A Taste of Autumn; By Night and Day

In this episode, I take listeners on an acoustic journey through Sweden's autumn landscape with a focus on wild bird acoustics. I will share audio of different bird species ranging from the Firecrest to the European Marsh Harrier, Redwing, Northern Lapwing and more, recorded at different locations like Hällögern and various site around Stockholm. I also provide a glimpse into my recording process and future plans for the podcast, including the potential for bonus episodes and updates. Additionally, I discusses bird behaviors, migratory patterns, and the unique auditory experience of birding in Northern Sweden.

00:00 Introduction to Wild Bird Acoustics

01:23 Exploring the Sounds of Late Spring

01:43 The Journey to Season Two of Wild Bird Acoustics

02:11 Diving into the Late Spring Sound Magazine

02:28 The Magic of Birding in Sweden

07:07 The Excitement of Birding Up North

10:48 The Beauty of Autumn Birding

12:02 The Thrill of Birding in Stockholm City

14:32 The Joy of Birding at Dam Torp

15:17  Birding at Norrjärva Fältet

20:40 Blyth's Reed Warbler at Näsby Slot

36:40 The Future of Wild Bird Acoustics

37:18 The Enchantment of Birding in Northern Sweden

38:03 Early morning recording at Hallegern

47:29 The Allure of Birding at Västerbotten

56:05 NocMig in Northern Sweden

01:16:05 Conclusion: 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 to Wild Bird Acoustics once again  the date of release for this podcast is the 1st of August and that marks for me the beginning of autumn  so like all borders, I'm really looking forward to the autumn here in Sweden and we'll see what it brings,  it's a great time to get out into the fields and I plan to do quite a lot of sound recording in the next few months.

So something to look forward to, as always, the autumn period in 2024. 

 Now I'm pre recording this in late June and I hope I've actually had a great July  at this point. , I'm planning to get up to Halligan and Vastobottom and record a bit of audio as soon as I can.  I'm greatly looking forward to that.   So, just ahead of going up and doing a bit of birding up north, I'm just planning on getting ahead with the podcast  and uploading a few more episodes.  And we have another action packed episode for you here on Wild Bird Acoustics. 

 Now the first sound magazine I have for you is from late spring and there's a lot of lovely audio in here and a few species that you haven't yet heard on the podcast. This is one of my older sound magazines  and I still have quite a few of these to publish folks and they'll all go out in the first season of wild bird acoustics.

  I'm actually already working on season two of wild board acoustics, and that will be probably quite improved, I would imagine, especially in terms of audio quality. 

I've learned an awful lot this year about producing a podcast, and I've actually just refined my techniques, my microphone technique, and just the use of audio a little bit better. So hopefully in season two that will be noticeable,  and it'll just sound a little bit more polished and professional. 

 Now we're going to get into that first sound magazine straight away. This is the late spring period and all of this audio was recorded in the area around Stockholm in 2022 and 2021.   So we'll crack straight on. Enjoy this folks. 

 So here we are again and in this small magazine I'm going to focus on late spring, specifically the period of late May. And here in Sweden it's a fantastic time to get out and record. I'm going to start off with a species that I actually specifically went for and it's quite rare in Sweden and that's Firecrest. 

Now this bird showed up at a place called Skogsjökullgården which is a large cemetery and it was habitating some conifers and it was present for the pretty much the early breeding season. I managed to get out there on the 21st of May 2020 and record the bird at close range.  So this is Firecrest in song at Skogsjökullgården in Sweden. 

Now a very special species here in Sweden is Great Sniped. Typically this is a bird that breeds up high up in the Arctic Circle but just for about 10 days in mid May You may be lucky to find them around Stockholm, and quite often as they stop over, they will actually give a little bit of display song.

And when I heard this bird was present at Norre Järvefeltet, I decided to make the trip up. Now this is a bit of a special night, because on arrival I actually found a second bird, and it was calling from some meadow, but very intermittently. So I decided to head for the second bird. As darkness fell, the bird began to display. 

And in the background you will hear Robin and Blackbird, but this is a really iconic species for me and I was absolutely delighted to get this recording here in Stockholm City. So this is Great Snipe giving some display in Norrjärva Fältet, a 30 meter sheret. 

