If you missed our last long-form piece this Wednesday be sure to check it out on the special page. So this week, in our penultimate episode, I'd like to allow our minds to wander a bit and envision ourselves as echo collectors. I know the series has focused quite a bit on the work of scientists and professional field recordists, but a large portion of what you have heard was recorded by people who don't necessarily have a background in either the sciences or professional sound. Most of the soundscapes in fact were recorded by people who just had a deep love of nature, started their journey with simple pocket sized recorders or even their phones and walked off the beaten path one day and decided to start recording their adventures. There are numerous online and app-based platforms that people access every day to explore sound including eBird, iBird, Freesound.org, RecordtheEarth.org, R. Murray Schafer and Simon Fraser University's World Soundscape Project, the National Park Service's Sound Gallery, the Center for Global Soundscapes, the Macaulay Library, Colorado State University's Listening Lab, truly the list goes on. There are numerous ways to get involved either as a soloist or as a member of the listening community. With how rapidly the world's sounds are changing, it is crucial for preservation efforts to have grassroots participation. This doesn't mean we all need to become famous field recordists overnight and we know that would be impractical if not impossible. What it does mean is that there is room for you, dear listeners, to grab your phone or a hand-held recorder and get out there to listen. What does Elliott Forest sound like? What about Eagle Creek, post-fire? What does your own backyard sound like over the span of the seasons as birds and other animals migrate through?
In honor of your backyard, my first selection today will be from one of my friend's backyards in Oriental, NC. Jane Tigar was listening one May night and heard the calls of several Chuck Will's Widows out near a creek by her home, and that is where we'll go to first....
Chuck Will's Widows, Oriental, North Carolina
Recording Purpose: To capture the bird sounds
Recording Date: May 3, 2017, 8:30 PM
Recorded By: Jane Tigar
Recording Gear: Marantz PMD661MKII, Talinga parabola
Jane Tigar is an accomplished teacher and player of the ancient Japanese flute the Shakuachi. You can find out more about Jane and her work here.
Again that was the conversation of several North Carolinian Chuck Will's Widows recorded by Jane Tigar in May. Our final selection for today will be from another section of Antelope Valley in the Sierra Nevadas out in the mountain laurel and sagebrush. There are few places in the world where blue-gray gnatcatchers will actually sing, and I was lucky enough to hear one. As an amateur field recordist, you'll hear me in this recording moving around to keep the fellow in the focal point of my microphone, but I hope you enjoy his composition. Whenever I listen to this particular segment, I wonder what this tiny bird had been listening to...most likely us but perhaps more specifically, Kid Koala?
Selection from the Song of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, Antelope Valley, Sierra Nevadas, CA
Recording Purpose: Cornell Lab of Ornithology Field Recording Workshop
Recording Date: June 16, 2016, appx. 9:30 AM
Recorded By: Nicole Martin
Recording Equipment: Sound Devices 702 with a Sennheiser ME 67
That was the sonic stylings of the blue-gray gnatcatcher in the Sierra Nevada's Antelope Valley. Please join us again next Friday October 27 for the final episode of Threshold Shift, where we give the mic to nature and amplify Earth. Threshold Shift is a KBOO Sound Artist in Residency Series at KBOO 90.7 FM and streaming online at kboo.fm. Thank you, as always, for listening.
- KBOO