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Telinga

Spring Buildup

Just when I thought spring was arriving, we get hit with yet more rain and another cold weather front. It’s been such an odd spring so far, no doubt April has a lot of making up todo as March had to have been one of the coldest we’ve had for a long time. Reminds me of our last ‘beast from the east’ though, thankfully not near as much snow. Either way, birds are still very much gearing up for spring, some sitting on eggs already despite the cold and many migrants turning up. Below is selection of my spring so far, everything from spawning frogs, to late winter migrants, still holding onto that bitter end of winter.

I’ve been lucky to have a few trips this season (before the busy Bat season begins), one trip to Slimbridge which is always a pleasure, another to the Forest of Dean which is another experience I enjoy during the spring. Lastly more recent local trips to see some of our last Waxwing of the winter season and a wintering Black Redstart in Cardiff, which was epic.

Above you’ll also see some weirdly colourful creatures which is a story unto itself, as I discovered these Fairy Shrimp a few years ago now on the Gwent Levels, and as if that wasn’t awesome enough, I discovered more last night under the cover of darkness, which also revealed their incredible colours!! Something you do not get to see by daylight very well at all, but the direct light from my head torch revealed what looks like a bioluminescent-like colouration, with everything from electric blue to pink in the tips of their tails. What fantastic creatures. Fascinating lifestyle too.

Whilst on a nocturnal survey last night I couldn’t resist to record a snippet of the Displaying Lapwing and Wildfowl. One thing that many landowners forget, is that it's not what they see by day that really counts, as at night the levels come alive! Not just your typical Owl activity but many waders and wildfowl function throughout the night, whether it’s feeding, displaying, mating, you name it, they do it all under the cover of darkness. With birds also migrating at night, there’s a whole world of data that we are not truly picking up on. Right now, there isn’t a major requirement todo extensive nocturnal surveys for birds, but I would argue, especially for wildfowl, that nocturnal data should make up more than 50% of the survey effort. Nocturnal displays during the spring paint a far bigger picture for waders than any daytime survey possibly could, which is where static audio data could pave a way forward for ornithological studies. Not to mention, we’re not taking any nocturnal migratory species into account.

Take note of this displaying Lapwing. If you’ve heard one before, you’ll notice that this guy has what I can only describe as a ‘sneeze’ in the middle of its display. It’s quite adorable.

Will end with two landscapes shots of two lovely locations in Gwent, Cefn Ila Nature Reserve and The Blorenge.

Breeding Season

What a month so far! No idea how I’m managing to fit all this in but it’s been such a special spring and despite a delay in the breeding season, things have burst into life, warm temps, lots of emerging insects, moths, dragonflies and just in time for our breeding birds to feed their chicks. I was beginning to worry about my Nightjar this year as Moth counts have been super low, which has resulted in them delaying their egg laying. Some have only just paired up which is crazy and overall I’m seeing less than half the pairs compared to the previous year. The bracken has come up quite fast as always though, so their habitat is looking perfect for egg laying. This month I’ve lead a few walks, one for In Our Nature CIC which was an introduction to Bird Song, with a perfect sized group. We aim todo another by the end of June to continue our progress. It’s great to see people show an interest in learning more about the natural world, as it really does help us find our place in the world. The other walk was my annual Nightjar walk for Gwent Ornithological Society, which was well attended with 20 people, but so many more people expressed their interest in another Nightjar walk as they weren’t able to attend the first, so we’ve arranged todo another on June 18th. Details of which to be found on the GOS website.

I’m not a twitcher, but it’s always nice to see or hear things I’ve never seen before, so every year I try to add a few more to the list of experiences. One big one has been hearing a Nightingale, as we don’t get them here in Wales and the closest know location is Highnam Woods in Gloucester. Two attempts, one in April (too early) and one in June (too late), so next year I must make more of an effort in May. It’s just difficult to enjoy spring as breeding bird survey season is the busiest time of year for me.

