The Magic of Midsummer

In this episode I discuss some of the wonderful species available in Sweden during the month of June. During the midsummer period here in Sweden, some special species appear in Sweden. In 2022, I made a special effort to locate several scarce breeders and the result was some superb audio of a range of incredible songsters...
 The latter half on the podcast will bring us to the Baltic coastline of Västerbotten in Northern Sweden. Here in this remote and quiet area, summer breeding species provide the focus for my field recording efforts and here I will introduce you to a wonderful location, the tiny island of Hällögern. This will serve as an introduction to an area I have spent many happy weeks exploring, as I talk you through my efforts sound recording at this picturesque and largely undisturbed part of the world. A place that remains relatively secluded and undisturbed by modern standards, it makes the perfect environment for the field recorder to work in....

00:00 Introduction to Wild Bird Acoustics

01:08 The Evolution of the Podcast

01:50 Exploring the Sounds of Midsummer in Sweden

03:08 The Magic of field recording at Night

03:39 Field recordings of summer species...

13:52 An outstanding Nocturnal Mimic

36:34 The Sounds of Northern Sweden

44:17 The Use of Passive Recorders

01:05:25 The Future of Wild Bird Acoustics

01:07:14 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

  You're all very welcome to wild bird acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and I'll be taking you on a journey into sound. 

 Now you're all very welcome once again to Wild Bird Acoustics and it's just past midsummer here and it's an amazing time to get out into the field. The place is just bursting with life and the soundscape is quite incredible. Now I have a wonderful show for you today.

I have a fantastic sound magazine for you to kick things off and that concerns the wonderful sounds of a midsummer. 

 A little bit later we'll be traveling north to Västerbotten in Sweden and in that section we have some fantastic sounds concerning July up north in Sweden and some very special birds there also. So hang around for that folks. 

Now more regular listeners will have noticed that the podcast is evolving a little bit as regards backing music and new intros and that type of thing. That's simply because I'm getting more adept now in editing gaining more knowledge of how to put a podcast together and I hope this has led to a more professional sounding podcast for you guys and I hope you are enjoying the improved sound quality.  Now the podcast was always going to evolve I suppose  I'm not afraid of that at all, but like I say, it's very nice just to get the audio sounding as good and crisp as possible.  And I hope it will improve the listener experience. 

Now I don't like to bang on too much at the start of the podcast episodes. So what we'll do is we'll go straight into the sound magazine, and that is Midsommar in Sweden. Have a listen to this folks, and I hope you do enjoy it. 

 Now welcome once again to another sound magazine here at wild bird acoustics. It's time to sit back and relax, and in this sound magazine, we're going to be exploring the sounds of summer. Now, all of this audio was collected in 2003, all during the month of June, and it's an excellent month here in Sweden. 

A lot of migrants are actually very late to arrive, and there are special species out there in June, such as blithe's reed warbler, corn crake, quail, marsh warbler, and a host of other species. And that makes it a really interesting time to get out and record in the field.  Now June is characterized by hot balmy evenings, plenty of insects, vegetation is quite lush, and it's a special time of the year for me.

And I quite often use it as well to mop up species that I have missed during the spring.  Now in June, it can be very nice to get out late in the evening as well as early in the morning. I love to get out at this time of the year. And just move around in certain areas. Quite often I try and get out during the night as well.

And June is possibly the best month to get out and record at night.  If you do so here you can find some very special species, if you're lucky. And I'm going to run through some rather nice audio with you in this sound magazine. Now I actually found it quite difficult to pick out the audio for this small section.

And I think it's fair to say you will enjoy the little highlights I picked out from June. in 2023.  Now, I'm not going to start with a songboard at all. I'm going to start with Common Buzzard.  And last year in June, I actually located a Common Buzzard nest and it was quite close to one of my favorite areas to record. 

I knew the nest was there right through the spring, but it wasn't until June that I got this quite nice recording of an adult bird. It was very close to me and I was just sitting quietly. The bird was just calling away in the trees. So have a listen to this. This is a particularly nice clear recording of the calls of an adult common buzzard in Tiristih National Park. 

