If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

In this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics we move into the Spring season, a time when birds are beginning to flood back into Sweden. The landscape is gradually filled with the sounds of newly returned species, which begin to set up their territories in preparation for the breeding season to come. 
This episode is filled with some lovely audio for listeners, so sit back and relax and enjoy the sounds of Spring...

Transcript

Welcome  📍 everybody to Wild Bird Acoustics.

. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and I'll be taking you on a journey. into sound. 

Now welcome everybody to the fifth episode of Wild Bird Acoustics and we really have a nice show for you today with two nice long sound magazines and basically what we're going to be dealing with today is early spring  and then a little bit later on in the second magazine we will extend further into that season and it's a wonderful time to be birding here in Sweden as migrants return and the landscape just erupts with sound. 

Now a little bit later I'll have some news and discussion for you but first of all we will run through the first sound magazine  and in this magazine you will hear lots of nice species all recorded in early spring.

in Sweden. 

So it's time to kick back, folks. And I really do hope as usual, you enjoy this sound magazine. 

Once again, I urge you all to wear headphones if possible, as this will greatly improve your audio experience.

  So there you have yet another winter recording and that was recorded at Sandimar reserve and involves the alarm sounds of common blackbird and not hatch against the sound of ice forming on the Baltic sea at the location. And I think it just makes for a wonderful winter frosty cold recording. I hope you enjoyed that folks.

Now you're very  welcome to another sound magazine here at wild bird acoustics. And in this sound magazine, we're going to be running through some. late winter and early spring recordings and we have a nice selection for you here.  Now, following that cold, frosty opening recording, I'm going to move forward a little bit into early spring, and I'm going to play you a very common species here in Sweden, which returns early spring, and that is Eurasian Wren.

So, in this next recording, you will hear the alarm call of Eurasian Wren, and in the background, you will hear Common Chaffinch calling, which are also migrants here in Sweden, and have already returned at this point, right at the end of March. So, this was recorded at Tiristin National Park, a favourite venue of mine.

And as I mentioned earlier, this is the alarm call of Eurasian Wren. 

Eurasian Wren is one of Europe's smallest birds, but natural fact it's also one of the loudest for its size. And they're very, very vocal in spring and I think they're a wonderful species to sound record. I have another recording also of an alarming bird and this time it's from Tyrus Slush.  This bird was calling from reed bed, it was also alarming, but it gave more protracted kind of alarm calls and it went on for quite a while.

In the background here you will hear Greylag Geese, which have also returned by this point in late April. And there's also a few other species in the background, particularly European Robin. So, once again, this is a slightly different alarm call from Eurasian Wren. Have a listen, folks. 

Now, as soon as they do return to Sweden, Eurasian Wren take up territory very, very quickly, and they begin to sing. Now for me, the song is one of the best sounds of early spring here in Sweden. It's remarkably full of volume for such a small bird as I already mentioned. And it's quite an amazing sound.

And I'm going to play you the song now of Eurasian Wren. Now this was also recorded at Tiristin National Park in March in 2021.  In the background here you will hear singing song thrush and a few quiet calls from things like common chaffinch.  Now often in these recordings you will hear birds in the background and it's quite fun to try and identify them. 

And I know a lot of my listeners out there are experts at identifying birds.  Now in these sound magazines quite often I do pay attention and I will occasionally tell you what's going on in the background or if there are other species involved in case they may actually confuse with the main species in the recording. 

But sometimes I'll also just let them play and leave it up to the listener to try and identify what's going on in the background.  This is part of the fun of bird audio.  Now on occasion, there might be other things going on, like perhaps something like mimicry. And I may point that out in certain cases, but generally speaking, what I like to do is leave it down to the expertise of the listener.

So if you're interested in more advanced things like mimicry, I'll leave it up to the listener to pick those out. Unless, of course, I'm actually doing a specific section on something like mimicry. 

I don't know. 