As you’ll see in the pics below I’ve still been quite busy. My nightjar have seen some drama, with one of my males injuring his nose. Still don’t even know if he’s survived his injury but he was paired up so I hope he does.

Recordings

For the minority sound recorders reading this, I’ve been beta testing a microphone configuration, using two Schoeps CCM 2’s (Loan from Schoeps) and my own Schoeps CCM 4 inside a Telinga/Rycote dish system. I’m always striving to improve the sound quality of my gear and with this setup, I really feel like I’ve hit the limits of what’s actually possible. The CCM 4 is the most accurate sounding microphone I’ve ever used, and in combination with two CCM 2’s outside of the dish, it really makes for a powerful setup in the right hands. I say in the right hands, because using the CCM 4 inside the dish, hand held, is quite difficult, as the handling noise compared to many of the more affordable Telinga Setups is no comparison. It just shows that in order to get the most accurate recording as far as sound quality is concerned, it comes at a cost. For me though, this cost is well worth it, as it’s forced me to approach my recordings differently. Most of the recordings below are still hand held, but for static subjects I’ve taken to using a monopod when possible, as it just gives me that extra stability and far less handling noise for longer time periods.

One of my favourite experiences using this new setup was actually at the River Warbler ‘twitch’ at RSPB Ham Wall Nature Reserve over the weekend. It’s a magical reserve that I’ve blogged about many times. It’s potentially my favourite reserve of all time, full of spectacular species, most of which are quite rare breeders anywhere else in the Uk. The River Warbler was the first in the country in almost 11 years I believe, so it’s a super rare bird and a first for me, but I was less eager to see it, and more excited to hear this incredible sound! They are very similar looking to a Grasshopper Warbler in terms of shape and size, but generally quite dark, with most of their more interesting features on the breast and under-tail coverts, but like I said, It’s all about that sound for me! and there’s nothing quite like it. Savi’s Warbler is more electric, Grasshopper Warbler is more like a Grasshopper but this sound is clearly a sound that is designed to carry over fast flowing water and is so much louder than any other bird I’ve he

Telinga Stereo Mk3 Review

I don’t often do gear related reviews, but considering gear plays a big part in what I do, whether it’s cameras, lenses, binoculars, scopes, trail cameras or sound recording gear, I thought some might find it useful to learn about this gear, as in todays saturated market, it’s difficult to know where to start off and even harder to find something that’s good value for money with such a fast growing development line.

Camera’s for instance are constantly being improved, but not quite on the level as todays smart phones, so you can still pick up a bargain that should last you several years. I won’t go into cameras this time around, but I would like to talk about my sound recording gear, specifically my choice of microphones.
I have never been able to afford premium gear, so I’m always looking for best value for money produces, whether that’s new gear or used. The great thing about microphones is, they usually last a very long time and the whole formula to making a quality microphone, was mastered many years ago, so you can pick up second hand microphones that still to this day sound incredible. Recording wildlife presents many hurdles in the field, as like photography, it can be difficult to get close enough to your subject to get a strong enough signal. The way around this is to use longer, and often more expensive long shotgun microphones that give you more directionality and a narrower axis sensitivity, so you can isolate the sound you are pointing it at, whilst the long interference tube rejects sounds from behind and from the sides. For many years I used the affordable Sennheiser ME67, which I still use today for all of my Nocturnal recordings. It has superb noise - signal ratio, but it doesn’t sound as premium as Sennhieser’s MKH line, so I also own an MKH 416, which is a shorter microphone, so you would need to get much closer to your subject, but the sound is superb and has been the industry standard for many years, especially for dialog in film productions.

No matter how long the microphone though, you always wish you had more directionality and reach, and this is where the parabolic microphone comes in. Before I bit the bullet and bought my first parabolic, I listened online to every available recording I could find, I also read reviews and contacted each manufacturer so I could understand what makes a good parabolic dish setup.

