Listening Earth Blog

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 for a gathering of local members of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group. A small mob of us southerners convened at the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary near Ballarat, for a weekend of camping, sound recording and workshopping, somehow also fitting in the group’s AGM.

The previous week had presented some wet and wild weather, but fortunately the weekend was still, sunny and calm – absolutely perfect for nature recording.

The location I chose to record was a creek-line called ‘The Bird Paddock’. Dense shrubs lined the watercourse, with huge eucalypts towering overhead. The wattle and grevilia were in full bloom and birds seemed to be everywhere. Wrens, fantails and scrub-wrens flitted around the understory, while rosellas, cuckoos, treecreepers, sitellas, shrike-tits, kookaburras and brush bronzewing pigeons could be observed higher in the treetops. Occasionally corellas or cockatoos provided a noisy fly-past.

I am delighted with my recording from the morning. As it was a semi-rural area, I anticipated some local road traffic or other interference, but the Sunday morning was quiet and the birdsong rich. Eventually we hope to release the full recording as an album, but for the time being, here is an excerpt for your enjoyment.

Spring morning at Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary, Linton, Victoria.

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