Now as often happens when you go out for one species, you will come across other birds. On this occasion, I was very, very fortunate to have a male marsh harrier fly overhead displaying. And again, I was absolutely delighted to get this recording as it was the first time I'd recorded a male marsh harrier in full display.

So the bird was skydancing overhead and gave a few calls. And it came out quite well, despite a little bit of background noise. So in the background here, you will hear Chaffinch But this is the flight display. of European Marsh Harrier, an adult male, at Norrjärva Fältet in Sweden. 

Now also on the same evening, a red wing was singing in some wet woodland, and this is another typical northern species, and a red wing is quite a sparse breeder around Stockholm, but if you get into the right areas and you can find some kind of wet flood forest, you'll quite often find them, and that's what happened on this occasion.

So this bird, again, a little bit of background noise, but nothing too serious, and in the background you'll hear black headed gull. and Canada Goose. But this is a displaying Red Wing, again at Norrjärva Fältet in Sweden. 

So having recorded Red Wing, I moved along a small way and came across this calling Lapwing. And again, in the background here you will hear black headed gull. But this is quite a nice recording of calling Lapwing. And you'll hear some other Lapwing in the background displaying in the distance. So once again, this is Northern Lapwing at Norrjärva Fältet in Sweden. 

Now coming from Ireland, as I do, common snipe is a species that you find in wetlands in the winter. Pretty much the vocalization you would hear in Ireland or elsewhere in Europe in the winter is just upon the flush and the birds call as they fly off. But here in Sweden, they are quite a common breeding species.

This bird was displaying constantly from the top of a large spruce tree in the woods. And although that might Appear quite an odd setting. They quite often do this, so the bird is generally pair aai either in spruce or maybe a birth tree, and they give this beautiful kind of metronomic call and it's a very nice noise.

So, and in the background in this recording, you will hear blue tit, gray, tit black bird, and some distant black head golds. So this is common snipe in display at nor Yte north of Stockholm City in Sweden. 

Now another species that typifies this period of late spring and species I really like to record when they return to the breeding grounds is wood warbler. And on this occasion I went to a small lake called Dam Torp. It's located in Sickler Reserve and it's quite a nice lake and surrounding it is some nice forest and every year I go there to record a couple of species and the main one is wood warbler.

Now this bird is recorded at close range and in the background you can hear chaffinch, robin, hooded crow and a few other common woodland species. But it's quite a nice recording of a singing wood warbler. Now as I say, coming from Ireland, it's quite melancholic in some ways. They're quite a rare species in Ireland but here in Sweden they're relatively common.

Pretty easy to record if you get into the right habitat. It really is a fantastic song and it's great to watch them as they sing. They just move around perched and On occasion they get that lovely shiver where they shake their wings and just give the trill and also that descending to you whistle and you'll hear both here.

So this is displaying wood warbler male at Dam Torp in Sweden. 

Now Dam Torp is also a good location for this next species, and that is Pied Flycatcher. Now Pied Flycatcher is very common here in Sweden, and pretty much any small garden, allotment or bit of woodland, you'll probably find a few birds singing. But I never pass up the opportunity to actually just record this species.

Again, coming from Ireland, it's a very rare species there. And in many ways, that encourages me just to record these birds. So I generally don't pass them because even though they're common here, it's quite a nice species for me. Quite often, you can get quite close to them. So this is a very nice recording as well.

And this is Pied Flycatcher in display, 2019, at Dam Torp in Sweden. And again, in the background, you will hear Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Gray Tit, and Fieldfare. 

Now closer towards the lake at Dam Torp on that evening was a singing Garden Warbler. Again, it's a species that I like to record. I find her generally quite cooperative and it's quite easy to get close to them. This bird was just singing away from a small thicket and I just set up my gear and sat quietly and recorded the bird.

So this is Garden Warbler singing at Dam Torp in Sweden.  Have a listen. 

Now in the last few years here in Sweden there's been a big Easter expansion of this next species and it's rather special to me and whenever one turns up I do try and get out there and record it. Although I don't have many recordings of the species. It's always nice to get a recording of it. On this occasion, at Nesby Slot on the 6th of June, 2019, Blythe's reed warbler had turned up.