The main manufacturers were Telinga, Dodotronic, Wildtronics and since then a few others like Soundshark and Klover. I’ve always believed that a company’s web presence says a lot about a company and whilst some of the other companies have more promotional videos online, the quality of those videos tell the story about what sort of quality you can expect from them. To cut a long story short, Telinga is where I invested my money, because the sound quality was very comparable to the some of the classic branded companies like Sennhieser and Schoeps and if sound quality mattered above all else, you could always buy their universal handle, which allowed you to use a microphone of your own choice. This is where I wanted to be down the line, using their great quality handle and flexible dish with my own microphone, but I settled for the Stereo Mk 2 which was a newer version of their famous Stereo Dat Mic. I could write a whole blog on recording stereo inside a parabola, but in short, it’s a much more natural experience, and helps you find your subjects faster in the field, even with your eyes closed. Here’s a recording of a Dunnock as an example of the sound of the Stereo Mk 2, but bear in mind I recorded this using a Zoom H6, which is a great value recorder, but doesn’t show off the microphones full potential.

I’ve since upgraded my recorder to Sound Devices Mixpre 6 ii and have also upgraded the Telinga Stereo Mk 2, to the version 3, which Telinga offered to all customers so long as they paid for the shipping. How many companies can you say have done something like that? Not only did the upgrade vastly improve the sound quality, it extended the microphones life whilst retaining most of the original materials. Take a listen to the Dunnock below and see if you hear the difference. The background sounds more open, but natural, and the mid-high sounds over-all less coloured. I am inspired by quality, so the better it sounds, the more likely I am going to use it, and this year, I’ve used this microphone more than ever.

Here’s a collection of recordings from this year alone from when I first started using it, till this very day.
The Stereo Mk 3 has improved wind handling performance, as well as an overall more dynamic range, which makes you really make use of that stereo as the background sounds are more natural. This is very difficult to achieve inside a dish where only the mid-high frequencies are being amplified, so off-axis sounds have the potential to sound more coloured, but with the Mk 3 they are very natural. This is the best quality you will get inside of a Parabolic dish for the money. The next setup here would be to use their Universal Dish and make use of small cardioid or omni microphones from Sennheiser or Schoeps. What I will say though, is that the microphones you’ll get from Telinga are designed to handle the toughest of weather conditions, and even though the sound quality will be improved jumping up to a Schoeps, it does come at the cost of wind and handling noise, all of which are superb on the Telinga mic. Schoeps realise this also, and have teamed up with Telinga and Rycote (famous company for wind protection solutions), to create a dish set that allows you to have the ultimate setup. I would love to own one one day, but even then, if I ever wanted stereo inside a Parabola, the Stereo Mk 3 is the way to go. Below is a variety of different types of recordings from the Stereo Mk 3, everything from Wild Boar, Tree’s and a variety of different tonality birds from various distances and in mostly challenging conditions, living here in South Wales, we are very humid, wet and windy, and often all three at the same time.

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I have to end by saying also that Jon and Klas at Telinga have been nothing but supportive with every dealing I’ve had with them. I’ve provided them with feedback of their gear, and they have returned nothing but the best of customer service. Sound Devices have also been very helpful, as I had a bit of a bumpy ride with my first few units but all has been resolved and I’ve been using the gear for months now with nothing but flawless performance. I’ve owned the Telinga Pro X and V2 flexible dish now since 2015 and even though the dish has quite a few scratches from me pushing my way thru dense forest, it all continues to work perfectly. I’ve seen and felt the dish provided with the Dodotronics setup and it doesn’t come close to the quality of this V2 dish from Telinga: The flexibility and edging is far superior with no bubbles in the plastic itself and it’s actually larger, which means you have an advantage of capturing slightly lower frequencies with the dish. If build quality is less important to you though, the dodotronic setups do feature good mic capsules, some of which have been rumoured to be used by Telinga in the past also, and if you just want the use of a parabola as a tool, then some of the cheaper options might be more suited for your purposes. If you want the best quality though, you cannot go wrong with Telinga and the Stereo Mk 3 will always be in my bag.

