Mangrove Buckeye, Monarch & Yaupon Holly

Mangrove Buckeye, Monarch & Yaupon Holly

 

Mangrove Buckeye & Monarch Frolicking in the Yaupon Holly. I love the color and texture of Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria. The surreal grey & white hues always light up the dark organic understory of many of Florida's native ecosystems. Yaupon holly's leaves are special as they contain several beneficial alkaloids, including caffeine and can be roasted to make a pick-me-up beverage. Yaupon tea/coffee is actually becoming more and more popular today and I see the leaves offered in a variety of establishments. Yaupon's berries provide food to so many different birds and it's quasi-thorny stem habit creates preferred safehaven for hummingbirds to nest within. This piece is 2" thick Eastern Red Cedar I etch-burned with torch, adding oil pigment afterwards. The blue seepage stream is resin poured into voids in the roughsawn slab. 12" x 15" x 2"

Nature Art: Short Verse Wednesday, Joys of a Wildflower & Cool Creek Water

 I was inspired to pen several short verse poems for Wednesday tonight.

The first is about a nana & a garden bloom:

Solitude fed grandmother's heavy heart
laughter's echo now silent
today a solitary wildflower in her unkempt garden
soft smile curved her lips
and she whispered a joyful word

...

Joys of a Wildflower

And the second, a neo-haiku about a happy wren bathing in the creek:

Joyous Wren Splashing in the Creek

In babbling creek
wren does dance in ecstasy
water's glee cool song

...

Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge

 Set out recorders last night in the refuge (I've a scientific Special Use Permit to do so) for overnight recording.

The St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is amazingly beautiful. Went back out before sunrise to retrieve the recorders.

Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Songer

Here are some photos of hiking out to where I had the Sonys placed.

Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Songer

The second photo is how I attach the recorder to a tree or shrub, in two dry bags (one inside the other) and then the two diurnal microphones covered with fuzzy windshields.

Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Songer

Be sure to check out the fourth photo where a reptile was following me.

Alligator following me while Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Songer

Sometimes wildlife think the fuzzy windshields are big bugs and bite at them but spit the fuzzies back out pretty quickly. I can often hear the 'blah-meh' on the recorder afterwards, lol.

Field Recording in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Kevin Songer

I know I have captured some pretty spectacular audio of a marsh wren, Cistothorus palustris, last night.

Will be posting audio on my Soundwave page and here once processed. We live on an amazing planet.

Nature is teaching me so much about life, healing and art.

Bioacoustics, Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea) Chorus

 One hour audio clip of a Green Tree Frog chorus (Hyla cinera) along the banks of Headquarter's Pond in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.  Occasional Pig Frog calls are interspersed throughout the Green Tree Frog choruses.

Nature languages possess many important survival, health and community qualities.  Listening to the languages of nature can bring us humans closer to our evolutionary roots, heal our hypertension and stress and open many doors of adventure and opportunity.

We humans have long forgotten how to listen to what nature is telling us.  Enjoy this hour of these aquatic frogs as they chorus together.

Bioacoustics, Pig Frog (Lithobates grylio) Calls After Sunset, SMNWR

 Bioacoustics and nature audio art.

Pig frog calls along the banks of Headquarters Pond in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.  June 6, 2021 8pm-9pm.

SMNWR, Evening Frog & Bird Calls

 Bioacoustic & audio art from the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

One hour evening bird, frog and wildlife calls.  Bathe yourself in the sounds of Florida's nature for health!

Bioacoustics, Lake Ella Ring Billed Gull Calls

Two minute clip of Ring Billed Gulls calling along shores of Lake Ella in Tallahassee

Audio link:  https://youtu.be/f944H6OI9gE

'Florida Burning Bush', Rhododendron austrinum

 'Florida Burning Bush', Rhododendron austrinum. Mixed media 56" x 42" original. NFT available.

Florida Flame Azalea, Rhododendron austrinum, #NFT by Kevin Songer

Florida native azaleas are amazing spring bloomers.  Surprisingly, the blooms last a considerable while when cut and placed in a water filled vase.

