiet and our senses free of interference, so that we do not miss the extraordinary beauty that nature showers upon us, sometimes subtly, and often when we least expect it to arrive.

© Lang Elliott, Music of Nature. All Rights Reserved.

Thrush Dripscape

Exquisite dawn chorus featuring several Wood Thrushes sounding off at first light, with a gurgling brook nearby. Recorded at 5:15am, July 20, 2023 in Shindagin Hollow, near Brooktondale, New York. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Please listen with headphones!

Wood Thrushes Singing at Dawn with Stream Gurgle

Wood Thrushes Singing At Dawn with Stream Gurgle

A series of recordings made on the occasion of the 2015 Soundcamp for the 24 hour Reveil global dawn chorus braodcast. Our Soundcamp was coordinated by Dawn Scarfe and Veljo Runnel and included guests from the Active Crossover residency. Special thanks to the Palupõhja Nature School for hosting us. Palupõhja is a small village on the Emajõgi river in the center of the Alam-Pedja nature reserve.
http://www.soundtent.org/2015/streams/streams_2015_UTC+2_estonia.html
http://moks.ee/artists/active-crossover-mooste
http://www.palupohja.ee/en

Blackbird and dawn chorus, Palupõhja May03, 2015

Large pig frogs lead the croaking chorus of multiple species searching for mates in the flooded saw grass prairie along PaHaOkee Road in Everglades National Park, Florida. Southern cricket frogs "clack-clack" in background.Wide stereo field recorded in ORTF with pair of Line Audio CM3 cardioid microphones feeding a Sound Devices MixPre 3 recorder. February 2018.

Pig Frogs Pa Hay Okee

Brought out by a rain storm, toads and frogs call out as thunder continues to roll across the cypress and saw grass forest at the Big Cypress Preserve, part of the everglades near Miami, Florida. 00:05 Southern Toad, 00:11 Green Tree Frog, Spring Peeper frogs' birdlike chirp throughout, and 03:20 far off Red Shouldered Hawk. Recorded in XY Stereo with Audio Techinica BP4025 and MixPre-3, 40hz low cut and 57 Db gain. One continuous recording with EQ applied in post. May 2018.

Amphibian Rain Call

As the night progresses, frogs sing three verses: 1) cricket frog solos & far off pig frogs answer, 2) chorus of green tree frogs and 3) clacking southern cricket frogs harmonize with grunting green tree frogs. Big Cypress Preserve, Florida, June 2018. Wide stereo field recorded in ORTF with pair of Line Audio CM3 cardioid microphones feeding a Sound Devices MixPre 3 recorder.

Three Verse Florida Frogs

As the last noisy chorus of three southern cricket frogs fades out for the night, quieter creatures fill the swamp forest with more subtle sounds until dawn. Recorded in the Big Cypress Preserve near Miami, FL, June 2018. Wide stereo field recorded in NOS with pair of Line Audio CM3 cardioid microphones feeding a Sound Devices MixPre 3 recorder.

Swamp Forest Late Night

A lovely dusk recording featuring the distinctive cries of a Pauraque, with lagoon frogs sounding off. Note: This is a binaural recording so please listen using headphones.

Recorded near Sani Lodge in Ecuador's lowland rainforest. © Lang Elliott, All Rights Reserved.

Ecuador 2018 -  Sani Lodge

Pauraque and Frogs at Dusk

A far off night train whistles across a suburban pond as leopard frogs wake, their croaks overcoming the quiet evening in Mount Dora, Florida, December 2018. Recorded in XY stereo with Audio Technica BP4025 and Sound Devices MixPre3.

Night Train & Small Town Frogs

Sutherland 19/5/2010 5:00pm. With raven and willow warbler.


Cuckoos

Hi Friends! I am a professional nature recordist who travels to wild areas throughout North America and sometimes beyond. My current focus is to gather  immersive binaural 3D soundscapes that effortlessly transport listeners (using headphones) into nature and have a positive and healing effect on the mind, body and spirit.

Pauraque and Frogs at Dusk

Lang Elliott – Music of Nature

Recent comments

World-Sounds.org

Related tracks