Viewing entries tagged
Biomusicology

Shape Conforming

I hope you’re not getting tired of hearing about Nightjar but honestly I don’t care haha. Spending time with one species, learning more about their characteristics and behaviour is what I love and it’s the only way you’ll ever get a chance of photographing this species in the day. I’m now on my 4th pair and my 7th individual (yet to locate the female of the 4th pair). I find it interesting that each pair has chosen a different type of habitat, or at-least the same habitat at different stages.

  1. 3-4 Year Old clear-fell, mostly small-medium sized trees

  2. 1 year old clear-fell, only bracken, grass.

  3. 3 year old clear-fell, mostly grassland, bracken and heath

  4. 3 year old clear-fell, totally rocky habitat with bracken between.

It goes to show how versatile they are, so long as there is suitable habitat around them for moths, they’ll roost almost anywhere there’s suitable cover.
The pair that’s chosen the rocky habitat is the one that I’m most interested in, as he’s also choosing to roost on rocks, rather than logs/sticks. If you look closely, even the shape of his back appears to match the shape of the rock. I wonder if this is strategic? Shape conforming is common amongst species that rely on camouflage to survive and they do appear to match their chosen roost spot. If on the end of a log, they’ll sit tall, short, tail town as if they’re part of the end of that log. If they sit across a stick, they’ll sit in the same direction and flatten themselves out.

As a contrast, here’s the female of pair number 3 showing that typical flattened out pose that matches the long shape of a stick. I loved this chosen roost spot, but it’s doubtful she’ll use it again though as she looks ready to burst. I’m surprised she hasn’t laid yet. Maybe she has and her first clutch failed? I hope that isn’t the case.

I’ve also been studying their vocalisations but I’ve needed a few years worth of field recordings on Nightjar, in order to confirm a theory that you can identify individual males by their song. The way you would do this is to work out the average BPM, length of phrases and also the frequency of both exhale and inhale.
I’ve collected so far at-least 6 different males, though I’ve focused on returning to the same territory for the last 2 years in the hope to confirm it with one individual male. So far it looks like I can confirm this theory, as I’m finding only a 0.8 difference between the BPM recorded in 2017 to present day. A couple more years worth of recording Males and I should be able to give more weight to this theory.
The analysis is actually pretty easy and could even be done in the field so long as you had a laptop to return to. I’ll publish more details about my methods at the end of the season.

Nightjar Identification

Biomusicology News

Some are probably wondering what Bio-musicology actually is as I have it written on all my cards that I hand out. I thought i'd give you a quick explanation just incase you are one of those people. 

Bio-musicology is a broad term used for someone who studies musical elements within the animal kingdom. Not just vocalisation from their mouths, but sounds made in other various ways, usually very unique to an individual species: much like this Club-winged Manakin Bird in the video below that actually vibrates the wings so fast it produces that amazing sound. This type of sound producing is simular to Crickets, which brings me on to something quite incredible. Jim Wilson claims that his recording of crickets slowed down actually sounds like a choir and well, listening to the recording it really does sound like a choir! How true this is regarding his editing methods I'm not entirely sure but below that recording i've posted my own of a Blackcap which sounds incredibly like Monkies in a rainforest! It resembles more the sounds you actually hear in rainforests and I had to ask myself, why? The reason why the lower pitched song sounds like birds from the rainforest is simple because the birds in places like the Amazon don't have to contend with human environmental sounds, meaning that they can sing at lower pitches without disturbance. It's a known fact that Blackbirds have raised their volume in towns and cities to contend with traffic noise and this resulted also in a raise of pitch. 

Tom Waits (on Jim Wilson): "Wilson, he's always playing with time. I heard a recording recently of crickets slowed way down. It sounds like a choir, it sounds like angel music. Something sparkling, celestial with full harmony and bass parts - you wouldn't believe it. It's like a sweeping chorus of heaven, and it's just slowed down, they didn't manipulate the tape at all. So I think when Wilson slows people down, it gives you a chance to watch them moving through space. And there's something to be said for slowing down the world." Source: "Woyzeck to run at Freud Playhouse". Daily Bruin (USA), by Andrew Lee. December 3, 2002 Find more on the recording on this link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023815586 Tom Waits on Tom waits talking about this recording - http://gloriousnoise.com/2008/tom_waits_interviews_tom_waits More on the recording - http://hearingvoices.com/transcript.php?fID=142 You can buy original recording here - http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Chorus-Crickets-Jim-Wilson/dp/1932192077?tag=viglink124132-20 Original recording from the author - http://www.constancedemby.com/godscricketchorus_f.html And more: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/10/13/weekend-diversion-is-this-an-amazing-chorus-of-slowed-down-crickets/

This is an insight to the melodic tunes of a Blackcap brought down to a level that is more relatable to the Human ear. All birds have different Qualities, this bird favours more melodic tunes than Rhythmic percussion however this recording does point out some interest things like- the distant bird in the background copies the sounds of this Blackcap almost perfectly. Something that would have been missed when listening to it at full speed/pitch.