Ah! Ah! 



Now next up is a species that I have shared with you on several occasions but it is a wonderful,  displaying bird and that is common snipe.  I came across this drumming common snipe in Sandemeyer in June 2023 

and it was displaying directly over woodland, and this led to a wonderful ambient backdrop of common species in song. So I couldn't resist sticking this one in for you folks. This is the aerial display of common snipe, known as drumming, over Sandamar Reserve in Sweden. Now these birds actually extend their outer tail feathers in flight and then they dive through the air and what causes this wonderful sound is the wind vibrating through the outer tail feathers and I think you'll agree it's quite incredible noise.

Have a listen to this.  



Another very common species next, and also perhaps a species I've touched on several times before, and that is Pied Flycatcher.  I came across this wonderful male, it was a particularly beautifully marked bird, and I was singing near Nynäsam in Sweden in early June 23. The bird is quite close to the parabola, and as a result, I got a really nice recording. 

So we'll play that for you now. This is an evening singing bird. Have a listen. 

14. 16. 17. 18. 21. 22. 22. 23. 25. 

25. 

Now, next up, I was at the nearby reserve of Alhagan and I got this lovely recording of a singing reed warbler.  This recording is typical of the midsummer period here in Sweden. You can hear a lot of insects in the background. But nearby there's a singing willow warbler. And in the background also is chiff chaff and common snipe in song.

So, like I say, a very typical recording of the midsummer period here. And this is Reed Warbler in full song.  Have a listen. In 2023, 

I actually spent a fair amount of time recording Reed Warbler. And I really wanted to record the calls of the species as well as the song. And that day at Alhagen, I did manage to get a nice recording of some reed warbler call. So I'm going to play that for you now, and it will tie into the next species as well.

So first up, this is the call of a reed warbler close by in reed beds at Alhagen in Sweden. 

Now, next up, it's a very special species, at least for me. And every year I make a concerted effort to find the species. Now, on this occasion, I wasn't expecting the species at all. I visited an area called Lapsheret, and I was just checking around a very small pond for things like little grebe, when I came across a few strophes of song from some dense cover near some reed bed and willow. 

Now, after I first heard the bird, it went silent for a little while. I've no doubt that she's seeing me walking by. And I just sat down quietly and waited, and sure enough, before very long, it started to sing again. And I was confident I was listening to a marsh warbler.  Now a marsh warbler, with a little experience, is quite easy to identify in full song.

They are incredible mimics, and they mimic species after species. The thing that gives their song away is this kind of explosive burst that they give every note. It's quite frenetic, and it's completely different to say, Blithe's reed warbler.  No two marsh warbler actually sing the same song. They all sound quite different, and that's because they assemble their song from the songs of other species.

So it depends on where the bird's been, and quite often, their song will mirror the surrounding species in the area. 

Now I was very happy to find this bird because it was at close range. Although it was quite close to some apartments on the road, it was early in the morning, so I was able to get some nice recordings. I had actually found about five different marsh warblers singing at Alhagan the previous week, but they're all close to a very busy road, and I was very disappointed with the quality of the recordings. 

Now the mimicry, as I said, of this species is quite incredible, and if you listen to this passage of song alone, you will hear things mimicked like Skylark, The Great Tit, The Call of Reedbunting, The Call of Chiffchaff,  The Song of Linnet, Garden Warbler, Black Cap and Blue Tit, The Call of Coaltit, and also of Barren Swallow.

And there's a lot more in there as well that I probably haven't identified yet.  This is a beautiful recording of a marsh warbler in full song. 

um, um, um, um, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Now, the previous week I had managed to record the call of Marsh Warbler at Alhagan and very briefly I'm going to play that for you now. Just have a quick listen to this. 

At the time I was quite happy with that recording. I was just happy to get a recording of the call of Marsh Warbler at Alhagan. But the bird that I now had in front of me was much, much closer and I managed some wonderful recordings of the call. The call of these birds is very distinctive, quite different from that of reed warbler and indeed, Floyd's reed warbler.

This is the call of marsh warbler. 