Now, in the next recording, I'm going to stay at Tirista National Park, but the species is different. It's another common species, and that is common wood pigeon. Now, I found this bird singing in early March 2021 at the park, and I think this is a wonderful recording. In the background, you will hear things like Chaffinch and Robin, and also in the background here, there's a lot of wind moving through the trees and it provides a lovely background of ambience against the birds singing.

So this is a little bit of a longer recording, maybe two to three minutes, but I'm going to leave the play out anyway. And as I've mentioned before here on the podcast, I don't want to shy away from playing longer sections of audio.  That's quite often. I think people will want to sit back and relax and just listen.

And having these two to three minute sections is probably quite good for relaxing and just generally enjoying the audio. So once again, this is Wood Pigeon in song on a windy day at Teersa National Park in early spring. 

Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woo 

Oh, 

Now, next up, folks, I'm going to take you away from Sweden and into Ireland. And a couple of years ago, I went home for Christmas just to visit family and do a bit of sound recording. And I got out quite a bit over a couple of weeks I was home and got a couple of nice recordings. I'm going to play a couple of them now.

Bye. Now the first one I'm going to play you is a species called Purple Sandpiper, which recorded at Hothead in the harbour. And these birds are very, very difficult to record and a natural fact, I think even this could possibly have been the first recording of purple sandpiper from Ireland at that time. 

Now I found the birds fading at high tide at the end of the pier. It was quite windy, there was quite a big swell coming in, so it was difficult to get a recording of the birds as they are not so loud. But eventually at high tide, the birds were just hunkering down. against the wind in these small holes in the pier.

And they're giving these really quiet calls and I managed to get a recording.  So purple sandpipers are small waders and they winter around Britain and Ireland on the coastline. And they especially like rocky areas with plenty of weed. And you'll see them just feeding along the tide line in these rocky areas.

They quite like piers and that kind of thing and Hothead is actually an excellent spot for them. And on this occasion there was a small group of six or seven birds.  This is Purple Sandpiper at Hoth Harbour in Dublin, Ireland. 

Now we're going to stay in Ireland a little bit longer. And this next recording comes from a place called North Bull Island in County Dublin. And this is where I grew up folks, it's pretty much where I cut my teeth as a young birder.  And it was very nice just to get back down and do a bit of sound recording in this place. 

One morning at full tide I came across a group of feeding pintail and teal. And as I recorded the teal I actually began to realise That the male or drake pintail were actually calling constantly in the background. So this made for quite a good recording, it was early in the morning, there wasn't too much footfall yet, not too much noise pollution, and I was quite happy in the end with this recording.

So, once again, this is northern pintail and some teal at North Bull Island in County Dublin. 

So back across the water once again to Sweden, and in wintertime one of the species I come across on a regular basis is Hooper's Swan. Now these are very easily identified, they're a large swan, and they have kind of a yellow mark on the bill as opposed to orange, which is that of mute swan, and in winter they are quite common around the Stockholm area. 

On this particular day, I came across a small group of them at Sandamar Reserve, and they flew past the recorder as I was recording. Now, they typically give these trumpeting calls in flight, and it's very, very easy to identify, and you will hear it from a long way away, but it's a very nice sound nonetheless in wintertime.

This is Hooper's One, Sandamar Reserve, in Sweden. 

Now, next up is a species that I don't have a great deal of audio of, and that is Long tailed Duck. It's a seafaring duck, it's quite often quite a long way out, and it can be difficult to record. Now, I got this recording at Lands Art in the middle of winter. And the birds were just beginning to pair up and display offshore.

They were very, very distant. Um, and I was quite surprised that I got a recording at all to be quite honest with you. It's quite amazing the Tlingit Parabola, which I record with quite a lot. And all of these recordings in this particular sound magazine were recorded with the Tlingit Parabola. But like I say, it has the ability just to amplify sound.

And it constantly amazes me how good it is at actually doing that.  Now basically, I just pointed at the long tailed ducks. I could hear them distantly actually just making some noise. And when I got home and listened to the recording. Although it's quite distant, I was amazed really at the quality of the recording.

