Bats hunting over a channel near to the highway B70 at Leer in Ostfriesland, Germany. Bats are mainly noctules and pipistrelles. Original recording @192 kHz sampling rate, Primo EM258 AB 60cm stereo. Two heterodyne transformations (@20kHz and @45kHz) were remixed with the original  recording. In this way you hear the bats, ducks and traffic, all at the same time.

Headphones recommended.

Bats over Polderkanal - 2022/03/27 - Spriekenborg

Early morning. I went to see if it would be possible to record moor frogs in a place where I know they are. I didn't see any frogs, but I did meet a capercaillie. I tied the microphones to a tree and left to record. The picture shows the same bird that appears in the recording.

Equipment:
Zoom F3 digital recorder
An Azden microphone pre-amplifier/mixer
Primo Microphones with EM172 capsules. Recorded 32 bit 48kHz

Western capercaillie makes vocalizations in early spring forest

Sound Memory

30 May 2023

To get good recordings of birds you have to come close. On way of achieving this is to work with concealed microphones. It’s not easy to predict where the target bird/s will be, and I regularly fail in my attempts, but occasionally I succeed. I scouted a semi-open sandy area – a former tree seed orchard –  where I had encountered lekking Black Grouse last year, and hid a small stereo lavalier microphone overnight in the crown of an isolated small pine tree. One by one the Black Grouse males arrived in the late evening hours and immediately began displaying around the small pine tree.  

Umeå commune, Västerbotten County (63.39 N, 19.54 E)

Primo-EM172s

01_01.05

In the middle of the Black Grouse lekk

Overview of the sound library "Ultrasonic Insects Vol 2". Insects recorded in 192 KHz 24 bits with a Sanken CO-100K. Close-miking, no ambient sound.

Ultrasonic Insects VOL 2 - SOUND LIBRARY DEMO

Midwife Toads Dusk Chorus

LISTEN WITH HEADPHONES OR STEREO SPEAKERS

More than half the life on Earth is in the soil beneath our feet. It’s the most biodiverse habitat on the planet. As humans we assume this world is silent. Miniscule and microscopic species shuffle, scuttle, scamper, wriggle, and burrow between particles and pores, shifting and reshaping with the seasons and time—time we cannot fathom.

Soil fauna, fungi, bacteria and plants live symbiotic, intimately connected lives attuned to circadian and circannual rhythms, interrupted by climate change and human activity. Anywhere on Earth demands we lean in and listen to earthworms, ants, crickets, slaters, and beetle larvae, and the microscopic life we can only imagine challenging anthropocentric views of time, scale, and value. This multi-layered, often acousmatic composition of field recorded sound is the soundtrack to a more collaborative and resonant dance of life, where the heartbeats of humans and more-than-humans are in sync with Earth’s cyclical rhythms.

Anywhere on Earth

Birch trees are indeed great for wildlife and I love them and regard them as one of our ancient magical trees, giving food and shelter for many a creature. Some of which include Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blue Tit, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Siskin, Redpoll, Woodpeckers and food and habitat for many hundreds of insects. 

I wanted to record some of the calls & songs from common species that frequently visit a Silver Birch tree (Betula pendula) at home.  So set up a hide and a tripod with a mounted parabolic microphone rig and recorded at dawn on the 25th of June 2015. Here are some extracts from the recordings I made of five species that visited the tree that morning.  The recordings have then been joined together and finish with a wider general stereo recording of sounds coming from and beyond the Silver Birch Tree.
Other background birds include Blackbird, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Pheasant Wren, Moorhen, Carrion Crow, Robin and Cockerel.

1.) Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
As the dawn arrived, distant twinkling sounds coming from the lofty tops of the tree, soft beautiful high liquid notes and fluttering as Goldfinches started to arrive. Their energy seemed to build as the sun rose and the soft notes of flight turned into the louder warbles of beautiful song, to me almost sounding Wren like in parts.  Because of their song, Goldfinches used to be popular to keep in cages. Apparently in 1860 it was reported that 132,000 birds were caught at Worthing alone. Happily this is no longer the case and it’s wonderful to hear their song now free in the trees.

2.) Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)
The sun is higher now and other birds arrive, short trilling notes spill from a Greenfinch, with its recognisable wheezy dzweee, followed by some nice musical runs of notes. 

3.) House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
On one edge of the tree just over half way up, the steady chrrupp of a House Sparrow calls which quickens a little in pace.

4.) Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Blue tits arrive calling to each other, chattering in flight from branch to branch, catching aphids off the leaves of the lower branches.
Some of the old local names for the Blue tit include:
Bee Bird (Hampshire), Billy Biter or Tom Nouf (Shropshire), Pickcheese (Norfolk), Hagmal, Titmal (Devon & Cornwall).

5.) Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) 
The loud calls of a Chaffinch start, the sound traveling far across the garden. Chaffinches eat huge numbers of caterpillars in summer. Some of the old local names given from it’s song include: Chink Caffey (Hampshire), Chink chink (Shropshire), Pink Twink (Devon, Somerset, Shropshire), Shelley (Herefordshire), Shilfa, sheelfa, Shelfie (Scotland).

6.) General wide stereo soundscape of the Birch Tree at dawn
 A more gentle wide stereo view of the birch tree and beyond with some of the species above and others calling.

All tracks were recorded with an IB 20” parabolic reflector with a Sennheiser MKH50 & MKH 30 m/s rig to an Edirol R4pro recorder. M/S Decoded and mixed in post in studio.


Songs from a Birch Tree

Moor Frogs (Rana arvalis), some Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) and Common Toads (Bufo bufo) are singing in spring evening. Robins and Blackbirds accompany them. Padakõrve, Estonia. 20. April 2019.
Pair of MKH8020 in DIY SASS box, Zoom F8.

Loodushelid

Spring frog chorus. 20. April 2019

Close recording of crickets inside a plastic box during a laboratory with children in CECREA La Ligua (Chile).
The cricket are "fulvipennis" crickets, around 300 crickets are inside the box.
Recorded during the night trough two Sanken Cos11 D microphones, on a Zoom H1 recorder.
Original recording in Wave 96kHz 24bit.
Recorded on 10th of July 2019.

Hundreds of crickets (close recording)

30 June 2020

During an unattended nocturnal recording session in a patch of old-growth forest a rain and thunder weather passed over during late evening hours. Birds stopped singing except for a Common Chiffchaff which actually seemed triggered by the rain and thunder.

Vindeln commune, Northern Sweden (64.11 N, 19.44 E)

Primos, +6 dB, 150 Hz/6 dB low cut filter in post

Sound Memory

Nikhil Narendra

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