Well, it’s been quite a while since I posted here, as I’ve been recovering from knee replacement surgery. Recovery has been quite the ordeal, with hours and hours of physical therapy every day. But the strength and flexibility is coming back, just in time, as the trees and shrubs are starting to bud, the spring […]
The snow is falling in the Sierras and northern Nevada has settled into its winter soundscapes. Insects have gone quiet and the birds are too busy looking for food to make much noise. It’s a good time to organize and sort out the huge number of sound files I collected last spring and summer. One
On a warm summer evening Read More »
Like many nature recordists, I’m a bit obsessed with recording the spring dawn chorus. It’s dynamic variety, changing by the minute, the day, the season, the habitat, is like candy for the ears. However, I’m almost as fascinated by the night sounds – the singing insects and amphibians, the owls, the night jars, and the
Night sounds in a desert canyon Read More »
The northern terminus of my 2-week road trip in September 2016 was just south of the Canadian border, near Polebridge, Montana. I arrived with some unsettled fall weather, with a dusting of snow on the peaks, and more rain on the way. I was there to visit my friend, Cynthia Wolf, who was working as
Listening for owls in Montana Read More »
There are a lot of interesting sounds that are seldom heard except at night. Not just bats and owls, but also a variety of insects: crickets, bush crickets, and beetles, to name a few. The insects like warm nights, and so that’s also when you have more insect predators, like the bats. It’s been really
Chasing night sounds Read More »
With some writing projects behind me (or at least on someone else’s desk for a while), I finally have some time to get out and do some recording. In mid May, I headed south to Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, which is a lovely swatch of rolling grassland and riparian areas, only about 25 miles
Till the cows go home Read More »
Another autumn has rolled around, leaves are changing, days growing shorter, and temperatures are getting cooler. Once again, the fall finds me in pursuit of autumn sounds, of which my favorite is the bugle of rutting bull elk. A couple of years ago, I had a successful time recording elk at Quemado Lake in New
I recently returned to Arizona, after spending the entire summer in northern Nevada. My first stop on my way south was in the newly designated Basin and Range National Monument in southern Nevada. I spent the first night at a little campground on the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, which comprises a series of wetlands near
Seeking quiet in eastern Nevada Read More »
The Upper Gila River ecosystem occupies a good chunk of southwestern New Mexico. It includes the first federally-designated wilderness area, 2.7 million acres of national forest, and is home to mountain lions, black bears, elk, eagles, and Mexican wolves. It’s been occupied by humans as long as almost any place in the country, but because
Back to the Gila River Read More »
Although birds and humans dominate the diurnal soundscape, a good number of creatures call during the hours of darkness. I was reminded of this on a trip in September, when I took another trip north to Carson City. I spent the first night at Ashurst Lake, near Flagstaff, Arizona. I pulled in to the campground
As winter fades to spring here in the Sonoran Desert, the evenings have been punctuated with the calls of Great Horned Owls. I’ve tried a couple of times to record them, but their voices are often drowned out by the barking dogs and vehicles. But a few nights ago, I heard a pair calling loudly
