Recorded at 6am in tropical rainforest on the slopes of Mt. Lewis, Queensland, Australia.

Mt. Lewis Rainforest

Mt. Lewis Rainforest, QLD, Australia

With my many trips out recording in the field, this track personally for me is one of the most beautiful sounds I have recorded.

It was at 3:50am on the 13th of June 2012 on the banks of the river Waveny near Geldeston, Suffolk, UK. I had set up the microphones the evening before and ran a 50-metre cable back to a boat. 
Luckily there was very little wind to affect the recording and to my delight as the dawn chorus began, a Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) came close to my microphones and started to sing his beautiful song.
Many other songbirds are singing and calling, including Blackbird, Wren, Tawny Owl, Cockerel and a Cuckoo halfway through this recording.
No wonder so many poets such as Tomas Hardy, Robert Browning, William Wordsworth and Edward Thomas have included this bird in their poems describing its wonderful song.

 It was pure joy resting on my bed in the boat wearing my headphones, listening live as I was recording this beautiful song. Not a bad way to start the day!
 The photo is of the location, taken the evening before as I was setting up the microphones and cable.

BeautifulNow Competition Entry: Song Thrush at Dawn

3 minute audio sample from the 66 minute nature soundscape; "Dawnsong of Tuis", available for download from www.listeningearth.com/LE/product.php?id=123

The Tui (pronounce "too-ee"), a native honeyeater of New Zealand, has one of the most extraordinary voices of the bird world.

Their vocabularies consist of fluting and ringing bell-like tones, wheezy whistles, buzzes, clucks and ultrasonics almost too high for the human ear.

This recording will take you to the majestic old-growth forest of Whirinake, to hear a sublimely musical chorus of Tuis singing in the hour before dawn.

As I stood in the darkness that morning, under ancient tree ferns, hearing those first Tuis begin calling, I knew it would be a special recording. It was one of those moments that I hope to hear; when nature creates pure beauty. I feel this album is a meditation on the beauty of the natural world. 

'Dawnsong of Tuis' - Album Sample

Beginning of the rainy season, thunder peels across the bush. Limpopo River perspective.

Recorded during Sonic Mmabolela
November 29 - 30, 2013

Midnight On The Limpopo (Fragment)

About 12 hours into the recording session.

Recorded during Sonic Mmabolela 2013

Hippopotamuses at Mmabolel Rock (Fragment)

Recorded Nov 15th 2013 approx 3 hrs after Sunrise at Ravensbourne National Park in QLD Australia

Noisy Friarbird And Friends

Composition made from sounds recorded over a 15 hour period last Summer, in the tea tree forests on the edge of Marley Lagoon in Royal National Park.
https://jeremyh.bandcamp.com/album/summer-marley-lagoon-at-night
https://jeremyh.bandcamp.com/album/summer-marley-lagoon-pre-dawn-to-dawn

Marley Lagoon, Dusk To Dawn, 8-9 February, 2014

I compared a stereo pair of MKH 8020s mounted in a DIY foam SASS, with a pair of Audio Technica AT 4022s mounted in a Crown SASS.  These are consecutive recordings (rather than simultaneous), it was early dawn on Xmas morning, rigs were set up on my front verandah.  By ear I cannot pick the difference between the two rigs, but a sound spectrograph shows that the 8020s are a little noisier.  Both rigs alternately ran to a Sound Devices 702 recorder, I added 3 db to the 4022s in post, to match the levels.

SASS RIGS COMPARED: MKH 8020s v AT 4022s

Bardia National Park protects the largest area of undisturbed forest and grassland in the Terai (lowlands) region of Nepal. The sal forests and open grasslands are home to around 53 species of mammal and over 400 bird species. This album is a compilation of various field recordings captured in a range of habitats over the course of a day inside the reserve. Recorded in early spring, when many of the resident birds and newly-arrived migrant species start to breed, the forests are alive with song.

At first light, the calls of nocturnal birds, Large-tailed Nightjar and Asian Barred Owlet, fade into the rising dawn chorus. Rich, fluty notes from the Black-hooded Oriole echo through the park, while a White-rumped Shama melodiously whistles phrases to declare his territory. The alarm calls from Chital (Spotted Deer) are a reminder that Bardia is a stronghold for predators such as tiger and leopard. Later in the day, a light breeze picks up, and Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters glide above the grasslands, hawking for insects. The album concludes with the afternoon quietly descending into twilight, cuckoos still calling as the birds of the night awaken.

This album can be purchased as an mp3 or FLAC download from : https://wildambience.com/albums/a-day-in-bardia/

A Day in Bardia

Download Album

A Day in Bardia - Bardia National Park, Nepal: Album Sample

Bat field recordings from a recent trip to the North GA mountains. This sound clip was captured using the Anabat SD2 - Bat Detector - high microphone. This device allows you to monitor the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats for species identification and activity measurement. The particular species of bat in this recording are the Indiana Bat. The typical hearing range of this bat is between 20hz - 150Khz. They locate their prey by means of echolocation. They will produce a very, loud short sound and assess the echo when it bounces back. The type of insect and how big it is can be determined by the quality of the echo and time it takes for the echo to rebound. They also use two frequency types; constant frequency (CF) and frequency modulated (FM) calls that descend in pitch. Each type reveals different information for the bat. The CF is used to detect an object, and the FM is used to provide information regarding the nature of the object and its distance. The pulses of sound produced by the bat last only a few thousandths of a second with silences between the calls that give time to listen for the information coming back in the form of a echo. I was amazed at how complex some of these  echolocation patterns looked on a sonogram and was even more blown away by how they sounded. This file was outputted from the Anabat software application which takes the bat calls and converts them to wave files. The Anabat software application also converted the calls to a audible human hearing range (20hz-20khz) as most of the bats calls went up into the 150khz range. 

http://www.titley-scientific.com/us/index.php/sd2-bat-detector

Link to the Sonogram here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151218179915358&set=a.132078960357.137137.708680357&type=1&theater

Bat Recordings - with the Anabat SD2 - Ultrasonic Echolocation Detector

A flock of the critically endangered species, estimated 12 individuals, paid a rare  the Hunter coast to feed on flowering Swamp Mahogany. Resident for a week they remained in a small area of forest including Banksia, Angophora and E. robusta. This was a ? feeding or contact call. two males calling from mid-canopy taking a break from the blossom to sally and glean insects and sing.

SASS RIGS COMPARED: MKH 8020s v AT 4022s

Vicki Powys