https://www.telinga.com/products/pro-series/

April Summary

2020 is looking to be a year to remember for sure! I know for many this has been nothing but stressful time and it’s looking to continue that way for a while longer. I do hope that you are finding some positives in this situation. Spending more time with the family may be a good thing, sorting out the home, garden or just generally getting the rest that you deserved? Well if not, please take it!
For those that have followed my blog, it’s been a rough experience so far but I’m now back into work. During the lockdown I focused on recording wildlife in the garden, mainly bugs and bees. I’ve created a bug hotel with my partner and planted wildflowers ready for summer. I’ve also started recording nocturnal migration which has been really successful! I haven’t tallied up my total species count yet but it’s increasing daily.

Going self-employed was a tough decision for me at the time, and very risky! so risky that there was a period where I was really struggling and if it weren’t for help in the family I wouldn’t have got thru it, but I’m out the other end and it’s times like this that’s really made me thankful that I did, as I’ve been able to continue working, and that work is outdoors which is vitally important for my mental health.

Last week I started sharing videos of my sound recordings, as I found that Youtube is slightly better for sharing content on social media platforms, as they don’t need to leave Facebook in order to listen. Here’s some more to add to the growing collection. Firstly is this Firecrest which is a new territory for me and surprise surprise, the bird was mimicking Goldcrest in a reduced manner. You can hear a couple of these mimic phrases at the start of the recording.

Willow Warbler and Tree Pipit are two species I’ve been hearing a lot of this week as they return from Africa and with these two extra species alone the dawn chorus sounds so much bigger than before. So big that I’ve also included a recording of the dawn chorus, which is still with my parabolic dish, but something I hope to do a lot more of in the future for In Our Nature CIC as it can be quite therapeutic to listen to.

My Nocmig continues to pull up some fantastic birds! especially between the 24-26 where I had Common Sandpiper, Water Rail, Arctic Tern, Dunlin, Oystercatcher a Heron and what I presume is a Raven? at 12pm. Would appreciate any opinions on that one though as I didn’t think Ravens would be flying so late.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this Nocmig recording, so I’ve revamped my sound recording page, with an additional page at the bottom, devoted to nocmig. Hopefully after a few months more experience I’ll be able to make it a resource of recordings for others to use as identification, as there isn’t a heap of resources online for nocturnal calls: Partly because there is very little known about them! You can either start at the top of my sound recording page and work down ( should keep you occupied for a while) or you can skip to the bottom and click the Nocmig button. There isn't much there yet, just a little about my setup, but that will develop as time goes on. I hope it’s useful.

I’ll leave you with a photo of a common species of Drone-fly (Misumena vatia), males of which are lining up to impress a female. This is common behaviour and distinct to this species and sometimes you can get a dozen lining up doing the same thing. Can you spot the predator in the scene also?

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Sound Recording

For months now I’ve been testing new gear in order to get the best results I can for a year of many plans with sound recording. Sound for me is so much more important than photographs. Anybody can browse the internet and see amazing images of wildlife and nature, but how often do we put good quality headphones on and just listen to the sounds of nature? It can be really helpful if you suffer from mental health issues and can’t find the time to get outdoors. I know it’s invaluable to me to be able to close my eyes and just listen to something that will actually enrich my life. Many people use Music in this way, as a distraction, but Music, especially modern music, can actually damage your ears if you listen loudly for extended periods of time.
Being a musician myself, I’ve been subjected to loud music most of my life, drumming at hundreds of gigs without ear protection. Thankfully, so far I’ve only noticed a slight decrease above 16khz, mostly in my right ear, but generally, I’ve been very lucky to still have very good hearing. The lesson here, please look after your ears. Losing your hearing isn’t what you would expect, especially if you form tinnitus where you’ll never truly be able to appreciate silence anymore without some permanent noise in your ears. Getting good quality headphones really helps as you don’t have to turn the volume up loud in order to experience a nice full-bodied sound. They are expensive, but I recommend the Bose Quiet comforts 35 Series 2 for extended periods of listening. As the name suggests, they are both comfortable to wear, but also comfortable to listen to as the high frequencies are soft and the low frequencies controlled, unlike most of the headphones on the market these days that have been tuned to punch out the bass for modern music. They might make it sound like you’re at the club, but that isn’t good for your ears.