This particular sketch took about three weeks to do and will be available soon on Fine Art America and Rarible.

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, Fledgling Time for the Nuthatch Chicks, Nest Audio

 Nuthatch life.

Audio link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApRh4urFlE0

The Nuthatch chicks are three weeks old now and about ready to fledge. Their vocalizations are much more adult-like now and their appetites are big! Listen in as their parents shuttle in bugs every minute or so into the nest, and as the parents arrive the chicks holler.

The baby birds are constantly moving around in their nest too! This audio makes me realize just how annoying sweet baby's screams can be lol. I'm sure that's why the parents prefer to spend time out foraging rather than listening to the incessant juvenile chatter.

Listen closely for the difference in the chick's racket and the adult's signaling calls.

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.

Mermaids & Thyme, A Mandala

 A mermaid & thyme mandala.  Soon to be NFT.

Nature Art, A Mermaid & Thyme Mandala by Kevin Songer

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, American Bullfrog Mating Calls

Audio of two American Bullfrogs, male and female, calling to each other just after sunset.  The male bullfrog apparently is doing most of the calling and the female occasionally answers.

Short five minute audio set in a shallow waterlily pond with gently trickling, flowing water.

My personal takeaway from the recording is the sense of 'patience' on the part of the frogs.  Their calls are measured and paused but strong and clear when made.

Sony PCM recorder with Clippy 272 microphones.

Bioacoustics, Nuthatch (Sitta spp.) Nest Feeding Time

This bird bioacoustics video is about Nuthatch, Sitta spp., feeding time in the nest. As with other newly hatched birds, the nuthatch babies are quiet until they recognize a parent, usually by the parent's call.

Here both parents are actively foraging for food and returning to the nest every minute or two, even though a storm is approaching, to feed their young. You will recognize the parent's call as they enter the nest cavity then hear the high pitch hunger squeal of the newborns.

I find it interesting that the baby nuthatches are instinctively quiet until they recognize their parent's call, and/or the shadow of the parent entering the next cavity although a response to a shadow could also be fatal as a shadow could be a predator too.

Lom MikroUsi microphones with a Sony PCM M10 and a waterproof drop bag. Microphones placed in the nest perimeter, away from babies but in the area of the parent bird's activity - hence the 'bumps'.

Dwarf Dandelion and the Lady Beetles

 Mandala fun with the native wildflower Dwarf Dandelion, Krigia virginica and native lady beetles.

Available as an unique high resolution NFT or print on aluminum plate. 16" diameter.

Wind, Rain and Approaching Thundershower, Audio Recording Interior to a Native Azalea

 Approaching early morning thunderstorm provided an opportunity to set up recorder under a native azalea (Rhododendron spp.).

Audio available here. 

The native azalea's leaf cover is minimal, so audio from wind, rain and thunder would be significant.

Unlike the Southern Magnolia rainstorm, the native azalea does not offer much cover from the storm.

Sounds of weather events vary when recorded under different plant canopies and offer insights to how ecosystems integrate and how wildlife may respond accordingly.

Dune Daisy, Lady Beetles and the Bee

 Dune daisy (Helianthus debilis), Native Lady Beetles and a honey bee.

Nature Art. Dune Daisy, Lady Beetles and the Bee by Kevon Songer, #NFTs

Nature Neorealism, Big Eyed Gulf Fritillary Larvae Lunching on Dune Daisy

 Helianthus debilis (Dune daisy) is a great native wildflower for landscaping, soil stabilization, pollinator attraction and for larval host purposes.

Nature Art NFTs, Gulf Frit Larvae Lunching on Dune Daisy

Here is my 24" x 24" neorealistic Gulf Fritillary larvae art featuring a lunching on Dune Daisy's cucumber leaf shaped greenery.

Nature Art Fun with Ecosystems

 No title for this NFT piece, just Ecosystematic & native plant fun. 24" x 24".

Ecosystematic Nature Art