Name: Winter Rain by Lang Elliott – Music of Nature
Duration: 9 min 59 s
Description: Winter Rain in Oak Forest. Recorded January 1, 2021 near Ithaca, New York. Featuring raindrops hitting surrounding snow, flattened leaves, and icy patches. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Did it just get 20 degrees colder in here or is it just me...?
So its true... temperature and humidity do have a sound.

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

Spacious birdsong and forest ambience from a rarely visited area in Orissa state, eastern India. 

Kotagar forest ambience, Orissa, India

MOCKINGBIRD NIGHT SONG: A Northern Mockingbird singing at night with crickets and gray treefrogs sounding off in the background. Recorded 11:30pm 27 May 2016, near Upperville, Virginia. © Lang Elliott.

Microphone: quasi-binaural SASS (Stereo Ambient Sampling System) modified for use with Sennheiser MKH20 microphones.

THE NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD is well-known for its habit of singing at night. What most folks do not know is that the night-singers are primarily unmated males, which may sing almost continuously both day and night (especially when the moon is bright), in their quest to locate a mate.

I managed to capture the featured recording during a recent expedition, which began with a social event: my partner’s niece was graduating from high school and we went down to attend the ceremony. Given how close we were to Washington D.C., I never imagined that I would get a usable recording (too many cars and jets). But we spent the night in a ranch house surrounded by large fields, and as luck would have it, there was a resident mockingbird that sang throughout much of the night.

Resisting my urge to get some much-needed sleep (I was up until nearly 2am the night before, recording frogs), I ventured out around 11pm and walked a considerable distance to his singing tree, which was at the edge of a field. Crickets trilled gently from the grass and a chorus of Gray Treefrogs produced a drone from nearby forest, no doubt sounding off from a pond or swampy area. Not a bad catch for countryside near a major metropolis.

Although not exactly a meditative recording, I am quite pleased to document night-singing in this species, along with enough ambient sounds to add spaciousness to the recording. This particular singer is doing some imitations, but the majority of his phrases seem to be of his own device. Rather than analyze his song phrases, I’ve chosen to simply enjoy the soundscape without thinking too much about it. Mockingbird Nightsong, delivered to you on a golden platter!

What’ya think?

Mockingbird Nightsong

ABUNDANT LIFE: Birds singing in hardwood forest at6:30am, 21 May 2016. Recorded at Connecticut Hill Wildlife Management Area near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott. Please play at a low volume to simulate a natural listening experience.

Microphone: quasi-binaural SASS (Stereo Ambient Sampling System) modified for use with Sennheisser MKH20 mics.

THERE IS NO END to bad news when it comes to birds. Recent studies show significant decreases in the populations of a number of our neotropical migrants, a major cause being the loss of habitat on their wintering grounds. And then there’s the predicted negative effects of climate change. So much bad news, almost each and every day!

While I certainly do not deny that there is trouble brewing and that we should do something about it, my purpose is not to wave the red flag of impending doom. Rather, my mission is to celebrate that which is good and present in our lives right now. And this morning’s recording does just that! I’ve christened it Abundant Life due to its rich variety of bird sounds. Close your eyes and listen. How many species can you identify?

"Only birds sing the music of heaven in this world."
 – haiku by Kobayashi Issa

I obtained this recording purely by chance. I had just picked up my soundscape microphone (which I’d left next to a beaver pond at 4:30am) and was heading back to my car. While walking along the trail through hardwood forest, I heard the plaintive whistle of a wood-pewee – pee-a-wee – and stopped to enjoy it. That’s when I became aware of all the other bird sounds in the air.

Excited by what I was hearing, I quickly set up my mic and hit record. I was able to get about twelve minutes of the mix before a jet thundered over at low altitude, followed a truck rumbling down a nearby road. By the time the noise subsided, a number of the birds had moved farther away, so I didn’t resume my recording.
I am very happy with nature’s gift of the day. As you can hear, there are quite a number of singers, including the following:

Eastern Wood-Pewee
Wood Thrush
Mourning Dove
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Red-eyed Vireo
Ovenbird
American Crow
Common Raven
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (one call and drums)
+ several other species singing more softly in the background

No, I wouldn’t classify this as a meditative zen-style recording. But I do consider it an exceptional “celebration of abundance,” of the rich variety of birds that live in our natural surroundings. I am so very grateful to witness this abundance almost daily during the spring and early summer breeding season. How pleasurable to hear so many voices all in one place … my beloved avian musicians singing their joy into the world.

no album

Abundant Life

Enjoy this spacious binaural night-time soundscape featuring drip from nearby trees, the continuous trilling of tree crickets, hoots of Barred Owls, and peeps of Spring Peepers. Recorded at 11am, 25 Sept 2017, in Shindagin Hollow near Brooktondale, New York. Please listen using headphones!