Now, June 23 was a tremendous month for me, and I found a lot of good birds in the field. And looking back at this, I actually believe this is because I have been recording so much in the last five or six years that my ability to recognize birds by sound has increased dramatically. And last June, I think that really helped me out whilst I was in the fields. 

Now I think perhaps years ago when I was a younger birder, I might have put a month like last June down to just potluck, a fortunate month that was perhaps good for rarities.  But quite simply, it's just my ability to recognise birds by sound that has improved. And all of the birds I found last June, I did so by hearing them first. 

The next board is a case in point, I went out to Lands Art last year on the 5th of June and I found myself on the North of the island, late in the morning, and once again, I just had a brief strove of song from a dense patch of white thorn bushes. Now the bird wasn't in full song, in fact it was rather silent for quite a long period, but I was quite intrigued by what I'd heard.

And it had piqued my curiosity enough that I was prepared to sit and wait. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, the bird gave a few stroves of song. 

Now, this bird was absolutely buried in coir. And what it was, I just gained the high ground, I got up on top of a large boulder erratic that was looking down on the cover. After a while, the bird began to sing again, and it continued to give these broken bits of song. And eventually, I got a view of the bird.

By that time, I was pretty confident I was listening to a Blythe's Rude Warbler.  And that was confirmed eventually when I got a nice view of the bird.  It was nice to get a view of the head pattern, and eventually I got the short primary projection, which confirmed the identification beyond any doubt. 

After that, I just sat back and did a little bit of recording. As you can hear, compared to the Marsh Warbler, which I played for you a little while back, this bird has a much slower tempo. Now, I would say you need to be careful with passage birds. Like this one, which was on an island and sometimes they just give some sub song.

They're not really giving their full song on territory. So just be careful. Sometimes they can be quite difficult, but this bird was singing at low tempo. And also you can hear those repeated phrases, which is very, very typical of Blood's Raid Warbler.  Now, also I got some nice recordings of a few calls.

And that was particularly nice as it was the first time I had recorded the call of Blythe's Raid Warbler. Blythe's Raid Warbler is increasing here in Sweden, but is still very scarce in the summer months and I was delighted to find this bird.  There were quite a few birders on the island and it was a year tick for most of them, so it was much appreciated and I was very happy to get the recordings I did. 

So we'll play you now the calls of Beloid's reed warbler. 

Now I do really enjoy the mid summer period. And one of the species that springs to mind when I think of summer here in Sweden is wood warbler. And there's nothing better than being in the oak woodlands in the middle of summer just recording the shivering song of wood warbler. Now I'm going to play you a lovely recording which I got again at Lappsharet.

And this bird was actually breeding very close to a northern goshawk nest. Right beside one, in fact. There were several other species breeding very, very close to this goshawk nest, including goldcrest, coal tit, chaffinch, and robin. I couldn't help but wonder whether these birds were actually taking advantage of the presence of northern goshawk, a predator that would keep things like sparrowhawk, their own predators, away.

There was certainly a very, very high density of small birds breeding in sort of 20 or 30 metres. around the nest. If any of the listeners out there have noticed anything similar with predators nests and maybe a high density of small birds breeding in the immediate vicinity do drop me a line at wildbirdacoustics at gmail dot com. 

But anyway, I digress. I'll get back to the recording. This is a wonderful recording of a wood warbler in full song in the middle of summer. 

The um, uh, Um, Uh, transcript. 

I don't know if you can see it, but there's a lot of birds in this area. 

I mean nikki You're taking the computer Yes, please Give that to us 

Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh, 

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

it's is is is is is is is 

Now, what a wonderful sound that is, and I do hope you enjoyed it. That was Wood Warbler in full song at Lappsharet in Sweden.  Now I need to finish up this sound magazine, and I've been keeping this recording back.  It was probably the highlight of last June, and it's a species I had waited quite a few years to record here in Sweden.

I have seen several here on Territory over the years, but they've been strangely absent around Stockholm for the last three or four years.  The species I'm talking about is Greenish Warbler. Greenish Warbler is a rare breeding species here in Sweden, and each year just a handful of birds turn up on breeding territory.