So although it's not very close, it's still a nice recording of some displaying long tailed duck. I'm going to play that for you now. 

Now, as late winter moves into spring, resident species begin to actually get more active and more vocal. And again from Landsard, which is just south of Stockholm city. I was out for a day in early March recording and I came across this Yellowhammer just sitting quietly in a small hedgerow and it was just giving some quiet calls.

So I'll play that for you first. This is the call of Yellowhammer. 

So that's the rather quiet, nondescript call of Yellowhammer, but the song is a different story entirely. And it's one of the wonderful sounds of the countryside here in Sweden in early spring.  So in this next audio recording, you will hear a couple of male Yellowhammers giving song, one of them very much in the foreground, and as I say, it's a very, very beautiful song.

So I'm going to play that for you now. Now in the background, you will hear things like Greenfinch. But you'll easily tell the yellow hammer here. It's very much the focus of the recording  So once again, this is a couple of adult male yellow hammer in full song at Landsort just south of Stockholm Sweden 

now the next pieces I have for you is something of a Scandinavian Speciality and natural fact is quite difficult to record even here in Sweden And the reason for this is the birds are very, very erratic in their visits to the area.  Now, a couple of years ago, the species erupted in large numbers, and from November on, it began to turn up around the suburbs of Stockholm City, and that's when I got out to record Pine Grosbeak. 

Now, Pine Grosbeak is a large species, it's a huge finch, and they feed mainly on seeds and that kind of thing.  Now, these particular birds turned up at a suburban kind of playground in northern Stockholm in the suburbs. It was a very noisy area, a lot of kids playing, a lot of people out walking, dogs, a lot of traffic and that kind of thing.

But eventually after the birds flew in, they got quite vocal. And it was early in the morning, so eventually I managed a reasonable recording. And again, apologies for any noise here in the background, it was quite a difficult species to record and it is one of my few recordings of the species. So I'm going to play that now, folks.

This is Pine Grosbeak in Northern Stockholm City, a couple of years ago.  In early January. 

Now we have a saying in Ireland where I come from that one swallow doesn't make a summer. And towards the end of the winter here I'm always looking out for certain species. And one of the species that makes me feel like spring is definitely on the way when I first see them displaying is woodcock.  Now Woodcock performed this wonderful, wonderful kind of grunting, roading display, as it's called, and you can see them flying over woodland in spring, at night, or at dusk, actually making this call.

And basically what it is, it's a display flight. So the birds fly around their territory, along the boundaries of their territory, giving this call, and this roading display. 

And you can hear it from quite a long way away.  Now it's quite an unusual noise, and I think it's a wonderful, wonderful sound. And I was delighted to get some really good recordings of this species at Landsort in Sweden. This was recorded with a Wildlife Acoustics SM Mini Recorder, and it did quite a good job of recording the bird's display. 

Quite often they were quite distant, but on several occasions I had birds go right over the recorder. And that's what you're going to hear now. Basically it's a bird approaching the recorder from the distance, and eventually going right overhead. leaving a wonderful sound recording of the display. So that was the wonderful display of roding woodcock.

And it is a species that if you want to see it in display, you will have to get out at dusk, just as it begins to get dark is the best time. And many birds actually do this, they display at night, but more of that later in the podcast. in future episodes where we will cover night singing species.  Now, for the moment, that's it, folks.

That's the last recording for you. And I really do hope you've enjoyed yet another Sound Magazine here at Wild Bird Acoustics. As always, in future episodes, we'll be back with more of these. And pretty soon, we'll be moving into the spring kind of section. And I think you're really going to enjoy that, folks.

I have some lovely audio to share with you.  For now, take it easy. And we'll see you again here at Wild Bird Acoustic. 

Now that concludes our first sound magazine here for you in episode five. And I have a little bit of news for you folks. And that is to say that going forward now in February, the first interviews with other sound recorders will be appearing here on the podcast. And I know a lot of you have probably waited for that for some time.