Two new items of gear, one in the form of a Sound Devices Mixpre 6 ii, which is Sound Devices entry-level sound mixer that so far I’m really enjoying, despite having MANY learning curves regarding setup. I would not recommend this gear unless you have some pre-knowledge of sound recording. Along with the recorder, I also upgraded my Telinga Stereo Mk 2, to the Stereo Mk 3, and now I’ve figured out how to make the most out of my recorder, I’m finally starting to see some results I’m very pleased with. Below are a few recordings from this month. Despite being January, the mild weather has sprung many birds into spring mode: Even some winter visitors like Redwing have been singing, which is really nice as that is something we would not usually get.

Velvet Shank

The season is certainly mixed, with lots of winter fungi to explore. This is a Velvet Shank, so named because it has.. a velvet shank? lol. As I said though, I’ve not taken the camera out of the bag for a while as I’m finding sound can paint a much bigger picture.

Take this recording below. I just about pressed record in enough time to capture a daytime Tawny Owl, who wasn’t too happy with a pair of Ravens perching in the same tree, but if you listen carefully to the smaller birds in the background, and you can hear a Hawfinch calling throughout. I couldn’t actually see this bird at the time, but thanks to the sound recording I was able to share this bird with you.

Lastly I’ll leave you with this recording below of a double stream accompanied by two male Great Tit’s having a pre-spring song battle. You’ll also hear a pair of Buzzards that were pair bonding.

Local Spring Arrivals

Signs of spring are growing every day and today was no exception with Yellowhammer in full song back on territory and Curlew returning to some of their upland breeding grounds. Today marks the first day of the year for Upland Curlews (for me) and I've not heard of any other recordings in Gwent of such activity yet so think this may be the first record. I visited several favourite spots locally today and all of which were upland / moorland. Each day I grow to love our uplands more and more as I realise just how important the habitat is for the majority of our wildlife. I went out with an open mind today prepared to take whatever was presented to me and I was pleasantly surprised to find Yellowhammer back on territory singing their hearts out. Spring has already started for some birds. My local Long-tailed Tits are already starting to build their nest from spiders webs, lichens and feathers. 

I've spoken about the Yellowhammer Dialects project before so I won't go into too much detail but if you're interested in sound recording and have any records, even phone recordings, of a Yellowhammer, please contribute to this incredible project - http://www.yellowhammers.net/

I'm the only one that has submitted recordings in South Wales so records here a looking thin despite our abundance of Yellowhammers. It is important to record birdsong for this very reason so please have a look at their website as Pavel is doing a great Job. 

It was my brother that spotted this Curlew flying in from Llandegfedd direction and immediately after he saw it the bird gave off that iconic call giving its identity away. It later on landed in a cultivated field and later flew further north. 

Great Spotted Woodpecker Extended

For those who may be interested, Great Spotted Woodpeckers have the ability to hit at the rate between 10-40 SPS (Strikes Per Second) it's this fact that made me curious as to how many strikes our GSW actually manged during one single session, so I studied the recording in a sonograph to find out. Here are the results below: 

Turns out that the most this particular guy hit was around 16 SPS but this was during the middle of the day when they aren't as persistent. It will be interesting to catch them out their best, just to see how many hits they can really manage in 1 second. I think this guy/girl may have been holding back a bit. 13 hits was the average number. It's said that a single male can hit atleast 600 times a day if they haven't found a female yet and only 200 hits if they have found a female. Either way, there will be lots of noise out in the woods leading up to spring so get out there and listen to it for yourself! It's incredible. 