On the morning in question, there was a light rain falling through the trees, and it just led to a lovely ambience in the background of this recording. So I'm going to wind down now with this lovely recording of a greenish warbler in full song at dawn as the midsummer rain falls lightly through the trees. 

So that will be the end of this sound magazine and I hope you have enjoyed the sounds of midsummer here in Sweden. Once again, it's just a wonderful time to get out and record in the field here in Sweden. There's so many interesting and incredible sounding species out there to actually get your recorder on. 

From a birding perspective, I think June is a seriously underrated month and I think a lot of birders actually stop birding  far too early in spring and it's a time of year when you can really get those overshooting vagrants and I genuinely feel that June is second only possibly to October as being one of the very best times to be out in the field from the point of view of a birder.

But apart from all that, the sounds of breeding species and the general soundscape is quite incredible. So for me, it's a favorite time just to get out there and do some birding and recording.  As always, I'd like to thank you all the listeners for tuning in to listen at Wild Bird Acoustics. That was Midsummer Magic here in Sweden.

Thanks for joining us. 

 Now there you go that was midsummer recording here in Sweden and it really is an amazing time to be just moving around in the fields just when everything is back here in Sweden. The late migrants have arrived and you never know what you're going to get when you're wandering around with your parabola. 

Now all of the recordings in that section were actually recorded with a Talinga Parabola and a Zoom F6 recorder.  I bought a Zoom F6 recorder in 2023 after my old trusty Marantz PDM 661 finally died sadly in the field in  it got a little bit wet, I thought it'd be fine, and it just never came back to life.

And as gutted as I was, I think I had the recorder for over 12 years. It did give me an opportunity to upgrade slightly. And I have to say the Zoom F6 recorder has been absolutely wonderful. It has a feature called 32 bit recording, Which basically means that I don't have to worry too much about levels when I'm recording and gone are the days of having blown out recordings when levels weren't set properly.

So that's been an absolute boon and I have to say it's been tremendous to have the f6 in my kit bag ever since then. 

 Now it's time to move north and we're going to Vasterbotten for this next section. Now I spend a lot of time in July on Hallegern, which is a tiny island off the coast of Vasterbotten in northern Sweden.  It's a small coastal island and it's an incredible place for birds. Now in July there's quite a lot going on.

You get the breeding species,  that includes some wonderful species like little gull. Um, Northern woodpeckers and things like that, but also later in July, you start to get return passage of waiters.  And it's a time when I like to leave passive recorders out in the field, things like audio moths and what I've done there is I've mounted audio mods on stakes in flooded meadow, and over the years I've got some wonderful recordings in that way.

 Now having a lot of time on your hands is always a big advantage when you're sound recording and quite often I'll spend three to four weeks in July on the island. And this really allows me to stake out areas, get familiar with what birds are in the area and target them one by one.

And having the time on my hands to leave out passive recorders for weeks on end has led me to get some wonderful audio, as I've said, but it wouldn't be possible unless I was there for such a long period.  

 Time in the field really does help  being there for weeks on end allows me to identify   going to roost. For example, favorite spots, small islands, maybe where they spend a lot of time, maybe favorite singing posts, all that kind of thing.

And because I'm there for up to a month, I can actually just slowly target these species one by one. 

Now, because I work in a school, I have a lot of time off in the summer, and that allows me to be up on the island for large portions of July, and hopefully at some point in the future, I can do the same in other months, and I still am dying to get up there for an entire autumn, and maybe some year that will happen, but for now, what we're going to do is get stuck into this sound magazine, 

 So why not sit back and relax and listen to the sounds of northern Sweden. This is late July at Hallegern.

 So welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics once again, folks. And in this short sound magazine, we are going to be concentrating on Hallegern in northern Sweden. Now, all of the following recordings were taken in the last two weeks of July on the island. And every year, I travel up to the island for three to four weeks.

It's a fantastic location for field recording. It's very, very isolated and quite remote. And as a result, there's absolutely no noise pollution in general. Now, in July, there's a lot of species on the island, and most of them are breeding species. One of these is the Arctic Tern. Now, there is a colony on the island of about 40 to 50 birds every year.

