Mogollon

Thunderstorm at Quemado Lake

Last fall I moved from southeastern Arizona to northern Nevada.  As part of the move, I incorporated a recording excursion that included southern Arizona, western New Mexico, southern Colorado, southern Utah and eastern Nevada.  Part of the reason I chose that path was to stop by Quemado Lake in western New Mexico.  This is a […]

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El Lobo, part 3: surrounded by ghosts

In June of this year, I headed back to lobo (Mexican wolf) country in northern Arizona.  I drove up to a remote camping area near Escudilla Mountain, arriving on a cloudy and windy  afternoon.  On the way up to the camp site, I passed several elk cows with small calves at their heels.  I set up

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Sounds of Autumn

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

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Mountain Voices

I made my annual summer migration from southeastern Arizona to northern Nevada a few weeks ago, stopping to record along the way.  My first stop was in the Blue Range of east-central Arizona, a land of conifers and beautiful grassy meadows.  Much of this area was impacted by the 2011 Wallow Fire, and the hillsides

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Sunset at Ashurst Lake

Midnight Callers

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

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Wolf close up

El lobo, part 1: Restoring balance

Humans have had a long, uncomfortable relationship with wolves.  Revered, feared, hated, and persecuted to within an inch of extinction, their survival to this day says more about their resilience than our ability to understand and tolerate what we are now learning to be one of the most important predators in the northern hemisphere. We

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By Sualkdd, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50958577

The Search for Quiet

I just finished reading Gordon Hempton and John Grossman’s book, One Square Inch of Silence, about Hemptons’ attempt to preserve the quiet of the Hoh rainforest in Olympic National Park, Washington.  Hempton is an Emmy-winning nature recordist (yes, it’s possible!) who has traveled the world seeking not only natural sounds, but quiet landscapes.  Three trips

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Gila River gravel bar

Things that go bump in the night

On a recent trip to New Mexico, to do some recording and get out of the southern Arizona heat, I stopped by the Gila River to camp.  I set up camp in a grove of large cottonwood trees, about 100 yards from the river.  My dog, Shadow, and I spent the afternoon playing in the

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