So apologies for the slight delay, but it's taken a little bit of time just to get in contact with. People let them know what I want to talk to them about and just organizing the interviews themselves. But they're going to be very, very exciting and I do hope you will enjoy them. 

I've decided to post an episode of the podcast every week here in January and that's just to help establish the podcast and from next month in February, folks, there will be just two a month. So that will be the format going forwards.  The podcast will release on the 1st and 16th of every calendar month going forward in 2024. 

Also in the future, you can expect a lot more of these sound magazines. They will be a very regular feature as well as some small in the field sections. 

In addition, I've put together more sections of NocMigCorner concerning nocturnal migration. And we'll also have another section called the VisMigFiles, which will deal with diurnal migrants. 

 Now I don't want to be too rigid in my selection of audio and I've already played a couple of sections on individual species and also I've been thinking about other ideas for putting together nice audio sections and some of these will be coming in the very near future 

 now next up I have a small in the field section for you and it's quite short and it has to do with the day out at Augusta reserve which is just south of Stockholm.  Now on the day it was very cold but the very first migrants were coming in and it was a very enjoyable day from that point of view   but if I'm honest there wasn't a great deal to record but nevertheless there was a couple of surprises and I'm going to play that for you now.

 Now it's 26th of March 2023.  I'm out for a morning at Augusta.  I've had a look around already and there's  some signs of early spring. There's quite a lot of  reed bunting around.  About 16, 17 on one of the marshes there now back and a handful of white bagtail as well which are fresh in.  So, there's little signs of spring,  but I'm just going to putter around now and see what recordings I can get.

It's actually snowing right now, it's about minus one, despite the date,  and it's a little bit cold. But we'll see what happens. You can probably hear there's a lot of grey lag  and Canada geese around.  You can probably hear them in the background. But, my first target is going to be Green Woodpecker.  And I've heard it bird quite close in a bit of woodland.

And I'm going to stake that out now with the parabola.  And see if I can get a recording.  And if so, I'll play that for you now.

  



 So that was Greenwood Pecker.  There's a lot of blue tit active as well.  I got a nice little recording of blue tit singing  and calling in the woodlands. It should be quite nice, so I'll play that for you now. I don't know if you can hear it, but I'm trying to make it sound like a bird.

 Now, I was struck out on Dipper, unfortunately the bird isn't present, I may have actually vacated the area looking for a mate,  as it was alone.  But it's not nearly anyway, so I'm going to move on now to the marsh and see what I can find there. Yeah, it's been tough going, to be honest.  But I've just looked out and I've had a snowbunting  fly over my head.

Called at least three times. And I think I got a reasonable recording. So, this is a migrating snowbunting flying over.  I'll play that for you now, at Augusta,  in Sweden.

 Now, there's a lot of geese around, and  there's not much else to do, so I just recorded some coyotes calls there from grey legged goose,  so I'll play that for you now.

 So, that's going to wrap up this short sound magazine from Augusta Corn  on the 26th of March 2023. It's been a fairly quiet morning. First meadow pippets of the year, reed buntings as well,  and a few skylark.  Bonus snow bunting going over a migration which was very, very nice. And also I think some nice audio of green woodpecker. 

It's always worth getting out into the field no matter what the conditions. It feels quite cold now, it's quite windy, so I'm going to head off. There's a strong wind chill, so as well into the minus degrees. So it's time to call it a day.  So little signs of spring and I hope you've enjoyed this sound magazine this morning. 

Thanks for listening folks. 



So therE you go, folks, that was in the field. And I hope you enjoyed it. Quite a short one, I think, but a few nice recordings in there nonetheless.

  Now, I have one more sound magazine for you before I close off on episode five and these recordings come from a little bit later in spring and you will find in here a lot of audio of species that have not yet featured in the podcast and I think you're really going to enjoy these 

as always, it'd be great to get some feedback off you guys. Drop us a mail at wildbirdacoustics. com and let us know what you want more of folks.