This is definitely one of my favorites! I set my soundscape microphone at the edge of a beaver pond and let it run all night long. It was about 60F and tree crickets trilled continuously. It had rained the evening before, so there's drip from the trees. Listen too for subtle water sounds caused by ... I'm not sure ... fish, frogs, drips hitting the water, maybe even swimming beaver? Spring Peepers occasionally call from shrubs at the edge of the pond ... this is their "autumn piping," not their mating calls. 

The hoots of Barred Owls are prominent throughout. At first you will hear the hoots of a distant owl, After several minutes, an owl calls from close-by, followed eventually by two bouts of a pair "hootin'-it-up" as they rally after being separated, their hoots magically echoing across the hollow.

Crickets, Drip, Owls and Peepers

A Coqui chorus from Puerto Rico, recorded next to a small forest stream. Early am, 22 March 2013. El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico. An immersive binaural soundscape recording ... please listen using headphones.

NOTE: This is one of a series of recordings I made during the night of March 21-22, as I hiked up the south slopes of El Yunque National Forest in the dead of the night. At first I was overwhelmed by the choruses ... they were much too cacophonous to suit my fancy. But at higher altitudes in the wee hours of the morning, things settled down and I got some very nice mixtures of sounds ... magical and hypnotic soundscapes that soothed my mind and drew me effortlessly and completely into my natural surroundings, erasing any thoughts of the outside world.

Coqui Frogs — Forest Stream

The arrival of a thunderstorm at the edge of a meadow in upstate New York. A light rain falls and thunder rumbles as the storm moves by. Two Snowy Tree Crickets call from nearby shrubs, their repeated trills given in almost perfect unison. How relaxing, but beware … this soundscape may put you right to sleep.

Recorded binaurally at 11pm, 21 September, 2011. Connecticut Hill Wildlife Mangement Area near Ithaca, New York.

Thunder Crickets

Here is a lovely 6.5 minute soundscape that I just uncovered … two Wood Thrushes singing back-and-forth at dawn, recorded at Land Between the Lakes Kentucky way back in 1995, about the time I began gathering binaural soundscapes. I rather like it and think it’s a powerful reminder of things to come Yep, SPRING is just around the corner. Believe me!

It’s a busy dawn chorus for sure, but if played at a medium to low sound level, it’s fairly gentle on the ears. The recording also features the incessant singing of distant Whip-poor-wills, Barred Owls hooting, Mourning Doves cooing, a woodpecker drumming (probably a Hairy Woodpecker), and plenty more species for the discerning ear.

Wood Thrushes Countersinging

This album is our 100th Listening Earth album release, and to celebrate this milestone, we're returning to one of our most evocative nature recordings from the last 25 years.

In the small hours of the morning, a full moon illuminates a large waterhole at the entrance to Ormiston Gorge, in outback Australia. The landscape all around is epic and ancient; massive quartzite rock walls are silhouetted above sandy banks lined with pale-barked gum trees.

This permanent waterhole is a haven for wildlife, and here we listen into the night. A gentle breeze occasionally whispers through the leaves of the old ghost gums, while crickets chirrup from small reedbeds.

Subtle sounds come from all around, but the mesmerising focus is a Pied Butcherbird. It roosts unseen in a tree opposite, singing gracefully. 

The song of the Pied Butcherbird is renowned as being among the most musical in the avian world. But now, in the depths of the night, this bird is singing slowly, serenely, languidly, as though half asleep. And in this place, surrounded by an amphitheatre of rock, its voice echoes - one of nature's most sublime songs in a natural cathedral.

Listening Earth Album Sample

The Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge

Pied Butcherbirds of Ormiston Gorge: Album Sample

It is late summer. We have just arrived at Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arkansas, a land of swamps and forest. At dusk, a thunderstorm passes by in the distance. The storm recedes, darkness prevails, and rain begins to fall.

We walk into a pine stand and sit quietly on a moss-covered log. Raindrops hit shrub leaves and plop softly upon the spongy bed of needles below. Crickets trill, their gentle songs are soothing to our ears. We close our eyes and allow the sounds to flow around and into us. So calm and peaceful, here in the pine woods, after the storm.

August 6, 2016 at 9pm. Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge near Moro Bay, Arkansas.

Night Into Day

After the Storm

Winter Rain in Oak Forest. Recorded January 1, 2021 near Ithaca, New York. Featuring raindrops hitting surrounding snow, flattened leaves, and icy patches. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Winter Rain

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.

Winter Rain

Lang Elliott – Music of Nature

Recent comments

oakandsage

Related tracks