Bioacoustics, Audio from Inside the Old Live Oak Log

The old live oak log has long been resting on the ground after hundreds of years reaching out, up to the sky. As the log decomposes, numerous insects, plants, bacteria and lichens make their home inside the log. This ten minute audio is of insects, most likely termites and beetles, as they create their own ecosystem inside the log. Copper probes with piezo microphones, Sony PCM m10 recorder.

Bioacoustics, Healing Night Language of Frogs

 This audio is an hour clip of the nighttime calls of many different species of frogs living in a shallow, freshwater coastal pond in Northern Florida.

Here is the link to the audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxGYzO7fmrU&t=1101s

I find these calls to be relaxing and calming, bringing back memories of my childhood when I'd spend the night with my grandparents in their Spanish style stucco house near the everglades in Miami.

With the large windows wide open, the nighttime calls and conversations of the many frogs living in the dense vegetation echoed into the bedroom.

Today listening to these frog calls I am transported back to a treasured period in my childhood, a period full of nature's healing.

Bioacoustics, Moorhen Morning in the Swamp

Pre-sunrise audio when the birds, waterfowl, alligators and frogs are waking to a light but audible drizzle. Birds include kingfisher's shrill call, herons, moorhen's eerie notes, owls, red winged blackbirds, starlings, cormorants and more.

The recorder is placed interior to a large evergreen wax myrtle shrub growing along the bank.

Interestingly the wake up process is paced.

You will hear the moorhens and other birds take flight across the pond during the thirty minute plus audio. The moorhens are the stars of the audio with their far ranging vocals (especially when they join in vocal unison as in five and a half minutes into the clip).

Twenty five and a half minutes into the video an alligator attempts a grab at one of the birds, causing a noticeable ruckus.

This audio clip is a portion of the overnight recording session along the pond's edge.

Audio capture and sharing is part of my nature-based healing therapy for my ailments and working with the audio art aspect has really expanded my appreciation of nature's complex multi-dimensionality. The visual arts have always been important to me yet I find my combining both audio and visual with a focus on each individually, has allowed me to see nature in ways I could not have previously imagined. Today nature sounds actually paint visual art in my mind. Before I sometimes just ignored the cries, calls and sounds. Now, instead of hearing a high shrill I hear and see the kingfishers as they dart speedily across the surface.

Enjoy the NFT image too, the neo-realistic Moorhen art piece featured as the audio cover.

Sony PCM in a waterproof bag with mini stereo microphones protected by good windshields.

I am so happy to be able to experience audio art along with my native plant and ecosystem art. Nature sounds are an exciting door to enter through and explore the mysteries of the cosmos.

This recording was completed with my recorder placed inside a shoreline wax myrtle (Morella cerifera). Wax myrtle is an excellent place to record nature sounds from within as the canopy and branch architecture create amazing sound wave resonance. The waxy leaves also help shield the recorder and microphones from the rain and weather while hiding the unit too. Though this audio is all about a freshwater marsh pond waking in the wee morning hours, it speaks volumes about the wax myrtle bush in which the recorder did its overnight work. What I am beginning to see as I continue my journey into nature audio is that the cosmos around me in nature are actually much more dimensionally complex than two or three dimensions.

Bioacoustics, Plant and Human Perspectives of Bee Audio and Vibrations

 Two different bioacoustic perspectives are shared in this post.  The first is a short audio clip of bees buzzing around springtime Ilex opaca holly flowers captured with omni stereo microphones, or what us humans might hear if we stood close enough and still enough.  

The second video is made using a set of piezo microphones attached directly to the American holly flowers so as to capture the vibrations experienced by the native plant when bees fly into their open blooms, roughly foraging for nectar and pollen.

The piezo microphones in the second video are constructed with alligator clips fastened directly to the piezo disk.  This contact microphone arrangement allows for us to experience the vibrations flowing through the flowers into the plant stems.  These vibrations are more consistent with what the holly is experiencing than the first video shared above where soundwaves travelling through the are are captured by the recorder.  I always find it interesting to put myself in the place of the native plants with respect to life experiences.

Learning to examine nature from perspectives other than those normal avenues I am used to has helped me see a much more encompassing and larger picture of the world we live in.  This in turn keeps my mind 'flexible' and open to learning.

Field recording too helps heal my constant health challenges including PTSD and stress.  Field recording gets me out in nature where I breath in fresh air, get exercise and absorb vitamin D.

Both of these recordings were made with a Sony PCM.  The microphones were a pair of DIY piezo disks and then a set of Clippy 272s.  Windshields were not used on the piezos but were used on the Clippys.

It is always good to examine even the most routine of life events from other's perspectives.  Finally, nature art is amazing.

Bioacoustics, Night Sounds in a Florida Coastal Wet Flatwoods Ecosystem

Night audio,11:30 pm to 12:30 am in the wet coastal flatwoods dominated by sawgrass, saw palmetto and pine. This Florida habitat is not a quiet place when the sun goes down.

Owls, raccoons, frogs (vocalizing and jumping into the water) and wading birds all in chorus in together. The background levels of 'noise' on my recorder were red lining most of the night even with the gain (volume) turned down.

This recording is part of an overnight recording from sunset Feb. 23, 2021 to morning Feb. 24. The recorder was attached to a tree in the cover photo and stereo omni micro mics with wind covers placed on opposing sides of the tree.

Audio calls and sounds vary by the hour, especially in the transition times around sunset and sunrise. This is the world in which I am so attracted to, raw nature filled with textures, colors and sounds.

Listening to the languages of nature inspires and heals. This clip is approximately one hour. I'll be posting other night recordings from this trip as I can process them.

Native plants provide host to an amazing world.

Sony PCM M10, Clippy 272 mics, windbubbles and a dry bag.