My scientific as well as my artistic work is based on a wide range of motivations and ways of approaching the sound of the so called natural world – regardless, whether it’s the sound of an entire habitat or a single animal or the fundamental sounds of the elements.
I was quite surprised when, with the (brief) rise in temperature, Common Spadefoot advertising calls were suddenly heard from the canals and ditches surrounding my cabin. However, the species prefers sandy soils (to burrow) and stagnant or slow-flowing water for spawning. So the adjacent environment is a perfect biotope.
Before the political situation in the federal state of Saxony changed so much that one has to deny any connection to it, I felt kind of a certain connection to many areas around the city of Leipzig. As with any naturalist, my fieldrecording year was determined by the life cycle of nature. The Red Deer Cervus elaphus rut is one of the classic motifs of wildlife sound recording and was therefore part of my fixed annual schedule – recorded here in my favourite area, the so-called Wildenhainer Bruch, north of Leipzig.
I went to a local common Northern Raven Corvus corax roost. Unexpectedly, it started raining and it was also very windy. I was a little undecided whether I should perhaps abort the session, but then decided to continue recording that rather rough setting. In the end, I liked the combination of everything much more than a clear recording of these fascinating birds. Special guest: Tawny Owl and Greater White-fronted Goose. Rendered to binaural from double mid-side stereo
Both are among the most exciting noise sources in nature and for this reason are iconic subjects in Fieldrecording like the AB stereo format used here. Here we go.
During a raptor survey in a seemingly endless coniferous forest, I passed a gas measurement and control station. In addition to the visual deplacency in the middle of the forest, I immediately recognised the massive sound that the station produces. After work, it immediately became clear, sound recordings would have to be made here. I could not expect any exciting sounds from the monoculture forest on a night in early March, so that the artificial sounds would be clearly audible. An interesting example that it does not take much to dominate the soundscape of an entire landscape by a relatively small intervention.
2021 ended somewhat unexpectedly sound-wise. From the reeds along a small canal I heard sounds that sounded like the muffled mooing of a cow. It turned out to be Nutrias Myocastor coypus. Nutrias are rodents from South America, so they are considered an invasive species in Europe. The populations here are offspring of animals abandoned by fur hunters in the past. The species is now widespread, actually harmless, but quite unpopular with humans. I heard these sounds consciously for the first time.
The recent history of the Grey Wolf Canis lupus in Central Europe, like almost everywhere else in the world, is also a history of competition, suppression and finally persecution. In superstition, they were portrayed as dangerous to humans directly, they were in fact seen as competitors for food and were therefore killed throughout the area. In addition to the desire to kill, hunters also see themselves in the role of those who have to put nature in order and, with the end of the Grey Wolf in Central Europe also as the end of the food chain. One argument in favour of hunting wild animals has been, at the latest since the Grey Wolf's extinction, to have to take over its role in nature. In 1904, the last wild local Grey Wolf was shot in Germany. Between 1945 and 1990 13 wolves were killed in the GDR ('East-Germany') and nine in the FRG ('West-Germany'). Since 1990, the Grey Wolf has been protected by the Nature Conservation Act in Germany, but exploring Grey Wolves are continuously shot illegally. Increasing exploration movements of Eastern European populations led in 2000, for the first time since 1850, to the reproduction of a wild pair of Grey Wolves. Then the development accelerated. So, 20 years later a monitoring yielded the following results (source: Bundesamt für Naturschutz): Packs 128, Pairs 35, single individuals 10 Between 2000 and the end of 2020, the following figures were given for kills: roadkill 393, illegal intentional kills 51 Since the 'return' of the Grey Wolf to Germany, an unpleasant mixture of hunting-, agricultural- and shepherd lobbies, together with the conservative to right-wing press, has been exerting pressure on politicians to officially allow Grey Wolves to be shot and to place the management of the population under the control of the hunting authority. Since 2020, so-called 'problem wolves' can now officially be killed in Germany. These are individuals that either repeatedly attack unprotected livestock herds or do not shy away from humans and visit human settlements in search of food. In the hope of a little bit of local or social media fame, people have in the past fed Grey Wolf offspring and posted videos of them. Animals that are imprinted on humans often lose all shyness and are thus more or less tame. Despite all the antipathy towards livestock breeders, it must be said that in parts of this community a slow rethinking is taking place and people are getting used to now necessary protection measures, e.g. for sheep, and thus no longer support the call for a management of the Grey Wolf population. This audio recording comes from a wild pack of wolves in Brandenburg. Thanks are due to all those who are committed to opposing the killing of wildlife and of course to Сталкер TN!