And the first recording I'm going to play for you now is Juvenile Arctic Tern. The bird is giving flight calls and this was recorded with a Tlingit Prabhla and it's quite a nice clear recording.  So we'll play that for you now folks. So this is the typical call of Juvenile Arctic Tern. Have a listen. 

Now in this next recording, also of Arctic Tern, you will hear the chet calls of an adult bird. These were also recorded through the Tlingit Prabhla. It's an excellent piece of gear for this kind of recording. In the background here, if you listen carefully, you will also hear the calls from a juvenile Caspian tern, another breeding species on the island.

So this is the Chet calls of adult Arctic tern at Hallegarn in Sweden. 

Now one of the signature sounds for me of the island in the morning is displaying common gull and the several pairs breeding on the island. In the morning they give this wonderful, wonderful display. And when I hear it, I immediately think of Northern Sweden. So this is a little bit of a longer recording for you this time.

And this was recorded with a binaural recorder. So I'll give you a listen to that now, folks. This is displaying common gull in northern Sweden. 

Now, there's a few species every year I target when I'm in northern Sweden, and one of the species I didn't have up until 2022. was greater black backed gull, and one evening on the island I went out fishing and caught a few fish for tea. And having prepared them for dinner basically, I had the heads and guts of quite a few fish.

And what I decided to do was, leave them out on a large flat rock, place my binaural recorder, and simply wait for the gulls to come in and start feeding. And it worked the tree folks. So what you're going to hear now are the deep guttural calls of greater black backed gull as it bullies other species as it feeds.

Have a listen. 

So, generally speaking, while I'm on the island, I'll often have several recorders out placed around the island recording passively. And it's lovely because you get some lovely soundscapes in the mornings and evenings. And I'm going to play one of those for you now. So this is a soundscape from the evening.

So basically it gets dark at about midnight and it's bright again by 2 o'clock in the morning. And in fact, around midsummer it doesn't really get dark at all. So you've so much time to get out into the field. But what you're going to hear in this evening soundscape are red throated divers flying back in from the sea with food in their crops for their young.

And they breed on the nearby inland lakes. Also here, you will hear Caspian Tern, a juvenile bird calling, and as always, Arctic Tern. Have a listen, folks. 

Now, generally speaking, there's not a massive amount of breeding passerines on Halligern. But there is a couple of pairs of Goldcrest.  And one morning I got up quite early and a male was singing close to the cabin. So I grabbed my parabola and just spent a little bit of time recording the bird. And I got a lovely clear recording on this occasion. 

In the background here, you will hear Greylag Goose and Arctic Tern. But for the moment, this is Goldcrest in full song at Hallegern in northern Sweden. 

Now another target species next folks, and in 2021 I was delighted to get this recording, and it involves Velvet Scouter. Now this is a breeding species on the island, and each year they vary in numbers from 3 to 5 pairs. But quite often in July you will have several females in the area. They almost form like a creche for their young, and quite often you will have 3 to 4 females looking after 20 juveniles.

And that's what happened on this occasion. Now, in order to get this recording, I went out on a small boat, the Tilinga Parabola, on the bow of the boat, and just slowly rowed around. And sure enough, the female was quite vocal on this occasion. And I managed a lovely recording. In the background here, you'll hear spotted flycatchers on the mainland, as well as arctic tern and common gull.

And you will actually hear the waves lapping against the boat as well. So have a listen to this now, folks. This is female velvet scouter at Halligarn. in Sweden. 

Now in 2022 I arrived on the island to find a lesser white throat male actively singing on the island and I'm quite sure it hadn't found the mate perhaps and that's why it was probably still in full song but it gave me the opportunity nonetheless to grab my parabola and get a nice recording of the bird. 

I do like to collect as many species as possible while I'm on the island, and I think I've sound recorded over 100 species now in this small patch. So in this recording, in the background, you will hear common gull, black headed gull, singing chaffinch, and a passing female tufted duck. So this is quite a nice recording of a singing male, lesser white throat. 

