Three different moments within a quiet windless night. This is not an exceptional recording but I like the atmosphere anyway.
A howl, a fox and a blackbird can be heard as well as a frog and probably some rodents close to the tripod.
The microphones and the recorder have been left the whole night.
The photo has been shot in the morning when I came back to pick the stuff up.

Recorded with a Nagra Ares BB+, Neumann KM184, ORTF near my house, in la Creuse, France.

220725 A Quiet Night in the Woods

Red Deer Rut - Binaural 26:09:2022

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

D’abord, un mâle chante avec les cris d’une femelle au loin. Puis la femelle rejoint le mâle et chante avec lui. On peut entendre le chant d'un Rougegorge familier et à 50'' un cri qui ressemble au cri en vol du Chevalier guignette : la palpitation aiguë de la copulation de la Chouette hulotte. Le mâle quitte le lieu de l'accouplement et effectue son chant roulé.  Tout cela dans l'ambiance d’un claquement d’étincelle provenant d’un fil de clôture électrique.

First a male is singing with the calls of a female in the background. Then the female joins the male. The male leaves the singing place. A Robin is singing and at 50'' a call near a Common Sandpiper : the copulation call of the Tawny Owl. With the tempo of a snap of a spark from an electric fence wire.

Tascam DR05 - Dodotronic parabole, by Manuel Grosselet and Olivier Swift

Loire-Atlantique

Duo de Chouettes hulottes ligériennes un 6 janvier 2024

Out of all digital recordings that I have made since 1991, this is the one I love the most. The bird is magic. 
Recorded with a Telinga stereo parabol and a Sony DAT TCD-D3 machine in June 1991. No filter.
You don´t need headphones for this track.

Whinchat

On les appelle les ingénieurs du sol… Qui ? Les vers de terre. Ces lombrics peuplent nos sols et jouent un rôle majeur dans leur vitalité et donc leur biodiversité ! Mais sont-ils assez reconnus pour leurs bienfaits ?

Reportage : réalisation – Lucie Louâpre – Canal B.
Avec : Sarah Guillocheau, ingénieure d'étude spécialisée en écologie des lombriciens.

Présentation et interview : Nicolas Milice – Radio BOA.
Entretien avec : Daniel Cluzeau, enseignant chercheur à l’université de Rennes 1, sur la distribution et l'écologie des vers de terre à l’unité mixte de recherche CNRS écobio et responsable scientifique de l’Observatoire Participatif des Vers de Terre (OPVT).

Première diffusion : 11 mars 2024.

Biodiversité On Air #48 : Vers de terre et biodiversité

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park lies in southwestern Uganda on the edge of the Rift Valley and is home to an estimated 320 mountain gorillas – roughly half of the world’s population, including several habituated groups, which can be tracked.

During my time observing the mountain gorillas we spent around 1 hour in the company of the Oruzogo group, led by Bakwate the dominant alpha Silver back.

Mountain gorillas are 99% vegetarian with their diet mainly consisting of fruits, leaves, bark and soft stems. The remaining 1% is for ants, which they often find on the underside of tree bark. With this type of diet, they are extremely flatulent. 

In this recording, you can listen to a compilation of the best farts that I recorded during our time with the gorillas.


Photo courtesy of Anne Zak (http://www.annezakrzewski.de/)

Mountain Gorilla Farts (Short Version) - Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Ngamba Island is a Chimpanzee Sanctuary, located in Lake Victoria. Founded in 1998, today it is home to 48 orphaned rescued chimpanzees providing welfare and a safe haven to them in a near wild environment.

During a visit to the sanctuary to see how the conservation work is done, I recorded the chimps as they were being fed.

Photo courtesy of Dee Marshall (http://www.beneaththeskies.com/)

Chimpanzee Sanctuary - Ngamba Island, Uganda

Tawny Owl recorded in southern Sweden (Sep 2019) from 25 meters / 80 ft. by Mats Bentmar using the SCHOEPS Parabolic Dish Set (hand-held) with the SCHOEPS CCM 4 cardioid microphone + SCHOEPS ParabolEQ Plug In, FREE, with parameters quickly set for each recording:
+ Distance (Close to Far Off)
+ Aim Inaccuracy (ON Center to OFF Center)
+ Diffuse/Free Field (Pure Diffuse Field to Pure Free Field)
+ Microphone (CCM 4, CCM 2, CCM 21 or CCM 22)
+ Low Cut (ON/OFF)
+ High Wind Cover (HWC, Windjammer or no windcover)
+ Presets (Sport, Nature, SFX etc.)
NO OTHER POST PRODUCTION.
For more information please visit: schoeps.de/dish
Photo by Mats Bentmar: www.bentmar.com
Telinga Microphones: www.telinga.com

SCHOEPS Parabolic Dish Set: Tawny Owl, 25 m / 80 ft, MONO, SCHOEPS parabolEQ plugin

When the Roebuck jumps away at 1m18s, one can hear a very low frequent sound. It can´t be from the ground, so it must be through the air from his body. (?) I would be grateful for any comment on this.  
Any effective hp filter that I tried for the low traffic noise, deleted the low freq sounds as well.

Roebuck and TawneOwl

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

Chiffchaff singing in rain and thunder

Capteur de sons - https://xeno-canto.org/contributor/JCPKCBKKAQ

Duo de Chouettes hulottes ligériennes un 6 janvier 2024

Olivier Swift

Recent comments

Chercheur de sons - Olivier Pichard

Related tracks