So for now, here's another sound magazine for you. Enjoy this. 

 Now you're all very welcome once again to Wild Bird Acoustics, my name is Alan Dalton and what we have today for you is a lovely sound magazine about the joys of spring.  Now I think it's fair to say that most people after a long hard winter look forward to spring but that is especially true of bird watchers and sound recorders and especially here in Sweden folks where the winter can be extremely harsh and long,  it's absolutely wonderful.

And the day is starting to stretch out and the sun starts to put in a bit of an appearance. And then you have that magical first day of early spring, where you get out into the field and the first migrants have returned, and are on territory and are singing.  So the title of this episode is If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

And  the answer is it depends on the winter, and it looks like this winter folks might be a long one. It's very cold here in Sweden at the moment. It's actually minus 12, 13 here as I speak. And looking out the window at the snow piling down, it's not great. And to be honest with you, I just look forward to the spring at this time of the year.

And I can be quite impatient for it to come around. So with that in mind, I thought maybe I'd put together a nice sound magazine of early spring birding and early spring sounds. Something we can all look forward to.  Now the first species I have for you today is Willow Warbler. And really, I can't think of a more apt early season migrant, as they return quite early here in Sweden.

And this was recorded last year in Bro Reserve, which is a little bit north of Stockholm City. But it's an excellent area for migrants, around early April and May. And Willowarber, as I say, is one of the earliest migrants to return.  Now on this particular day, there was a large amount of Willowarber passing through the area. 

And a lot of them are busy feeding and singing back and forth. And quite often you can tell when birds are on passage, as the strophes of song they give aren't exactly uniform. And you'll hear a couple of slightly unusual strophes of song here, but easily recognizable as willow warbler all the same. But nevertheless, this is a very nice recording.

Early spring willow warblers. And in the background here, you will hear wood pigeon. 

Now, waders also return in spring. And one of my favorite species is wood sandpiper and they're very, very plentiful here in Sweden on Spring Passage. And I came across this large flock of birds at Brough Reserve and this made for a lovely short recording folks. So not messing around, I'm just going to play this for you now.

This is wood sandpiper. 

Now one of the earliest species back here in Sweden is northern lapwing and pretty much where we go here if you can find some suitable habitat.  To some wet meadow, you will find birds displaying in March and April, and they make a lovely, lovely sound as they display overhead. In this short recording, you will hear a bird flying over calling, and you will hear its wingbeats as it displays in flight. 

Have a listen. 

Now, spring always passes by too quickly for me, and when you're out in spring, quite often, wherever you point the parabola, There's so much going on and that's the case in this next recording and the main species you will hear in this one are gadwall And great crested grebe. So the dual quacking noise here Initially is gadwall and then about 10 seconds in the rhythmic noise of great crested grebe Which are just starting to breed on the water just starts to kick in.

So this is gadwall And Great Crest Agree. 

Now, as I say, spring can be quite a busy time and there's a lot going on in the landscape. In this next recording, I was actually focused on recording a black cap. Which is just giving a little bit of sub song and some low cover. So I got the parable out and trying to run the board. And then after a few seconds, a willow warbler also began to sing in the background.

And as you've heard willow warbler in the very first track on this little magazine, you should be able to pick that board out in the background. And then also here after about 20 seconds is a single strophe of Rhynex song. And Rhynex is quite a lovely species to get. It's a member of the woodpecker family, the smallest member of the woodpecker family.

And it's a fairly scarce breeder here in Sweden and it's always a good bird to see.  So I was delighted to get this recording and I think you'll enjoy this one folks.  So this is Black Cap in subsong with Willow Warbler and Ryan Neck in the background. Birds chirping. 

Now, next up will be a familiar species to most people, and that is ring necked pheasant. And pheasant was a bird I hadn't actually recorded until the last couple of years. And last year, I was still quite anxious to get a decent recording of courting male. So what these birds do in courtship display is jump up in the air, flutter their wings and make a single call.

