Back to Haldon – Finally!
Dawn in the forest
After a couple of weeks when the dawn has been too wet or windy for recording, I finally made it up to Haldon Forest for the August recording of my year-long project.
Unfortunately the wind was carrying the sound of the A38 main road across the forest to where I was recording, and even after filtering there is still some traffic noise audible. For this reason I've made this month's track a condensed version with only the most interesting bits of action.
After remaining quiet all summer, the Fallow Deer are becoming more vocal as they approach the rutting season. A group of seven deer crossed the road only metres from the car as I was recording, including the first antlered stag I've seen this year.
Also heard in this recording are a couple of summer migrants, now close to the end of their stay but still making their voices heard. First of all a Nightjar, which actually swooped overhead, silhouetted against the dawn sky, before it called. Towards the end of the recording a Chiffchaff also breaks into song.
Partially baffled boundary array
This recording was the first field test of a new type of stereo array for my AT4022 microphones. Drawing on the design of Crown's "SASS" microphones and also the research of several members of the NatureRecordists Yahoo group, this features two angled wooden boundary plates with an acoustic foam baffle between them. My initial feeling is that it significantly improves the width and localisation of the stereo field - comments and opinions are very welcome!
Even when things don't go quite to plan with the recording it's still wonderful to be out in the forest so early in the morning - driving back I caught a glimpse of fog around Exeter, so I made a detour to a point where I could look down onto the city rising out of the morning mist.
Exeter surrounded by fog
Ravens in the Forest
I'm currently working on a project to record dawn at the same location in Haldon Forest every month for a year. This is going to become increasingly challenging as the days shorten and the sunrise moves closer to the time when people start getting up and heading to work in their cars - on the other hand I'll be spared the pain of getting up at 03:30!
It's now late July, and the dawn chorus is virtually non-existent. With breeding over most of the birds are busy feeding on the abundance of insects and seeds around the forest and are quiet except for occasional contact calls. In the distance a Nightjar calls over the scrubland, and then falls silent as the light grows. Tawny Owls and a Kestrel can also be heard, before a group of Ravens arrive in the area. Towards the end of the piece a Great-spotted Woodpecker flies in and begins feeding on a nearby tree.
This is actually a condensed version of an 80-minute recording, with passing cars/aircraft and long periods with little or no activity removed. The Raven segment has been left pretty much intact however, to include the wide variety of different calls the birds produce.
Recorded with 2 x AT4022 omnidirectional microphones in a parallel boundary array, connected to a Tascam HD-P2 recorder. Filtering applied with apQualizr to remove distant traffic noise, and levels boosted by 20dB for easier listening.
Posted from Newton Abbot, England, United Kingdom.
The Somerset Levels
Shapwick Heath (© Li-Li Williams 2010)
These two recordings come from a weekend spent in the Somerset Levels, one of south-west England's richest wildlife habitats. An area of peat moorland less than 5m above sea level, the Levels have endured centuries of agricultural drainage and peat extraction. Several nature reserves have now been established, collectively refereed to as the Avalon Marshes. Consisting of thousands of acres of rough pasture, flooded peat workings and moorland, the marshes are now an important habitat for breeding and wintering birds.
The first track is from Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve (NNR) and was recorded at 9:30pm. Shapwick Heath and the adjoining Ham Wall NNR support a large population of introduced Marsh Frogs (Rana ridibunda). The origin of these isn't clear, but they seem to have been around for many years. In this recording the microphones are positioned beside a marshy pond, surrounded by trees. A cloud of mosquitoes over the water create a drone loud enough to register on the recording, although you may need to listen through headphones for the full itch-inducing effect. As the Marsh Frogs begin croaking a Tawny Owl hunting over the marshes joins in with an occasional hoot.
