Wild Bird Acoustics

In this, the final installment of the Sandemar Files, I take you on an auditory tour of Sandemar Reserve, exploring the wonderful sounds of this reserve on May. In late spring, this reserve bursts into life, as summer migrants return in large numbers to establish breeding territories. The soundscape at this site through the spring is quite remarkable and it is at its most diverse in May, when a la...

In this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, I will present two sound magazines for listener's to enjoy. The first of these deals with one on my favourite species here in Sweden, the European Green Woodpecker. This is a shy, rather retiring bird and they can be difficult to field record as a result. Over the course of 2025 I employed passive recorders with great success in order to get up close an...

In this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, I take you on a tour of Tyresta National Park, sharing audio from a wide range of species. Given such an incredibly rich habitat, the opportunities for the active field recorder at this site are almost never ending. This pristine woodland habitat could easily occupy me for several years, such is it's scale and remarkably biodiversity. There is always mo...

In this episode we return to Sandemar Reserve to listen to the wonderful sounds of the site in late spring, a time when this reserve is bursting with life. In this episode we explore the sounds of the flooded coastal meadow at this incredible location and listen to some remarkable recordings of various bird species. Here on these wet grasslands, several species of wader return to breed each year a...

Lying 700km east of New Zealand, in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, lie the Chatham Islands. This far flung location is one of the finest locations in the world for breeding seasbirds. Sadly, many of them are now critically endangered. I could not pass up the opportunity of talking to Dave Boyle, on of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust team. Over the past decade or so, Dave has been working tirele...

Lying 700km east of New Zealand, in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, lie the Chatham Islands. This far flung location is one of the finest locations in the world for breeding seasbirds. Sadly, many of them are now critically endangered. I could not pass up the opportunity of talking to Dave Boyle, on of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust team. Over the past decade or so, Dave has been working tirele...

Tucked away, deep inside the ancient woodlands that make up Tyresta National Park, lies one of many small wetlands, hidden in the interior of this vast forest reserve. This small marsh is called Nedre Kärret and lies in a natural ampitheatre, surrounded by high outcrops of rock and pristine spruce forest. Having honed in on this micro habitat, I decided to attempt to uncover the birds present day...

Late summer is a fantastic time to be in the far north of Sweden. In July 2024 I spent a month on the tiny island of Hällögern, field recording the many breeding species present on the island. This proved to be an overwhelming success. Because I had such a generous amount of time available to me, I was able to observe the birds carefully at the location, often managing to get my microphones into o...

Sandemar Reserve, located just southeast of Stockholm City, is a wonderful place to record birds. My favourite month at this site is undoubtedly May, when the spring floodgates are opened and migrant bird species return in the large numbers. It is at this time of year that waves of summer migrants arrive on the coastline of Sweden. This is an exciting time to be in the field. Throughout the entire...

Sweden is world famous for its stunning vista of remote freshwater lakes, lined with coniferous forest. Happily, this scene is still very much a reality in the modern day. At Tyresta National Park, a stones throw from Stockholm City, lie a number of freshwater lakes and in the spring of 2024, I was drawn to them once again. Having undertaken a major field recording project at the park, I wanted to...

March in Sweden is a period when resident species begin to become active after a long winter here in Sweden and woodland habitats begin to ring with the sounds of singing birds once again. In 2025 I visited Tyresta National Park throughout the early Spring period in order to record these resident species, before the return of summer migrants. I was interested in recording the soundscape within woo...

Northern Sweden is a field recorders dream and a place I return to at every given opportunity. Each summer, I return in order to relax and spend time in nature, allowing the sounds of the natural world to seep into my very being. It is an incredibly relaxing place and one I wish to share with other's. Places like this are increasingly rare in the modern world...   In this episode I present th...

In this episode I present a feature length sound magazine, put together with audio from a field recording project  carried out at Sandemar Reserve in Sweden. In May 2025, I decided to concentrate heavily on this incredible site, using both active and passive methods of recording. A great deal of time was spent at the site at a time when the reserve is at it's busiest. Sandemar Reserve is an a...