Recording sound of a thunderstorm is not an easy thing to do if you value a sound that is not colored by the reflections of a building or muffled a shelter. There are just too few dry thunderstorms in the Northern Hemisphere, unfortunately. Tonight there was a really exceptionally long and intense thunderstorm in Leipzig. Since my apartment building is adjacent to a very spacious courtyard, there is a massive reverberation there, which makes it acoustically very interesting, even if it is not a thunderstorm in an open field.
Regular visitors to my blog will know that one of my favourite nature reserves is a former military training area south of Berlin (see: Scorched Earth I) After a massive fire some years back, new flora is now showing up and with it first larger fauna. One species was always present even right after the big fire, is the Eurasian Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus. This bird species prefers an open, dry landscape with little ground vegetation and prefers to hunt insects in flight. The overall behaviour of this species is remarkable, as it is highly specialised and the mostly nocturnal encounters are always something special. Since the species is not very shy, sometimes approach the observer very close one might even think they are 'curious'. www.singwarte.info
Strong winds have been persisting for weeks, making wildlife sound recording outdoors almost impossible at the moment. Fortunately, there are birds that breed in buildings, like barn swallows. In this case, even in an observation tower in a nature reserve.
One of my favourite songs among Eurasian songbirds. Often not recognised as a song, it is nevertheless complex and sometimes even contains imitations - as here from the Black Woodpecker.
My first recording session of the year. Tundra Bean Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Greylag Geese, Whooper Swans, Mute Swans leaving their roost.
Several displaying European Tree Frogs recorded near a substation. In background Common Nightingales and noise from a motorway. Double-MS recording down-mixed to binaural. No filtering.
A binaural mix consisting of a wind energy plant surround sound recording and a simultaneously with two geophones recorded windmill.
At the beginning of April, during a sound recording trip, I accidentally came across a roost of Common Starlings Sturnus v. vulgaris consisting of several hundreds of individuals. During the morning recording session I realised that those songs were differently from those uttered at night. At night the birds arriving at the roost and and look for a suitable corner to sleep. Whilst doing this they territorial songs whereas in the morning one can hear birds uttering social or conversational songs all together.
I am regularly asked how exactly I came to sound recording. The answer is as short as simple: I discovered that there are animal sounds that are very abstract and sound surprisingly artificial. Here my personal interest in synthesising sounds began to fade away...
Listen to the ice of a frozen channel melting and cracking under the warm winter sun. Mittellandkanal, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, 02.01.2020
No doubt, fireworks are something exciting for a sound enthusiast. The impact, however to the natural world, pets and people with no interest in extremely loud detonations or certain traumas are devastating - just to talk about the acoustic aspect. In the past few years there have been many studies on the health effects of fireworks made in urban areas, but surprisingly little in rural areas or in nature reserves. What happens in such a nature reserve during at several hours of massive noise production in medium or large distances around that particular spot? In 2012 I made sound recordings during the New Year's Eve fireworks at the same spot called Flachwasserzone Mannhausen located in the Drömling Biosphere Reserve, Saxony Anhalt. For a better spatial location of the events, I have made sound recordings again - but now in a 360 ° format. So this track is a binaural version of an Ambisonics recording. Caution! There are naturally very loud peaks in the recording that could damage your hearing.
I went to Germany's most famous Common Crane roost north of Berlin recently. My goal was to make sound recordings of a really large number of Common Cranes arriving at roost. In this case around 20.000 individuals. It is certainly arguable whether it is right, in times of continuous habitat loss, to bring people just to these places to reconnect with nature. Since several Common Crane roosts have re-established in Germany, a veritable hype has been created about it. The idea of conservation gave way to the desire to make money with a natural resource, with minimal protection for the species and its habitat. So here we are: fields where birds used to search for food on are now crowded with people, small villages look like car parks in front of shopping malls and the roosts themselves are like funfairs, only the wurst stalls are missing. Of course all these people came to this rather rural place by car. For me as a field recordist this meant another time: not a good place for sound recording due to the massive anthropogenic noise. Nevertheless, I recorded some smaller flocks further away instead of the 20.000 at the actual hotspot, yet with considerable noise. Stereo downmix from ambisonics.
