Viewing entries tagged
Rhythm of Birdsong
It's coming to that time of year where a lot of birds are already starting to pair up. These two Great Spotted Woodpeckers look like they've already done so, or at-least he is trying to impress her. This is the same Male that has been performing for me so well and by the looks his hard work is paying off. If you haven't seen the video yet of him performing, here it is once again.
Bit of a feature in the last couple days with the Great Spotted Woodpeckers but today I took things to another level and not only brought you pictures and sound recordings but I actually managed to get a short video of a male GSW finding the sweet spot on the wood like I mentioned yesterday. I hope you enjoy the video!
Here is another recording from the morning session which shows much more enthusiasm from the Male than my last recording.
Something I didn't expect to get today was some decent recordings of a pair of Ravens. They were taking interest in something that I couldn't quite see (which could of been a Goshawk). During this time they were making all kinds of creative noises. At the very start of the recording you'll hear a quiet 'droplet' like sound: that is actually the Raven making that sound.
The Feeding station was alive again today with a couple of new visitors in the form of 2 Redpoll and numbers of all species are increasing. The Long-tailed Tits are still my favourites though!
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.
While stuck indoors ill this week, I spent a lot of hours catching up behind the computer. In doing so I've re-designed by 'Rhythm of Birdsong' project website and also designed a new logo for the project. (I think I'll be re-designing my own logo after the time I spent on this one).
Since graduation I have purposely put ROB on a back burner so that I could spend my time developing other aspects of my carreer in order to gain myself a Job in conservation. Well, I'm happy to say at this point that I have got myself a part-time Job in conservation: teaching students how to record wildlife for the Gwent Wildlife Trust.
While teaching others how to record birds, it has reminded me how much of a passion I have for sound. It is that reason that I've decided to bring ROB back and my commitment is supported by a heavy investement! I'll be investing in a new Telinga Parabolic Microphone setup that is known world wide for its high quality microphones/parabola's.
