It's ten past the witching hour on the 14 May and I'm in the darkness back at our friend ("Il Nostro Amico") completely entranced once more. 

These male nightingales learn around 180 different songs.  In fact males with the largest repertoires arrive earlier at the breeding sites, such as Knepp, have longer wings, and are heavier and in a better condition than males with smaller repertoires (Weiss, Hultsch, Adam, Scharff & Kipper 2014).

Knepp Nightingale #1 - Il Nostro Amico

I was fascinated by the Winterwatch programme where a Lesser Water Boatman was recorded using a hydrophone sliding his penis over his abdomen to try and attract a mate. This was also recorded using a hydrophone at 3 locations 29.1.23. There was still ice in the pond although it wasn't apparent at first and when it made contact with the contact mic there was a graunchy noise (especially towards the end). Note the Great Tit calling at the beginning and insect activity after 1.00 minute for 22 seconds. I couldn't tell if it was a Lesser Water Boatman but it sounded very similar.

Hydrophone 2 Hogsmill Nature Reserve Pond with Ice And Great Tit

A soundscape composition of St Andrews, West Dean. 

Connection between music and spaces. 
Architectural Acoustics. 
Looking at the way buildings sound.

Church

Cadogan Pier, North Bank of the river Thames, beneath Albert Bridge near Chelsea Embankment.  Built in 1841 Cadogan Pier has been Chelsea's only river transport link for over 150 years and currently it is served by the Thames Clipper Uber Boat service to Putney and Canary Wharf. This is a Hydrophone recording (recording under the water) taken on a sunny February afternoon - you'll hear boats, a helicopter, traffic on the bridge, a few birds, the pier, wind and waves.

Chapter 1:  Cadogan Pier, North Bank of the Thames, Chelsea Embankment London

A second visit to the RSPB reserve in Dungeness, the Lade Pits site of the WW2 listening devices - the early radar Sound Mirrors.

Lade Pits, Dungeness

Aeolian Choir

an early spring wetland in central Sweden, just before dawn

Black River Valley wetland, Sweden April 2023

It’s early dawn, around 3am, and the thrush nightingale has shifted to a closer song post in the willow hedgeline. Listen out for a second thrush nightingale. Lots of combative singing tactics, just like the common nightingale - singing over each other, copying each others' songs. 

The thrush nightingale and the common nightingale are related but rarely inhabit the same places. However, there is research from the Czech Republic and Poland into how the thrush nightingale sometimes copies song phrases from the common nightingale when they are found in the same location. 

At Knepp there is a nightingale that seems to have been hanging out with the thrush nightingales somewhere in its migratory journey, and copied a song stanza or two!


Also, listen out for barking, possibly roe deer, a vixen screaming, a grasshopper warbler, cuckoo, woodcock,willow warbler, common whitethroat, yellow hammer, and even a distant boom from a bittern.

This was recorded in June 2023 in collaboration with field recordist and guide Stefan Taylor in the Svartedalen region of Sweden. We set up a binaural dummy to record overnight.

Thanks to the National Lottery (via Arts Council England) for funding this trip to record these soundscapes of hope in these extraordinary Swedish nature reserves.

#SoundscapesOfHope

Soundscapes of Hope #7 - The Thrush Nightingale at dawn

It's Friday the 20th October. I walk out into the Knepp Wildland as the light fails. It smells and sounds-like autumn. It’s the time for the rut when the fallow deer bucks fight for territory and females. I’m up in the oak tree platform, it’s now completely dark, and I’m surrounded. Bucks are belching and antlers are clashing in the woodlands to the left and right of me. I hear splashing in the darkness as a buck decides to cross the lagoon in front of me. A tawny owl calls. Planes fly overhead. I wish I could stay safely in the tree platform until morning light, but dinner calls, and I have to be brave.

#KneppWildland #Rewilding #DeerRut

Knepp Soundscape #19 - The fallow deer rut

🏆 Winning entry in the 2023 Wildlife Sound Recording Society 2023 Richard Margoschis Documentary Competition.

“2023 was a big year of change for our family. We moved countries leaving behind the nest we’d built over 10 years. This piece was a way of processing our fleeting memories. Together with my two eldest daughters, we listen to and chat about the recordings I’d made of the swallows that visited our barn. We found parallels between them and us.

A huge thanks from myself and daughters to the WSRS for this award. Owls are a family favourite - don’t tell the swallows!”

Knepp Nightingale #1 - Il Nostro Amico

Hazel Reeves