Northwest Soundscapes

This small small pod of chorus frogs from the Ozette area of the Olympic National Park occupied the edges of a tiny transient pond no more than 10 feet/ 3 meters across. I can't imagine there are more than a dozen individuals present, not all of them vocalizing. Their sporadic choruses would last no more than a minute at intervals of 10 minutes to an hour apart! Whenever I hear small pods like thi...

Coming out right around sunset, the first members of a pod tentatively cree-eek and ribbit their way until more come up from their overnight burrows to join. Pacific Chorus Frogs, despite their oft confusing alternate name Pacific Treefrog, lives in burrows and grasses in marshy wetlands. While some frogs may make their way into shrubs while hunting food, they are primarily ground and shallow-wate...

regilla are most familiar by the male "advertisement" call used to attract females, a distinct "Kree-eeck" or ribbit. It is their encounter call between two or more aggressive males that can be so delightful. A longer, single-syllable "reeeeeeeeeeek" or "creeeeeeeeeek" utterance that seems to vary strongly from individual to individual, this call is used to say, "Hey, buddy, give me some room." --...

Daily (or nightly, as it were) life for regilla is dependent upon light, temperature, and energy. As the late night wanes, the pod loses steam. Temperature torpor sets in, individuals leave to hunt, and, well, probably get froggy-bored. The full chorus breaks first into successive waves that circle the pond and later into long-but-staccato sections that show signs of tapering away. ---------------...

Finally the night begins to close as the first rays of light appear in the twilight sky. Most of the pod members have gone back to burrow and sleep, but a few individuals continue to try their hardest to attract a mate. Somewhere out there is the regilla for them. ------------------------------------------------------------------ I love Pacific Chorus Frogs. Whether you know it as Pseudacris regil...

This one may only be of general interest to my fellow North American field recordists. There's a bird we hear *all*the*time* yet, when early in our careers we often confuse it with a "distant generator thumping". Yes. The Ruffed Grouse. Also called the "Fool's Hen" for it's propensity for not running quickly away when approached, leading one to feel like you can catch it if you're quick enough. In...

This one may only be of general interest to my fellow North American field recordists. There's a bird we hear *all*the*time* yet, when early in our careers we often confuse it with a "distant generator thumping". Yes. The Ruffed Grouse. Also called the "Fool's Hen" for it's propensity for not running quickly away when approached, leading one to feel like you can catch it if you're quick enough. In...

I had the pleasure of joining nine other sound artists and field recordists (seven participants plus the three workshop leaders)at Sonic Mmabolela 2018, the 6th Annual Workshop/Residency for sound artists & composers at Mmabolela Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa. It was two weeks of intense listening, recording, discussion, creation, hiking, and wine drinking. It was also two of the most memorable w...

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

I feel fortunate to have been able to record over an hour of unbroken natural sound in the Olympic National Forest at the Snider-Jackson trail head. Starting during Civil Twilight, sun rises in this recording around the 30 minute mark, although the Thrushes were awake and active long before then. Robins, Varied Thrushes, Flycatchers, woodpeckers, squirrels, Pacific Wrens, and more fill these moss-...

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

A days' worth of round-trips on the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry, nearly all short fore-and-aft from then passenger and car decks.

This track isn't really from within a coastal hollow. This is the underside of a large boulder being repeatedly smacked by a shallow tide.

I sat on top of a big boulder and lowered my mics in for this track. What you don't hear is me slowly groaning and huffing-and-puffing as I realize that it wasn't a good idea. You know, leverage, balance, and all...

I should have taken more pictures to describe the action. Live and learn. Here the mics free standing, barely, between two large boulders. The tide was coming in but wasn't quite up there. Most of the splashing here is from a shallow inlet filled with kelp.

This is the stuff I really love. The water comes in, fills a little hollow area about 4 feet deep and two feet wide. The it drains out with a shlorky-wet "glurg-g-g-g-g". To say that the 6 year old in me is pleased with it sounding like a giant wet fart is an understatement.

The tide was coming in. There was a slight storm surge from an off-shore event. Positioned at the end of a long narrow breach between two rocks, we can hear the water surging its way between with every wave, only to just kind of "splort" at the very end before draining away.