Now one of the devices I use extensively on Halligarn is the Wildlife Acoustics SM 4 and it gets me some lovely recordings early in the morning and late in the evening and is very useful for recording Nockmig. Now on occasion you can get some quite nice audio with this device and here you will hear another northern species singing and that is Redwing.

Now, I haven't actually proved that this species breeds on the island, but they do regularly sing there. This bird is a case in point. It just suddenly appeared one morning at about 6 o'clock and began to sing. This makes for a nice soundscape. So, we'll have a listen to that now. This is Singing Redwing on Halligern, once again, in Sweden. 

Now, you raise noise to catch your breed on the island also, and there's at least one pair of birds. Now, I had been trying to record this display for quite a while. And what actually happens is, watching the bird carefully, it moves around constantly. Giving the piping display now haven't taken the time to watch the bird carefully over a couple of evenings I realized it was coming back to a couple of areas over and over again And what I did was I left my binaural recorder out on one of these large flat rocks and just let it record And eventually I got a lovely recording in the background here You will hear common goal and Arctic turn and unfortunately also a dog barking But I don't think it detracts too much from the overall recording.

So we'll have a listen to that now This is displaying Oystercatcher at Hallegern in Sweden.

 

Another very prevalent species at Halligarn in July is red crossbill and it's an excellent time to record the species. Now quite often at this time of the year there's family groups just roving around the landscape and quite often they end up on the island feeding. And on this particular morning I came out of the cabin and found a male bird just giving a little bit of subsong and some calls. This is a lovely clear recording of Red Cross Bill and in the background here you will hear Robin, Arctic Tern, Black headed Gull and also Wood Pigeon. So have a listen to that now. , this is Red Cross Bill at Hallegern in Northern Sweden. 

 



Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep 

Now, 

the last recording I'm going to play for you now was recorded with an audio moth. This is a very small device about the size of a packet of cigarettes. And you can leave them out pre programmed for up to a week or two and they can come in very, very useful for recording species like waders. At the north end of the island is some lovely flooded meadow and that's where I decided to leave my audio moth out and that allowed me to get this nice recording of a displaying green shank.

Now green shank breeds on the island each year at least two pairs and I was quite happy to get this recording of a displaying bird.  So we'll have a listen to that now and you will hear arctic tern as always in the background as well as some common gull. So this will be the final recording in this small sound magazine.

So once again, this is Common Greenshank in display at Hallegern in Northern Sweden. 

So that will be the end of this small sound magazine and I hope you've enjoyed the recordings. As I say, it's a wonderful place to record under some superb species. I still have a lot of audio to get through from the island, there will be several more sound magazines from this location. In addition, I also have a ton of Nocmig material and early morning migration, so at some stage we'll get around to playing all that for you folks.

But for now, that was late July in Hallegern in Sweden. Thanks for listening.   

 

Now that was the first of the July sound magazines from Hallegern in Sweden, and there's an awful lot more where that came from. So over the coming months, I'll be playing you an awful lot more audio from Northern Sweden, and I think this is going to be really enjoyed by the regular listeners on the podcast.

It's a wonderful place to record. It's just so quiet, and there's a wonderful range of species too. including some very enigmatic Northern species. So watch this space folks. And I'm really looking forward to sharing  a wide range of audio from Halligan and Bastobottom over the coming months. 

 Now just by glancing to my right and looking at my timer I can see that we are over the hour mark and that's roughly where I like to leave these podcast episodes. So once again to our regular listeners, I want to send my heartfelt thanks for tuning in once again. I hope you are enjoying this podcast as it  extends into summer and now we have of course the autumn coming ahead of us and there's lots more audio to come here at Wild Word Acoustics. 

Now, just a quick word before I go, it would be very good to raise the profile of wild board acoustics. So if you're enjoying the podcast, I would ask you just to write the podcast on your podcast provider,  or perhaps even write a review.

 This will help me out greatly as it may raise the profile of the podcast  in that fashion, it can get me a little bit more exposure on these podcast providers. 

So for now, that's all for me, Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics.  I hope you all enjoy your summer. We'll see in a couple of weeks, folks. Thanks for listening to Wild Bird Acoustics.  

 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 gratefully 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.