Northwest Soundscapes

Later in the day I moseyed on back into the Mt Adams Wilderness. There had been a late snow, and roads were still closed going up into the mountain, so I had to stay at lower altitudes. Still, I found a quiet place to spend the afternoon and night. Early on the forest floor was thick with flies. This is fairly common, if sometimes annoying. Without taking careful notes it can often be difficult li...

I arrived early in the morning of the 12th of May and set up near a still-water riparian area. This being the Cascade Mountains range, there was plenty of distant water wash everywhere, from small rivers and streams to snowmelt runoff. I managed to find a nice quiet area to set up, though, and spent the next 24 hours there. The non-riparian portion of the forest here was filled with typical Cascad...

Conboy Lake is not a true year-round lake, but a dense marshy area that fills with snowmelt from the end of winter throughout the spring, forming a temporary lake that slows drains off throughout the long summer. It’s an important stopover for migratory birds such as Sandhill Crane, but also provides a year-round sanctuary for all manner of creatures, great and small. From typical Pacific Northwes...

Conboy Lake is not a true year-round lake, but a dense marshy area that fills with snowmelt from the end of winter throughout the spring, forming a temporary lake that slows drains off throughout the long summer. It’s an important stopover for migratory birds such as Sandhill Crane, but also provides a year-round sanctuary for all manner of creatures, great and small. From typical Pacific Northwes...

Conboy Lake is not a true year-round lake, but a dense marshy area that fills with snowmelt from the end of winter throughout the spring, forming a temporary lake that slows drains off throughout the long summer. It’s an important stopover for migratory birds such as Sandhill Crane, but also provides a year-round sanctuary for all manner of creatures, great and small. From typical Pacific Northwes...

I arrived early in the morning of the 12th of May and set up near a still-water riparian area. This being the Cascade Mountains range, there was plenty of distant water wash everywhere, from small rivers and streams to snowmelt runoff. I managed to find a nice quiet area to set up, though, and spent the next 24 hours there. The non-riparian portion of the forest here was filled with typical Cascad...

I arrived early in the morning of the 12th of May and set up near a still-water riparian area. This being the Cascade Mountains range, there was plenty of distant water wash everywhere, from small rivers and streams to snowmelt runoff. I managed to find a nice quiet area to set up, though, and spent the next 24 hours there. The non-riparian portion of the forest here was filled with typical Cascad...

I arrived early in the morning of the 12th of May and set up near a still-water riparian area. This being the Cascade Mountains range, there was plenty of distant water wash everywhere, from small rivers and streams to snowmelt runoff. I managed to find a nice quiet area to set up, though, and spent the next 24 hours there. The non-riparian portion of the forest here was filled with typical Cascad...

I spent another weekend in the Colockum Wildlife Area, camping at the border of Coffin Game Reserve for the last week of silence before firearm hunting season begins. The elk were particularly active, perhaps they knew what was coming and were trying to get everything out of life that they could. The cows make mewling cry that I use think was from the young. The farther away a bull's bugle is hear...

I spent another weekend in the Colockum Wildlife Area, camping at the border of Coffin Game Reserve for the last week of silence before firearm hunting season begins. The elk were particularly active, perhaps they knew what was coming and were trying to get everything out of life that they could. The cows make mewling cry that I use think was from the young. The farther away a bull's bugle is hear...

I spent another weekend in the Colockum Wildlife Area, camping at the border of Coffin Game Reserve for the last week of silence before firearm hunting season begins. The elk were particularly active, perhaps they knew what was coming and were trying to get everything out of life that they could. Not long after dawn I witnessed a challenge. I heard it more than saw it, as it all took place on the...

I spent another weekend in the Colockum Wildlife Area, camping at the border of Coffin Game Reserve for the last week of silence before firearm hunting season begins. The elk were particularly active, perhaps they knew what was coming and were trying to get everything out of life that they could. A cow munched on grass near my microphone for nearly an hour. The sound was so lulling that I had doze...

Dawn near the Coffin Game Reserve in the Colockum Wildlife Area in central Washington. A herd of elk bedded down for the evening across the meadow from my tent. As the sun moved toward first light, the large males began to stir the herd, bugling out that it was time to awake. They were answered by a nearby coyote pack that was getting ready to take itself to bed. The cries of the pack and the crie...

It's been a while since I've updated everyone on The Northwest Soundscape Project, so I thought I'd upload a passage from a recent trip. This is an evening recording made at the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge https://www.fws.gov/refuge/conboy_lake/ on May 13, 2016. To anyone that lives rurally around the Refuge, I'm sure this evening chorus is nothing spectacular, normal even. To a city-boy...

I was out testing a new parabolic reflector dish this morning when I got serenaded by a bullfrog at the Union Bay Nature Area. I knew there were bullfrogs in the PNW, but didn't know I'd find any in Seattle until today. It's a noisy area, with lots of plane and road traffic, so there's a light touch of noise reduction, other than that this is straight off the recorder with a HPF.

An electric arc furnace running a "meltdown" process. Think of it as a giant arc welder. Three giant electrodes, each 8 feet tall and 1 foot across, create a continuous electrical arcing for melting and mixing ingredients used in industrial steel casting. The electrodes never touch the steel themselves, and it's the radiant heat of over 2400° F that melts the ingredients! The furnace itself is 20...

My daughter and I did a little cold-weather camping this weekend. I think it's the last time she'll go with me until I promise to bring a heater. We went to the Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic National Park. I've always wanted to see it during the winter. The rainforest transforms form a mystic, lush wonderland to a frozen, but still jaw-droppingly beautiful, frosted museum during the winter. We cam...

The Pacific Tree Frog or Pacific Chorus Frog (Pseudacris regalia)is a keystone species on the much of the West Coast of North America. It is also the state amphibian of the State of Washington. It is tiny but loud, and lives in large raucous communities. One local community here in Seattle is located in the Frog Ponds of Magnusson Park. Go there any spring or summer day near dusk or pre-dawn and y...

From August 2015, this recording is a small stream crossing the path of a trial heading out to Lake Serene. My daughter and I had gone out early to hike and record. Something about the deep cut, yet very small (barely 6 inches wide) stream determined to make its way through the forest struck us both as lovely. recording miscellany: Sound Devices 702 mid: MKH8020 side: MKH30

Recording pre-dawn forest silence can be deceiving. We think nothing's out there, that nothing's awake. After all, our ears confirm it for us don't they? Little do we know, and little can we tell, but there's a whole world of life up where we can't hear it. In fact, it's a life that' so loud, that our recordings can distort without us even hearing it. The bat vocalizations in this recording, and Y...

On a road trip with my daughter, we spent a lovely afternoon on Mt St Helens. We each have our quiet-time meditative styles, but it starts the same. We walk out into the middle of a place. She pulls out her pad and pen and starts a landscape of the spot (see some of her work, mostly NON-landscape here: http://sofiaverbena.deviantart.com). I walk ahead a bit and pull out microphones and a recorder....

single prop, piston-driven, STOL bush plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-2_Beaver

single prop, piston-driven, STOL bush plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-2_Beaver

single prop, piston-driven, STOL bush plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-2_Beaver

single prop, piston-driven, STOL bush plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-2_Beaver