Bringing nature to you in sounds and images
Posted in In Nature: on May 28th, 2009
To date we have published three nature recordings featuring the coastal and ocean beach sounds. They are understandably popular, as the sounds of the sea are very relaxing.
But customers often ask; what is the difference between these recordings – surely a beach is a beach? So this is a good opportunity to discuss the variety [...]
Posted in In Nature:, India on May 17th, 2009
What is the most beautiful songbird in the world?
If we mean ‘musical to our ears’, then surely one of our favourites would be the Malabar Whistling Thrush, Myophonus horsfieldii, of India. Also known as the ‘whistling schoolboy’, this bird has the most haunting and tuneful of songs – it is indeed like overhearing someone whistling [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on May 11th, 2009
The Painted Button Quail, Turnix varia, is a native quail of the drier eucalypt forests of eastern and southern Australia. Whilst they are widespread, they are quite uncommon, and their camouflage plumage makes actually seeing them in the bush a rare treat.
Our first encounter with them was fifteen years ago, whilst sound recording for one [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature:, New Releases on Mar 13th, 2009
We have been having some lovely moonlit nights recently, and from the bush outside our bedroom window, we’ve been hearing an Australian Magpie, gymnorhina tibicen, calling throughout the night.
It is quite common for them to do this on well-illuminated moonlit evenings. Not only Magpies, but other birds such as Willy Wagtails, are well-known for this [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature:, New Releases on Mar 4th, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature:, New Releases on Oct 21st, 2008
To see budgerigars in the wild is a wonderful experience. In the drier parts of Australia, they are found in sometimes huge flocks, taking to the air with a roar of wings, their green and yellow plumage flashing against the blue sky. When they alight, trees can be full of chattering budgies, clustering together, preening [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Oct 20th, 2008
Spring is well underway around home here in Victoria, and the bush is alive with birdsong. We’ve been out and about recording in recent weeks, with some lovely results.
In late September, Sarah and I undertook a short (but adventurous!) field trip to Mutawintji National Park in outback NSW (more later!).
We arrived home just in time [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Sep 3rd, 2008
There are times when nature’s sounds and the physical landscape come together to create a moment that is utterly magical. Such an occasion involved the voice of one of the world’s most sublime songbirds, the Pied Butcherbird, and the cathedral-like acoustic of Ormiston Gorge in the Australian desert.
The recording we made of the butcherbirds in [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Sep 2nd, 2008
The average time that visitors stay at Uluru (Ayres Rock) National Park is only one and a half days. Which is not only surprising, but very sad, as Uluru is far more than just a picture postcard to be ticked off the tourist itinerary.
Situated on the edge of the great western desert, Uluru is not [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature:, New Releases on Aug 22nd, 2008
When Sarah and I first began Listening Earth in 1993, I had no training or guidance in how to go about recording nature sounds. I simply turned the recorder on when something interesting caught my ear; a particular species calling, or a pleasing harmony in the sounds around me. As soon as the subject of [...]