And you will hear that now in this next recording.  So this is displaying ring necked pheasant also at Bro Reserve in Sweden. 

Now Bro Reserve is an excellent area for Sylvia warblers. And having already recorded Black Cap that morning, it wasn't long before I came across a Lesser White Throat. And this was my first of the year. And the bird was giving a little bit of subsong as it moved through some cover. So, once again, I trained the parable on the board and got a recording.

Once again, in the background, you can hear displaying Great Crested Grebes, and their magnificent boards in summer plumage with their flumes. And the boards are quite busy in April, as they begin their courtship display and nest building. Also, in the background here, you will hear a few boarders having a chat, and some grey legged goose, as well as some gadwall. 

Have a listen. 

The Hound Dog The Hound Dog The Hound Dog 

I'm going to read this, it's probably the longest book I've ever read. I just, uh, I don't like it. Um, you know, I'm a fan of you. Um, and, um 

Now next up is a very interesting recording and it is of Common Chip, Jeff. And this bird was seen very well by several observers and definitely had a short primary projection, dark legs, and looked, for all the world, good for chiff chaff. But the interesting thing about this bird was it is a mixed singer.

So during its strophes of song, mostly typical chiff chaff, occasionally it would add small sections of what appeared to be will o warbler song to its own. And this happens occasionally with flusk warblers. But generally speaking, it's will o war bears that actually sing like chip chaff and not the other way around.

So that's what makes this particularly interesting. So we're gonna have a listen to that now and this is quite a busy recording. There's a lot going on in the background here.  Things like song thrush. Yellow hammer, there's lapwing here in the background also, and possibly also I think black cap and maybe white throat.

But we'll have a listen to this now. This is a mixed singer and it is a common chipchaff. 

Now whilst it's always nice to get a perfectly clear recording with no background noise, it's quite often just not possible. And it's quite okay sometimes just to snatch a recording of a distant bird when there's a little bit of noise in the background. And that's the case here. So, this natural fact is the only recording I have to date of female Northern Eider.

And I came across these birds at Sandimar Reserve and they were courting. And in this recording you will hear a couple of males calling at the beginning, and then you will hear the repetitive noise of female Eider. Now, at closer range, in the background, you will hear gull finch first, then I think a bit of chaffinch, and then towards the end, also common gull calling. 

The main subject here is female Northern Eider. And it just goes to show even if a bird is quite distant, you can get a pretty good record recording quite easily and it's always worth giving this a go. So we'll have a listen to this now. This is Distant Female Northern Eider. At Sand DeMar in Sweden. 

Um, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Hi, I'm going to show you how to do it. 

And here's another recording that kind of demonstrates how quickly things can happen in spring and here in Sweden The woodlands are just filled with birds in general and it's a pleasure to walk around in woodland here in spring and you will hear in This recording there's so much going on in the background But what happened on this occasion was I was just walking through the woods and a male lesser spotted woodpecker  Just flew in right across me and just began to actually sing and feed and do a little bit of drumming.

And I got the parabola on it straight away. But in the background here you'll hear quite a lot going on. So there's singing Stockdove, you've got a black headed gull calling in the background, there's Goldfinch singing, Chaffinch,  Meadow Pippin in the far meadows, Skylark is singing, Blackbird and Wren and so on.

This makes for a lovely recording, but the main subject here is a lesser spotted woodpecker singing and drumming. This was recorded last April at Augusta Reserve, just south of Stockholm City. 

Now Sandarmar Reserve is located just south of Stockholm city and it's one of my favorite recording locations for a number of reasons. It's good at any time of the year and in spring it's quite exceptional. And one of the species that breeds there is common redshank. And in the following recording you will hear displaying common right shank.

But it's the background once again that really makes this recording, folks. So in the background in the far distance you can hear things like male northern outer in display, there's common gull calling, there's common snipe overhead displaying, distant tree pippet, and northern lapwing also calling and displaying in the background.