So, what do we hear here? Well, it's actually just wind blowing into a tube with one open end...
In 2015 I was in Egypt for a few weeks for a survey job. To be honest it was a rather unfortunate trip. The political situation was very difficult, the people seemed to be somehow nervous and anxious. Beside the actual work being able to move freely, e.g. for sound recordings, was only possible very limited. That's why I only made very few sound recordings, actually I have seen and heard only little of the area we were operating in. But, the few recordings that I have trigger quite strong memories and feelings. This happens regularly when I take my time and listen through my collection, but it is rarely so intensely. Interestingly enough, I've only recently noticed this transforming effect, since then I have been trying to take more time for it and that's why I started to share some special recordings here. European Mole Cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa African Common Toad Amietophrynus gutturalis
On expeditions in unfamiliar areas, it might happen that the sheer number of interesting sounds overwhelms you. Especially when no man made noise pollutes the soundscape. In such a situation, I either prefer not to make any sound recordings at all or to quickly decide what to focus on. In a valley in central Mongolia, I was looking/hearing for Godlewski's Buntings. In the very moment I found a singing male, two shepherd boys with more than 100 horses came up the slope - straight towards me. Immediately it was clear that a clean recording of the bunting would never succeed under these circumstances. On the other hand, the chance to record such a large herd of horses would not be that easy anymore - especially since they were still far enough to bring my recording rig well into position... Bird species in background: Common Rosefinch, Ortolan Bunting, Eastern Black Redstart, Eurasian Cuckoo
Normally I do not deploy autonomous recording units, except for scientific monitoring. Why? For me, the best part of sound recording is listening during the recording process (actually, of course, a recording would not have to be done at all to do so). I was in a marsh area in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to do a certain job (sound recordings of Whiskered Tern flight calls for my bird ID website birds-in-flight). In the afternoon, I noticed that a thunderstorm came up. Occasions to get thunderstorms recordings without made-noise are rare. So I deployed a second recording kit and continued to do my job. Thus, this is a rather improvised sound recording of the thunderstorm, including some typical bird sounds of a Brandenburg marshland: White-tailed Eagle, Greylag Goose, Common Tern, Whiskered Tern, Grey Heron, Great Cormorant, Savi's Warbler, Mallard, Eurasian Coot, Gadwall, Black-headed Gull...
As someone who has been socialised in a quasi-socialist state, it is very important to me that there is an awareness that one's own success is also based on the work and knowledge of others. Likewise, it is natural for me to share knowledge and experience and not to cultivate competitiveness. In addition to this very fundamental attitude, I believe that it can be advantageous for anyone, to approach their own work with the help of non-specialist people, to gain a new perspective on it - even if it may seem more of a disadvantage at first. This sound recording was taken in such a moment. Even this is not really a decent recording (screaming people in the background, quite some noise, my audible breath), it is something special for me, since I would not have walked to this place alone. Thank you!
In the north of Berlin, just beyond the city boundary is a beautiful wetland called Tegeler Fließ. Here the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt spent his childhood. Today, this area is not only scenic impressive, it also home to a good number of bird species. Since it is only 45 minutes away from my home, I often go there - during the post-breeding season especially to make recordings of grasshoppers and aquatic insects. Here is a short excerpt from one of those underwater sound recording.
Sometimes Wildlife Sound recording is just straightforward. A few weeks ago, a Feral Pigeon Columbia livia domestica started breeding on the windowsill of our bathroom window. Now, the juveniles are almost ready to leave the nest. The adult bird feeds the young birds very often at the moment.
Calls and long calls of a bird in a colony.
The naturalist's year is more or less structured by the life cycles of the natural world. Living in a life cycle mostly alienated from nature, it brings with it that only partial insights into the former are possible. At least once a year, I usually visit a former military training area south of Berlin in order to enjoy the nocturnal behaviour of the peculiar Eurasian Nightjar and the sandy landscape and seclusion it lives in. This year, however, it was very unusual: the entire forest and the entire lower aufwuchs was burnt. The extreme heat resulted in a forest fire that affected an area of 700 hectares. The consequences of climate change were shockingly plastic and concrete. Had I been able to make fantastic sound recordings in the forest two years ago, now the walk was fairly surreal. Only individual birds were present and the general soundscape was just silence. Here is a sound recording I made back in 2017.
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