The second recording was made at 5:15am the following morning in Ham Wall NNR, from a hide overlooking a flooded peat working. The reason for using the hide will become apparent during the recording when a sudden rain shower passes through - the weather that morning was far from ideal! Again we hear the Marsh Frogs, although as the daylight grows they become much less vocal. A pair of Mute Swan were feeding on submerged plants just in front of the hide - you can hear them calling to each other with quiet grunts, and occasionally blowing bubbles beneath the surface. Also listen out for the cow which is clearly trying to pass itself off as a booming Bittern!
We never did hear a Bittern that day, but we certainly saw one - what both Lil and myself had taken to be a large tuft of grass about 10m in front of us on a grassy track suddenly spread its wings and flew away across the marshes. Shows just how good their camouflage is!
Posted from Bridgwater, England, United Kingdom.
Haldon Forest Sunrise
A late June sunrise amongst the confer plantations in Haldon Forest, Devon. The energetic dawn chorus of April and May is now more relaxed, and the main singers in this recording are Blackcap and Siskin. There are also a number of deer calls throughout the recording - if anyone can ID these I'd be grateful. The forest has a large population of melanistic Fallow Deer, as well as Roe Deer. The recording was begun around 05:08 and originally ran for 35 minutes, however in this version several sections with passing vehicle noise have been removed. Recorded with 2 x AT4022 omnidirectional microphones in a parallel boundary array, connected to a Tascam HD-P2 recorder. Filtering applied with apQualizr to remove distant traffic noise, and levels boosted by 15dB for easier listening.
Marsh Frogs
Not a great recording, this was made mainly for ID purposes. I've never heard these frogs before (they're not native to the UK and are only present as an introduced species) and had no idea they were present at the location, which is Shapwick Heath NNR on the Somerset Levels. The frogs were calling from an inaccessible patch of woodland and some strange acoustic effect made it sound like the calls were coming from up in the canopy, which initially made me think they were some kind of tree frog.
Nightjar
Last night Lil and I were watching the BBC's "Springwatch" programme1 , which had a piece on Nightjars on the lowland heaths in Dorset. This reminded us that we have our very own Nightjar habitat just 2 miles from our house, the Little Haldon Heaths SSSI, and since it was a lovely evening we thought we'd go and see if any birds were calling.
We arrived at the heath just before sunset, and walked out to one of the more remote areas. The site is bordered by farmland and bisected by a well-used B-road, so vehicle noise is an issue everywhere. We heard the first Nightjar calling in the distance at around 21:40, some 20 minutes after sunset. This bird was too far away to record successfully, but hearing it churring along with a late Skylark and a just-awakening Tawny Owl was beautiful. We then slowly retraced our steps back to the parking area and came across another bird calling from a clump of conifer trees. Again, this was a little too far away to record, and after a few minutes it moved on to another part of the heath.
At this point we split up for a few minutes - Lil wanted to check out the local bat life with her detector and I wanted to look at the conifer trees to see whether there were any decent concealed recording sites close by. As I headed back down the path to meet up with Lil again I could hear a Nightjar calling in front of me. The bird had landed on a bare branch about 10m from where Lil was standing, and I managed to get this recording before it moved on. At the end of the recording you hear a wonderful example of the bird "clapping" by striking its wings together over its back as it flies away.
The recording was made with a Sennheiser ME66/K6 microphone and a Tascam HD-P2 recorder. Levels boosted by 20dB in post and some filtering applied using apQualizr to remove distant traffic noise.
Posted from Bishopsteignton, England, United Kingdom.
- For those of you not from the UK this is a series which runs for a few weeks in late Spring following various wildlife stories using hidden cameras and location film crews [↩]
New toys
A recent UK price drop meant I've finally been able to get my hands on a pair of Audio-Technica AT4022s - the successor to the AT3032 which has proved very popular amongst wildlife recordists for its low self-noise and affordable price.
The AT4022 is an omnidirectional microphone, meaning it is equally sensitive to sound from all directions.1 Because of this, an ORTF set-up like I was using with the RØDE NT1As would deliver very little in the way of stereo. Instead I've mounted the microphones in a parallel boundary array, based on the work of Curt Olson and other contributors to the Naturerecordists Yahoo group (photos below).
