A Days Walking in the Hills North of Innerleithen Scottish Borders Summer 2024

A lone Golden Plover vocalises near the southwestern top of Windlestraw Law. 

 7th July 2024. 

EM272 pair + Sony A10

Windlestraw Law

Warning: this is a recording of a thunderstorm, it can get quite loud, listen to it at a reasonable volume!

Recording of a night in the forest.
00:12 Wind begins (03:13 am)
01:12 Wind drops, distant thunder (04:12 am)
01:34 Rain begins, thunder is coming closer (04:34 am)
01:58 Dawn Chorus begins (04:58 am)
02:31 Surise (05:31 am)

Location: Switzerland, Sihlwald, Weid
Date and time: 2025/06/26 03:00 am to 05:34 am
Recording: Zoom F3, Micbooster Clippy 172 XLR, Tree Ears
Postprocessing: lowcut at 80Hz, normalized to -35 db LUFS

20250626 030000 CH Sihlwald Weid Wind Thunderstorm Rain Dawn Chorus

45 Turn Out

Rycote ORTF blimp with USI Pro inside. Zoom f3 Recorder, in a small group of younger pine spruce trees.
Unedited recording other than fade in/out.

Rainfall Recording with DIY raincover (made from filter material)

RIVERSSSOUNDS Residency - River Lea 'Virtual Soundwalk'

Given that I had only one 640 TS to use as mid microphone, and had to switch between polar patterns on this one microphone for the purpose of comparative polar pattern recordings, it was naturally impossible to do properly parallel (simultaneous) recordings. Here, I've compiled a series of recordings made of passing electric trains, using different polar patterns. But there's a further complication. There are two tracks dedicated to electric trains: one nearer, and one slightly farther, from the position of the microphones. Trains travelling from left to right are on the farther track; trains travelling from right to left are on the nearer track. Even on the same railway track, no two trains sound exactly alike. So this is by no means a precise comparison. Even so, I do think that it provides some useful auditory 'feel' of differences between the various polar pattern settings for the mid mic, while using the 640 TSs in mid-side array.

2025.05.15 Polar Patterns Comparison. Electric Trains. Parklands Interstate Terminal.

A peaceful, meditative natural soundscape: the gentle wind through coastal forest; the deep roar of the Southern Ocean a mile away; and, immersed within the matrix of these elemental forces, a dispersed, quiet, but alive and recovering, early summer dawn - announced quite emphatically at the beginning of this recording by a nearby Red Wattlebird. (The Red Wattlebird's early 'wake up' calls are the only louder passage in this entire piece. It's a Red Wattlebird subspecies (Anthochaera carunculata clelandi) that is found only on Kangaroo Island.)

Recommended listening: Good quality headphones with a flat frequency response (preferably open-backed); or good quality stereo monitors. Relaxed deep meditative listening at a quiet time with minimal interference from extraneous noise. 

A note on the track image: The panorama photograph was taken from the middle of Snake Lagoon, facing the eastern forest margin of the lagoon. The recording was made from within the forest itself. At the time the photograph was taken, on 5th December 2024, Snake Lagoon, like most of the inland lagoons of Kangaroo Island, was dry, although its fertile soil floor was nevertheless green with flora, richly fertilised by the droppings of Kangaroo Island Kangaroos and Tammar Wallabies feeding on that same flora. Its dryness was due to a protracted period of unseasonal drought, a drought that was a major contributing cause to the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020. Those bushfires also raged through the coastal forests surrounding Snake Lagoon, which are seen, here, in this photograph, four years after the bushfires.

Related track: https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20241205-wind-and-red-wattlebird-snake-lagoon-early-summer. (An excerpt from the first part of this longer recording, featuring the dawn calls of the Red Wattlebird.)

2024.12.05 A Windswept Early Summer Dawn at Snake Lagoon, Kangaroo Island.

Two periwinkles munching on a seaweed stipe. Their varying tempos and soft crunch created an entrancing rhythm. 

Extract from a 20m recording by Julie Brook's tidal sculpture Tide Line along the Fife coastline, created as part of the national coastal arts festival Beach of Dreams. 

Species: Common Periwinkle (Littorina littorea)
Location: Cellardyke, Fife, Scotland.
Date and time: 16 May 2025 at 14:52
Habitat: Coastal
Gear: Sound Devices 744T, Aquarian Audio H2Ds

Periwinkles Duet

Thats short clip from one night under highest peakes in Alps - rock walls almost 1000meter high makes that place awesome echo. Owls in that time were crazy - never hear so intensive all night and so many different sounds from them. Also its time of deer rutting - and one came very close to microphones. Wind higher at mountains makes noise sound. 

Enjoy listen with headphones

recorded with two Sennheiser MKH8020 strapped on a tree and Zoom F3 recorder.



Owls Deer rut - Reverb - Alps valley - MKH8020

2025.09.14 Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters near my Tent at Dawn. Ngarkat. Early Spring.

Recorded live, by Fo Huth, 03/2019 @ elektrosmog Mannheim / Port25.

Hitzedauerwelle im Schweif

walking listening making sounds
https://immaterialmountain.bandcamp.com
https://simonopit.bandcamp.com

Windlestraw Law

Simon Opit