Woodland habitat is something I have wanted to drill down into for many years now and Sweden is blessed with some truly wonderful forest habitat. After a great deal of careful thought and deliberation over the course of the winter, I eventually decided to drill down into the sounds of woodland over the course of early spring. A major field recording project was planned and executed as a result and...

In this episode I present two sound magazines for listeners. The first of these concerns a single day at Ågesta Reserve, just south of Stockholm City. I visited the reserve on 10th May 2025 and spent a wonderful morning actively recording a large amount of species at the site, moving from one bird to the next, simply enjoying the rich and varied birdlife at the site. On the day, the place was aliv...

In this episode, Wild Bird Acoustics presents a brace of sound magazines for your enjoyment. The first of these, The Vocalizations of Eurasian Jay, is an intimate look at a wonderful woodland species. This characterful corvid has a fascinating range of calls and a quite remarkable proclivity for mimicry. This charming species has fascinated me for some time. Spending a large amount of time in wood...

In this, the finale of the second season, we take an initial trip to Västerbotten, for a relaxing selection of recordings from the coastline in July. I wanted to share some particularly nice audio with listeners in this finale. Along the coastline of Northern Sweden is where I enjoy field recording the most and I thought this would be an apt way to begin the final episode of this second season.. T...

In this episode, the first sound magazine concerns a selection of recordings if diurnal calls at Hällögern, Sweden. Join me as I share audio recordings of some wonderful species in the far north of Sweden. This audio appetizer serves as a starter, in order to warm your ears for the main course... The main feature describes my journey uncovering the hidden migration of a rather special species alon...

In this episode, I converse with an exceptionally talented and dedicated field recorder, Mr. Bo Soderström. As a field recorder, Bo spends a considerable amount of time in the wonderful wild habitats around Uppsala, Sweden. Here, in mature forest, expansive wetlands and various other locations, he has honed his craft to secure intimate recordings of the birdlife in these very special locations. He...

Autumn is almost upon us, which means one thing for many active birders, fall migration. For all birders, Autumn is perhaps the most highly anticipated time of year. Migration takes place on an epic scale over the fall months and there is much to enjoy in the field. For many, it is the spectacle of migration itself, that fires the senses. For others, it is the hopes or rarities, vagrant bird that...

 With autumn approaching, a wonderful time to be out in the field, Wild Bird Acoustics concentrates on an autumnal episode of sounds from the far north of Sweden, along the coast of Västerbotten. Here, in an environment of solitude, I have been collecting audio of the sounds of both resident and passage bird species over the past number of years. In this episode, I share audio from the autumn of 2...

 Another audio packed episode at Wild Bird Acoustics! I begin with a magazine entitled 'The Fruits of 2024', a random collection of field recordings, all of which were taken over the course of Spring 2024. I had a wonderful time visiting different locations at that time, simply recording the wonderful soundscapes I came across whilst out in the field. As I often do, I simply wandered aro...

 Over the course of 2024, I spent several weeks at coastal Västerbotten, field recording birds on the tiny island of Hällögern. During the summer months, this was often a rather relaxed affair and I frequently left microphones in the field for long periods. often in areas where I knew certain species frequented. As the island is wonderfully quiet in the summer at night, long soundscapes were often...

Firstly, a short sound magazine dealing with the calls of Eurasian Skylark and Woodlark on spring passage here in Sweden. One is a species that is widespread over much of Europe, the other a local breeding species, which is highly sought after by birders. Both species are magnificent songsters, both are migratory and both are species recorded overhead at migration watchpoints. I this section, we w...

 I open this episode with another edition of the VisMig Files. Here I run through some of the Spring migration highlights from my main listening station at Landsort. As usual, I have tried to include only the better quality audio files, recorded during the months of March and April of various migrant species, all recorded early in the morning as they made their way north over the island.  The main...