Songsfromthewood

This recording was made on a wooded ridge above the village of Wiechs am Randen near Tengen in Baden-Württemberg/Southern Germany. This beautiful mixed forest with mainly beeches and spruces lies directly at the Swiss border on a northern extension of the Jura range at almost 800 m elevation. Being away from main roads and highways, it is one of the few places in the region where you can expect to find natural quiet for most of the night until late morning. Of course, as everywhere, airplanes are an issue with Zurich airport being 35 km away. There is a healthy bird population with tawny owls, song thrushes, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds, titmice, wood pigeons, woodpeckers and other songbirds. The recording begins right before the dawn chorus when a female Tawny Owl catches the attention of her mate with her high pitch calls that are immediately answered by the male’s eerie and vigorous hoots. It is especially noteworthy that the male’s calls are answered by what seems to be a Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)/Waldohreule (0:30 and 1:32 to 1:42) and also by a Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus)/Ringeltaube (3:15 to 4:38). Also note the rustling of the dry leaves which shows that there is always a good deal of rodent action on the forest floor. I set the mic up on a tripod at a hight of 4 feet. Still the rustling is very much audible. The Recording was made on 26 April 2009 at ca. 5.20 am with an MKH80/20 MS-Setup on an Edirol R-44 via a Lake People MIC-AMP C360.

Tawny Owl-Waldkauz-Wiechs-am-Randen-April-26-2009-ca.5.20am

During a short weekend vacation in Ticino/Switzerland, we went to a place that I have known since my childhood days: The Valle Verzasca.

The Verzasca River is a wild mountain creek that over the millenia dug its bed deep into the local granite.

After a while I found a good place to put my hydrophones in a little sinuosity some meters downstream from a little cataract. I used a rock as a sound barrier to get a good stereo picture and put the hydrophones on its sides. I very much liked the result.

The gear was two Aquarian Audio H2a-XLR, the Sounddevices MP-2 and my Edirol R-44.

verzasca-river-valle-verzasca-near-aquino-ticino-switzerland-august-31-2008-ca-515pm

On our trip through California we stayed for one night in San Simeon south of Big Sur.

On our arrival late at night on May 9 I found an interesting little river called Pico Creek, where the Pacific Treefrogs were very active. Being utterly tired I decided to have a few hours of sleep and to come back early in the morning, hoping the frogs would still be active before dawn. So back I was around 4.30am and found some of the frogs still active, so I quickly set up my gear and left for a walk along the beach.

The recording turned out to be quite interesting as gradually the dawn chorus built up with a lot of species and calls that I had never heard before. The roar of the surf can be clearly heard on the left.

This excerpt is my favourite with a lot of different things going on. If anybody could let me know about the species, I would be very grateful.

The gear again is my Sennheiser MKH80/20 combo with Sounddevices MP-2 and the Edirol R-4.

dawn-at-pico-creek-san-simeon-california-may-10-2008-ca-530am

Now an example of my yield from our trip to California in May 2008:

One of my favourite recording places was Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada/California.

It was actually recordings by Bernie Krause that turned me on to this place and I can really recommend it. Although it his perfectly accessible by car with a big parking lot, the tenacious nature recordist will have it exclusively to himself from shortly before dusk (when all the day tourists leave) till way in the morning.

And it is one of those places where you are very likely to find real silence… almost heaven to a Central European. Even airplanes are relatively rare!

At night I found the lovely babbling of the little creek and the glorious Pacific Treefrogs (Pseudacris regilla). The recording is from May 27 2008 ca. 10pm.

Listening to the recording brings me back up the Sierra among the sequoias immediately.

The gear was my Sennheiser MKH80/20 MS-combo, Sounddevices MP-2 and the Edirol R-4.

crescent-meadow-creek-and-pacific-treefrogs-sequoia-np-california-may-27-2008-ca-10pm

Here another one of my Buendlisried recordings:

I recorded it on June 8 2008 ca. 9.30am. The main protagonists are Edible Frogs/Teichfrösche (Pelophylax kl. esculentus), but there is a lot of other wildlife present.

The gear used is Sennheiser MKH80/20 MS directly into the Edirol R-44 without external preamp.

buendlisried-allensbach-germany-edible-frog-teichfrosch-june-8-2008-ca-1030am

The first recording I would like to present is a recording from last year during the Walpurgis Night when I went to my favourite recording place: The Buendlisried, a pond in the forest near Allensbach close to Lake Constance in Germany.

A small group of Northern Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) Kiebitz in German usally breeds there.

They are among the first birds to wake up in the morning when they perform their shrill calls accompanied by the unique “lapping” sound their wings make in flight.

Buendlisried-May 1 2007-ca-5am-kiebitz-northern-lapwing

The recording was done with a Sennheiser MKH80/40 MS-Setup and an Edirol R-4 with a Sounddevices MP-2.

Hi everybody!

Finally, I managed to start my Nature Recording Soundblog! Hurray! My aim is to make available to a wider public some of the fruits of my nature recording adventures.

I will add selected snippets of my recordings in MP3 format. They are downloadable for your private use. In case you wish to use any of my recordings commercially, please contact me.

So enjoy!!

Volker Widmann