Sound Recording Feature

Sound Recording Feature

While I missed the most of todays Sunny dry weather fixing my shed, I did manage to get out in the evening just before it hammered down with rain yet again. During this time, many birds were singing so I left the Camera at home and spent some time listening to the landscape through a parabolic dish. If you've never had the chance to use a parabola before, you're more than happy to try mine. It's an amazing experience to have 'super ears' that amplifies sounds you never new were even there. It extends your reach meaning you can find individual species much quicker when they are audible. If you remember in my previous blogs I mentioned trying to get a recording of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers drumming and i'm happy to say that I succeeded in getting some recordings of that today. Took a while to find out what branches they were preferring to drum on and took even longer for them to drum with me standing under the tree. Eventually however, they did come around to me and I got this: 

 

After spending time with the Woodpeckers, night was drawing in and with it the evening Chorus began which was surprisingly full for this time of year! I heard Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Bluetit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Marsh Tit, and finally Song Thrush! one of my all time personal favourites. Below isn't the best recording for their classic mimicry but it was the most clear recording I could get as most of my other recordings had planes flying overhead.. I don't think people realise just how much sound pollution there is.. Put my headphones on with my Telinga Microphone and you'll realise just how noisy we really are on this planet. 

Winter Robin Song

Winter Robin Song

Finally got around to recording the Winter Robin Song! Not ideal recording conditions with all this wind and rain but I just about managed to get some clear isolated recordings while hiding out of the wind beneath some thick bushes. You'll hear plenty of other Robins singing in the background back and forth this guy so I was spoiled with choice a bit. In the last section when the wind picks up, you'll also hear that this Robin has mimicked a couple phrases from either a Blue Tit or Great Tit. 

There is a distinctive difference between a Winter song and a spring/summer song of a Robin. There are a number of theories as to why this is the case; 1. The birds that sing in the winter are often migratory birds off the continent 2. They expend less energy on the content of their song as it serves a slightly different function to that of a spring song. 3. Colder Weather inhibits their ability to produce a full spring/summer song as it does require a lot of energy that they cannot afford to waste. Personally, I think all of those points play a part in why their song is slightly different in winter. Some may not even notice the difference but if you compare this song to another recording that I did closer to spring - https://soundcloud.com/gavin-vella/sets/favourite-recordings - you can certainly hear a difference in melody and see a difference in the length of phrases. The linked recording is more melodic and clearly has more energy. That said, I do love a Winter Robin, it keeps me going throughout the winter months.

Llandegfedd Cricket Recordings

Early morning at Llandegfedd and it truly felt like spring again! Dawn Chorus was beautiful, albeit filled with mainly Robin's and Wrens but a surprised Chiffchaff also sang for a while which really made me feel good! 

Once the morning dew burnt off and my feet dried out, the Crickets weren't far behind on the chorus. Though, I didn't have it all that easy today as the water pump was on all day which made it really hard to get the 20000hz Roesel's Bush Cricket quite the way I wanted to. 

Lots of pictures today but also a small treat for you in the form a recordings! 
If you can hear them of course.. because I learned something new today, and that is, the Roesel's Bush Cricket produces frequencies well into the 20000hz range which most people cannot even hear. SO! For you, I've slowed some of the recordings down for you which brought even more coolness out of the recordings as you can actually hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs of the cricket.- Especially on the Long-winged Conehead. Enjoy

Todays outing was all about getting recordings of the iconic Roesel's Bush Cricket. Something I've been meaning to do for a while. I was slightly unlucky that the pumping station was on at Llandegfedd meaning my typical hotspot was painted with the washing sound of water in the background which made it extremely hard to get a clear recording of the crickets 20000 hz song. The Roesel's Bush Cricket is very hard to hear and not many people can actually hear them, even when I've put the headphones on them in the field they still can't hear the high electric sound. It is this reason that I've slowed the pitch down on these recordings. I particularly love the Long-winged Conehead pitched down as you can hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs rubbing each other in various different patterns. It goes to show just how complex these songs actually are and also how very different the hearing of a Cricket/Grasshopper, actually is. I hope you enjoy these recordings.