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 migrants are starting to trickle in, and the resident birds are testing out their vocal cords.
I started this blog in 2012 to document my journey of “listening.” It turned into a small business along the way, although perhaps “business” is an overstatement – it’s more like an expensive hobby. But it’s provided an excuse to go to some great places to listen and record, and given me access to the natural world in ways people have mostly forgotten. I’ve heard some amazing critters along the way, listened to some beautiful soundscapes, met some incredible people, and discovered that it’s nearly impossible to get away from the sound of the internal combustion engine. I listen very differently now than I did when I started this journey, much more attentive to the little sounds that we often filter out as irrelevant information. But they are not irrelevant to a microphone, and being able to hear those subtle and distant sounds has improved my recording skills.
I thought I’d take this opportunity to present some of my favorite recordings from the last 8 years. Some of my newer followers on social media probably haven’t heard the earlier ones, so enjoy!
2012
Many of the places I’ve recorded over the years suffered wildfires shortly before or after I recorded there. In 2012, I camped along Willow Creek, just north of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. I was chased out of the area by thick smoke, and within 48 hours the fire swept through the area. The campground was closed for several years afterward, so I was unable to document the recovery of this lovely stream. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2013
The San Pedro River, in southeastern Arizona, is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the west. It is a beautiful little stream that creates a linear oasis in the desert and is an incredibly biodiversity hotspot. It is also a wonderful sounding stream and has been frequently featured in my blog. Unfortunately, increasing border interdiction efforts have meant increased drone traffic over the river (affecting the soundscape), and increased water pumping and the building of the border wall are damaging the hydrology of the river itself. This recording was a finalist in the “Most Beautiful Sounds in the World Contest” in 2014. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2014
One of my favorite recording subjects are coyotes and wolves. In 2014, I was fortunate enough to record this lone wolf howling in eastern Arizona, where Mexican wolves (lobos) were reintroduced in 1998. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2015
Some of my best recording occurs at night. The nocturnal world is so full of wonderful sounds of insects, night birds, and mammals, many sounds we miss by retreating to our homes at night. Early autumn is particularly a rich time for night sounds. I captured this recording in western New Mexico near a lake, which provided a wonderful resonance to the sounds. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2016
Another nighttime chorus with 2 species of owls and several species of crickets, this time in southeastern Arizona. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2017
2017 was a busy year for recording, as I had the opportunity to tag along with Lang Elliott on his great sound recording tour of the western US. We found so many good spots to record that year that it was hard to pick one. But this is certainly ONE of my favorites, and one of the more challenging to get, both for the remoteness of the spot and the amazing clouds of voracious mosquitoes we had to endure. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2018
I tried recording in a different desert in the spring of 2018, this time in the Mojave desert of southern California. Although this was in a remote spot, the commercial airplane traffic was almost non-stop, so recordings were just short snippets of lovely sounds. On the way home from the trip, I stopped near Mono Lake, where a pair of Long-eared Owls woke me up in the middle of a very cold night. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2019
I focused recording on the Great Basin in 2019, and managed to catch this nice chorus of spadefoots and coyotes near the middle of Nevada. Click here to read the blog post about it.
2020 looks to be a good year for recording; I’m heading to the southwestern deserts in April, and will probably focus much of the rest of the summer on northern California forests. This spring is looking pretty dry so far, so I hope I don’t have to spend as much time dodging wildfires as I did in 2018.