Name: Elephants Feeding at Night, Thailand by Wild Ambience
Duration: 5 min 25 s
Description: Captured on a remote recorder, two elephants feed close to the hidden microphones, occasionally sniffing the equipment. The rest of the herd are a little farther off in the background.

Two elephants can be heard here - one to the right and the other just to the left

Low frequency 'roars' from another in the background

At this stage I think they were happily feeding, not noticing my equipment

The elephant on the right moves across in front of the microphones

Both elephants slowly move away to the left

These sniffs surely picked up a dose of my scent on the kit.

Recorded in an ecotone of mangrove and coastal rainforest on Batanta, a large island in the Raja Ampat Archipelago off the coast of West Papua. This sample features the calls of Spangled Drongo & Brown Oriole, along with Black Thicket Fantail, Northern Fantail, New Guinea Friarbird, Spice Imperial Pigeon, Claret-breasted Fruit-dove, Coconut Lorikeet, Red-cheeked Parrot, Glossy-mantled Manucode & Torresian Crow.

Batanta Rainforest, West Papua

Dawn in Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, Malaysia. Recorded at daybreak, rich birdsong along with and the jazz-like percussive rattles of a cicada species building in intensity from about halfway through this sample. Agile Gibbons sing in the background.

Dawn Chorus - Ulu Muda Rainforest, Malaysia

Summer night on Hällsjön at around 1:00am. Eurasian Bittern, Common Snipe, Eurasian Woodcock, Sedge Warbler and many more species were actively calling 
through the (short!) night.

Hällsjön Wetland Night Soundscape - Sweden

NOTE: This is a binaural soundscape ... please listen using headphones! Otherwise, you may not appreciate the magic.

I always strive to keep my ears well-tuned, in order to perceive uplifting soundscapes that might easily escape notice, but sometimes I am not quite up to the task. Such was the case in late July of 2018.

I met up with two recording friends at one of my favorite wild areas … Shindagin Hollow in upstate New York, near where I live. We were very glad to see one another and immediately began chatting about this and that as we hooked up our recording equipment (they with parabolic reflectors and me with my binaural soundscape microphone). Then we dispersed, heading into the forest in different directions, each hoping to capture something of value.

It was then that I paused for a moment just to take in the scene … a foggy misty morning following a rainy night … the deep forest of hemlocks and hardwoods … drip from leaves in all directions … and subtle bird songs. I took a long slow breath and began to amble down the trail. At that moment, a wood thrush caught my attention, singing in the distance though quite clear. I stopped and listened more attentively … another was sounding off from even farther away, and a very faint one as well, unless I was just imagining it. And did I just hear a hermit thrush, buried in the mix?

Oh my, I almost did not notice … there, right next to the road, a lone ground cricket trilling prominently from the gravel. How could I have missed such an obvious sound? And then I detected a barred owl, hooting way off in the distance. And a mourning dove, just audible, cooing softly time and again.

Suddenly, I shook myself awake, finally aware of the miracle before me! The magic I was hoping to find somewhere down the trail was actually right next to me, fully and elegantly expressed! I did not need to walk down the trail in search of anything because nature was already showering me with an exalted mix, an elixir so pure and powerful that it thrilled my entire being, but only after I became fully receptive to it. Had I kept walking, I would have missed it entirely. Thank you wood thrush for breaking the spell of my self absorption, for unplugging my ears and inviting me into the here and now!

So finally I jumped into action … I quickly set up my soundscape mic, hit record, and prayed that nothing would interrupt this amazing concert so freely given. How careful we must be to keep our minds calm and quiet and our senses free of interference, so that we do not miss the extraordinary beauty that nature showers upon us, sometimes subtly, and often when we least expect it to arrive.

© Lang Elliott, Music of Nature. All Rights Reserved.

Thrush Dripscape

Sample from the 93 minute album "Borneo: Nepenthes Forest". 

Gentle rain, frogs, birds and a thunderstorm recorded in one of Borneo’s unique lower montane habitats.

Full album available for download from https://wildambience.com/albums/borneo-nepenthes-forest/

Borneo: Nepenthes Forest

Borneo: Nepenthes Forest - Album Sample

Sample from the 83 minute album "Borneo: Night Symphony".

Dreamy nocturnal soundscape from Borneo's rainforest featuring the unique calls of Bornean Treehole Frogs.

Full album available for download from wildambience.com/albums/borneo-night-symphony/

Borneo: Night Symphony

Borneo: Night Symphony - Album Sample

Peaceful landscape with gentle sounds of life. Recording was made at 5 in the morning, in the place visible in the picture. 

Equipment used: Zoom F3 digital recorder with EM-172 capsules. Recorded 32-bit 48kHz

Morning in the bog. Kuresoo, Soomaa, Estonia Mai 22, 2023

Captured on a remote recorder, two elephants feed close to the hidden microphones, occasionally sniffing the equipment. The rest of the herd are a little farther off in the background.

Elephants Feeding at Night, Thailand

Sutherland 19/5/2010 5:00pm. With raven and willow warbler.


Cuckoos

Recorded in late May, 2018. Springtime dawn chorus in Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest.

Dawn Chorus - Fiske Clearing

Full Story + Photos: https://acousticnature.com/journal/field-recording-trip-vermont-ice-storm 

I recorded this soundscape at my friend's cabin in Vermont near the Green Mountain National Forest. The forest was covered in a thick layer of ice from a recent freezing rain storm. 

While I was chopping wood, I noticed the sound of ice crystals falling to the forest floor and shattering. The sound was constant and gusts of wind caused larger crystals to fall. 

As soon as I became aware of this subtle sound, I knew I had to record it. Because I didn't know how much battery life I would get in the frigid temps (15°F), I waited until 11pm to setup my recording gear. I did this to maximize my chance at a noise-pollution-free recording hoping that most people would be asleep.

To setup the recording I wanted to bungee cord my binaural microphone to a tree, but it was too difficult and too cold to have the patience necessary to get it right. Instead, I simply put the microphone on top of a snow bank facing the forest and the D100 in a dry bag next to it.

I was shocked to find the D100 still recording when I returned at 7:26am.

In total, I recorded for 8hr 22min and ended up with 23min of usable audio (≈4.6%). In post-production, I added a lo-cut filter at 180Hz, 12dB/octave to remove some low-frequency wind rumbling, and increased the loudness slightly to -30LKFS. 

Recorder: D100
Mics: DIY Binaural Housing
Sensitivity: 4
Lo-cut: OFF
Time: 11:04pm
Wind Protection: 2 Winter Hats

To learn more about me, my gear, or field recording in general, please visit my website at www.acousticnature.com

Thank you for reading and listening. ♫
-Jared

Shattering Ice Forest | Freezing Rain Aftermath in Vermont

The sounds of biodiversity. Natural soundscapes and wildlife sounds from around the world.

Elephants Feeding at Night, Thailand

Wild Ambience

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