Your recordings over the years at Shindagin Hollow have made me want to visit. Through your soundscapes and your words I now have a my own imaginary idea of what Shindagin Hollow is like. Would love to actually visit one day!

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

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

Several Wood Thrushes sounding off at dusk with light rain falling. Recorded July 18, 2023 at 8:30pm. © Lang Elliott, musicofnature.com

Please listen with headphones!

Wood Thrushes Singing at Dusk in Light Rain

RESTFUL ROBIN: A pristine binaural soundscape recording of a distant American Robin, singing at dawn near a small mountain brook. Recorded 27 April 2013, in Shindagin Hollow near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott.

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

THIS MEDITATIVE SOUNDSCAPE  is a relaxing mix of the distant robin's reverberant song, set against the gentle gurgle of the nearby brook. Other bird sounds are minimal, although a Winter Wren chimes in near the middle of the recording and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drums periodically in the last half. Listen also for various calls of the robin.

This recording qualifies as "easy-listening" primarily because the robin is suitably far away and does not jar the ear (as songbirds may do if they come too close). I've recorded many a robin and have discovered that it's very difficult to capture a gentle and immersive portrait where the robin encourages a long and meditative listening session. Success is related to distance, as well as how the song mixes or interplays with other sounds in the environment.

I am struck by how different the listening experience can be in the wild. Outdoors, I am able to enjoy robins at all distances, even when one comes close to my position. But when played over speakers or headphones, close robins quickly wear on my ear. My best-sounding portraits always involve distant singers, where echoes from the environment degrade songs in a good way, rounding sharp edges and smoothing them out for relaxed and extended listening.

Restful Robin

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 binaural night-scape featuring the distant hoots of Great Horned Owls set again the gentle tinkling of Aravaipa Creek. Distant Yellow-breasted Chats also periodically sound off. Recorded 2 May 2017 on Nature Conservancy property near the eastern edge of the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness Area in southeastern Arizona.

Please Listen Using Headphones!

Night Owls (Aravaipa Canyon Waterscape)

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

A relaxing dawn chorus featuring a softly gurgling brook and the songs of American Robin, Hermit Thrush and Dark-eyed Junco. Recorded in a wet grassy meadow in the high country of Oregon's Cascade Mountains. 6:30am, 20 June 2017, along the McKenzie Scenic Highway. 

NOTE: this is a binaural recording. Please use headphones for a realistic 3D listening experience.

Meltwater Dawn Chorus

Light rain falls upon an overgrown meadow shortly after sunrise. Rivulets wind across the clearing, draining excess water from the receding storm. The sun, peeping through the clouds, throws a broad beam of light across the clearing as birds burst into song in excited anticipation of the coming day. 

Set in upstate New York in late May, this is one of my favorite binaural soundscapes. It is unusually immersive (please use headphones!), with the pitter-patter of light rain and the gurgling of streamlets providing a soothing backdrop against which the bird music spreads out in all directions. I could listen to this for minutes on end, imagining that I am standing at the edge of the meadow, protected under the canopy of a large tree. 

Many species can be heard, some from the surrounding forest. Listen in particular for the quickening down-slurred whistles of Field Sparrows, the staccato fitz-bew of a Willow Flycatcher, the lively witchety-witchey of a Common Yellowthroat, the cheery warbles of an Eastern Bluebird (at times), the mournful coos of a Mourning Dove, the thumping drums of at least two Ruffed Grouse, the musical song of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the soft trilling of crickets, and finally the throaty caws of crows way off in the distance.

Meadow After Rain

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

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.

Wood Thrushes Singing At Dawn with Stream Gurgle

Lang Elliott – Music of Nature

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