Songsfromthewood

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