And all of that makes for a quite wonderful recording. Have a listen to this folks. 

Now not far from the common right yanks I also found common ring plover and the birds were displaying they were a little bit distant and I couldn't get too close as it's a largely open area and I didn't want to disturb the birds but I still managed quite a decent recording of some displaying ring plover and I'll play that for you quickly now. 

I don't know if you can see it, but there's a lot of birds flying around in the background. 

Here in Sweden, one of the species I look forward to the most every spring, a returning tree pippet. And I just enjoy their song an awful lot. And quite often at Sandamar Reserve, where a lot of these birds are breeding and singing in the spring, the background is fantastic. And here in the background, you will hear a wonderful common snipe, which is giving its display flight.

And that whiffling sound is actually made by the bird's outer tail feathers, which it actually sticks out to the sides in flight, and then it dives through the air, and the vibration through the feather actually makes the whiffling noise. So it's quite a remarkable sound.  Now as I say, the main subject here is tree pipit singing in the foreground, but again, this is as much about the background as it is about the foreground, and it's a very nice recording.

Other species in the background here include grey lag goose, And, once again, Northern Euder. 

Thank you for 

typing 

this,  ok? 

Now in springing is not just about bird songs, and it's very useful to know your calls as well. And quite often in spring, you will have passage migrants moving through an area. And if you know the calls, you can pick these birds up quite easily. And here you have a case in point. This recording is of a male common red start.

And I found this bird just moving around some low cover at Sandomar in Sweden last April. And it was the call that gave the bird away. The bird is about 50 meters from my position, but the call is quite loud. And once you've learned this call, folks, it's extremely useful in the springtime when these birds often give this call.

So I'll play this for you now. The Skylark here singing away in the background,  but the call in the foreground belongs to male Common Redstart. 

So there you go, folks. That's the last recording for this short sound magazine. And once again, I thank you all for listening. And I hope you have enjoyed it.  And that's one of the best things about sound recording. You can actually just go through your recordings in the wintertime or any time of the year, for that matter, and just listen to them again.

It's extremely relaxing and you can learn quite a lot from them.  I've been field 10 years. And one of the things I can't quite understand is why there are so many photographers out there. And so few field recorders, and maybe that'll change in the future, folks. There's a lot of tech coming along now, and devices for recording are getting smaller.

So it's becoming more available to the masses, and hopefully that is the case. Because it's quite a wonderful way to experience nature, and has a very similar effect, folks.  In the same way that looking at a photograph can bring you straight back to a certain place, or a certain time, the same thing can happen when you listen to one of your recordings.

Everything becomes fresh in your memory again. And the whole scene comes flooding back.  So before I get too poetic or a break at the song here, I will bring the sound magazine to an end. And I hope you have enjoyed it, folks. And spring is always something to look forward to. Thank you again for listening to Wild Bird Acoustics, and we'll see you next time.   

 So there you go, folks, that pretty much wraps up Episode 5 of Wild Bird Acoustics, and I hope you've enjoyed listening to it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.  We'll be back very soon for Episode 6 of Wild Bird Acoustics. Once again, we'd like to thank all you guys out there for tuning in and listening. 

 So that brings us to the end of another episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, and I hope you've enjoyed it. As always, you can find us on YouTube by simply searching for Wild Bird Acoustics. We do have a mailing list also, and if you want to be part of that, folks, you can drop us an email at wildbirdacoustics at gmail.

com.  Now, all feedback is greatly received here at the podcast, and if you'd like the right review of the podcast. You can do so at the buzzsprout header page. In addition, if you'd like to make a small financial donation to the podcast, you can do so using the buy me a coffee button. And you'll find that also on the buzzsprout header page. 

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with more from Wild Bird Acoustics. Until then, take it easy, folks. And as always, don't be afraid to get out into the field and relax and just listen to the wildlife out there. Maybe even do a little bit of field recording of your own.  We'll talk to you soon, folks. Take it easy.

That's all from Wild Bird Acoustics.