These recordings are from a morning spent testing the new rig on the sand dunes at Dawlish Warren NNR. The microphones are connected to a Tascam HD-P2 recorder, and the only post-processing is a gain boost of around 20dB to save you turning up your speakers!
Whitethroat (Sylvia communis)
Skylark (Alauda arvensis)
Initial thoughts - the self-noise of the microphone is definitely more noticeable that that of the NT1As2 but the recordings have a far more natural feel. With the NT1As I always "knew" I was listening to a recording, whereas with a good set of headphones it's possible to completely lose yourself in the AT4022 recordings and feel like you're back in the field listening to the birds. My guess is this is partly down to the more even frequency response of the new microphones, along with the better stereo field created by the parallel boundary array.
The recordings were made on a fairly breezy morning, and the only protection on the microphones was the simple foam cover provided in the box. Aside from a few particularly strong gusts I had no trouble with wind noise while recording - another advantage of omnidirectional microphones which are typically much less sensitive to wind than cardioids.
Posted from Exmouth, England, United Kingdom.
- Theoretically anyway. In practice the response pattern becomes a little uneven at higher frequencies - see this diagram: http://eu.audio-technica.com/en/resources/e873eb8efe56cafc_at4022_polar.jpg [↩]
- The AT4022 is rated at 13dB(A) self-noise as opposed to the 5dB(A) of the NT1A, one of the quietest consumer microphones available [↩]
Morning at Dawlish Warren
A few minutes beside the pond at Dawlish Warren, with Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), Coot (Fulica atra) and Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) all making an appearance.
Blackbird
I recently bought a Portabrace1 case for my Tascam HD-P2 recorder. It took a little while to arrive as the case had to be shipped from the USA (and judging by the date on the manufacturing tag I suspect it was made to order as well) but it was well worth the wait - it protects the recorder all round while still allowing easy access to every control and connector. This evening I tested it in the field for the first time, and while walking around the local lanes I came across this Blackbird (Turdus merula) singing in a hedge about 3 metres away, with the sound of the Aller Brook audible in the background:
Posted from Ashcombe, England, United Kingdom.
- The more-or-less industry standard navy blue bags you see almost every sound recordist carrying their gear in [↩]
Long-winged Coneheads
Long-winged Conehead
(Conocephalus discolor)
I've been hearing these crickets calling since August, but it was only the other day that I managed to get a look at one and actually identify the species.
I can hear the call very clearly, even over background noise like traffic, but all the people I've pointed it out to have had to listen for several minutes before they "tune in" to the sound. I'd be interested to hear how easily people can pick it out when they listen to the recording...
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Recorded at Dawlish Warren NNR with an Olympus LS-10, using the built-in microphones with Rycote Mini Windjammers.
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What I'm Doing...
- New disks in and Windows 7 finally up and running. I wasn't expecting floppy disks to feature anywhere in the process, but I was wrong... 2010-08-03
- Windows 7 Ultimate has arrived... just waiting for the hard disks now. 2010-08-03
- Hard drive died. Finally time to say adiós to Win XP after 8 years and take the plunge with Windows 7 - going to take some getting used to! 2010-08-02
- Great weekend in Somerset Levels - Hobby, Marsh Harrier, Brown Hare, close encounter with a Bittern! Thanks @nodster for birthday tweet :-) 2010-07-11
- More updates...
Recent Comments
- Paul: I could easily have believed the mute swan grunting to be human dissatisfaction with the rain
Glad my friends know a lot more about nature than I do 
on The Somerset Levels - Ben Vallack: Excellent recording!
on Nightjar - Terence: Hello Tom, I very much enjoyed listening to your recordings. Since you got the new AT4022s, are these now your primary nature recording microphones and have the NT1As been delegated to the bottom shelf? Also, will you post a picture...
on New toys - Paul: Reckon you can send faxes with tweeting like that!
on New toys - Paul: hadn’t seen sound cloud player before, very nice!
on Morning at Dawlish Warren
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