Listening Earth Blog

Sometimes a wild goose chase leads to… well, wild geese.

Several years ago, Sarah and I journeyed to the Australian outback, hoping to record the calls of Cockatiels.

We were not having any luck finding them (they are highly nomadic birds, and seemed to have departed the area a few weeks previously). However we did discover something unexpected – a group of ephemeral lakes in the desert, filled with water for the first time in 40 years.

The parched and flat expanses of the Australian outback may not seem the kind of place where one expects to find lakes. But when water arrives, it brings the dry landscape to life in a most spectacular way.

Birdlife, particularly waterfowl, is attracted to these inland water bodies to breed. They arrive from possibly thousands of kilometers away in response to rainfall, and we found these isolated lakes to be refuge for a huge numbers of ducks, coots, black swans, maned geese, dotterels and cormorants.

We nearly wouldn’t have known about the lakes at all. It was the local landowner who suggested we may find them interesting for our sound recording, and directed us to them through the flat, scrubby country.

We set up camp near the shore of Pine Lake, one of the smaller ones of the group. Being limited in size, the birdlife was concentrated, offering better opportunities for sound recording than larger, open water locations.

During the day, waterfowl could be seen resting across the lake. I tried making some recordings, but the birds were largely silent. It was at only night that they really got vocal.

This surprised us at first. One thinks of birds roosting at night, at least being quieter and less active. But water birds are the opposite, they really party after dark!

Throughout the night, ducks, geese and swans could be heard calling in the still air, their voices echoing eerily across the landscape. Every now and then, wings could be heard overhead as ducks took to the air or flew in from nearby lakes, alighting with a soft splash. Along with the waterfowl, nocturnal crickets chimed quietly, and small bats could be heard echo-locating for insects over the water’s edge. Tiny dotterels patrolled the shoreline, occasionally giving their characteristic ‘ratchetty’ calls.

I had set up my microphones on the water’s edge, and ended up leaving the recorder running for many hours. As Sarah and I sat in the dark, we found ourselves being gently lulled by these hauntingly beautiful sounds.

We found out later that we were not the only ones to find this symphony of waterbirds restful.

Meeting up again with the owner, he shared his delight in these nightsounds too. Despite a challenging life on the land, he had a deep appreciation of nature. He described how it was only the second time in his life that he had seen these lakes fill, and how his family would drive out to them after dinner, to sit quietly in the moonlight listening to the ducks with a glass of wine in hand.

Here is a short sound sample of what we heard on those evenings. The full recording is featured on our album ‘Meditation at Pine Lake’.

‘Meditation at Pine Lake’ can be purchased on CD or as a digital download from our website: www.listeningearth.com

Listening Earth Established in 1993 by nature sound recordist Andrew Skeoch and photographer Sarah Koschak, Listening Earth has become recognised as one of the world’s premier nature sound labels. “Our albums feature only the sounds of nature as you would hear in the wild – no music or other distractions. Recorded in often remote and pristine locations, they bring you the relaxing and beautiful sounds of our living planet. Listen, and let our recordings take you there.” www.listeningearth.com

Tags: Australia, bird sounds, birdsong, meditation music, natural sounds, nature CD, nature download, nature music, nature sounds, sounds of nature, Swift Parrot