And on arrival, as is often the case, I found a second bird. In actual fact, this bird was much easier to record as the first reported bird was quite far out in the reed bed. Now, we got great views of this bird initially before it started singing in the evening. And although there is a little bit of background noise as it's quite a busy poplar area.

Now as is not atypical with these boards, they quite often turn up in fairly urban areas. This is a small park on the lakeside, and as obvious, this board was an excellent mimic. Some of the species I picked up in this song are blackcap, thrush nightingale call, lesser white throat, little bits of sedge warbler song, a nice rendition of common rose finch.

Also, a Bullfinch song, Blue Tit, and Wren. So sit back and have a listen to a Blythe's Raid Warbler singing on the 6th of June, 2019 at Nesby Slot in Sweden. 

So that was a rather nice recording and I was very happy to get it. Which brings me on to the next species, which is also an excellent mimic. And that species is Ictorine Warbler.  Now, on the 30th of May 2020, I took a trip out to Sandmar in the evening and stayed in the darkness. And Ichthyrian Warblers were very, very vocal in the area.

And this bird in particular put on a great show. So, if you listen carefully to this song, you will hear more mimicry. It does a fantastic rendition in particular of Calling Oystercatcher. But also, you will hear Blackbird, Bluetit, Arctic Terncall, Fieldfare Call, Little Bits of Songthrush Song, Starling, and Set Warbler.

So this bird was singing from the canopy. I was fairly close to the bird and as it got dark, it was just nice to lie back and just listen to the song. So this is the displaying adult male Ichterium warbler. Again, recorded at Sandamar Reserve on the 30th of May 2020 in Sweden. 

Now also at Sandimar on the same evening, I came across this White Throat. As mimicry goes, this bird was not too shabby. Quite often I found over the years that White Throat gave a few bursts of song, and generally only mimic when they do the song flight, but this bird was actually doing quite a bit of mimicry from a perch.

And here in this recording, you will hear the bird mimic Yellow Wagtail Call, Barn Swallow Call, Red Shank, Tree Pippet Call. In the background you will also hear Common Rosefinch, a typical species for the site. So once again, this is Common White Throat, an adult male in display at Sandamar Reserve, Sweden. 

So that was Common White Throat and Song. Just to round off this section, I will finish with a quite special species. And again, it's a species that has been actually moving eastwards over the years, and it belongs to one of my favourite genus of warblers, and that is the Locustella. Now I'm taking you all the way back to 2013 here, and this remains the only recording, or decent recording I have.

of River Warbler, and on this occasion the bird was in a small blackthorn bush in northern Yarraville, Tete. And on arrival, just before first light, the bird was singing, and managed to get very very close and get a wonderful recording. And in the background here, you will hear Thrush Nightingale, Black Cap.

Common Snipe, Common Tern, and Willow Warbler. But the bird gave a great display. And I have great memories of this species having visited countries like Poland, but I was always very keen to get a nice recording of the species here in Sweden. So I'm going to finish off with this lovely recording of a singing river warbler.

And once again, this is from Norijärvfelltet in Sweden. It's a few years back now, and hopefully in the next few years I'll get better opportunities to record a species. 

Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. 

So there you go, that's a selection of audio from the late spring period and as always it's just a wonderful time to get out into the field and It just seems to pass too quickly every year. There's so much going on within three to four weeks and I look forward to it every year and once again this year I'm just looking forward to it again and hopefully some of these species will pop up again and who knows what else might come along.

So that's that really and I hope you enjoyed the audio and yeah just get out there and get some sound recording done in late spring early summer. It's just a fantastic time to be in the field. 

 So I hope you enjoyed that. Some wonderful species there and some of my favorite audio from the last few years in that small short section. And it really is an amazing time to get out late spring and into the early summer. And I just love some of these species when they return. So as always, it's just great to be able to share that kind of audio with you, with the listener here at Wild Bird Acoustics. 

 Now in as much as I like to get ahead with the podcast and get as many episodes up and downloaded ahead of time , I do realize this could lead to small problems and it also means I can't keep you abreast of any recent developments  But I haven't discounted maybe putting in a few bonus episodes moving forward, if there are things I want to update you with, or if I want to add say any interviews , so I'm not going to worry about it too much  it's an audio based podcast and I do want to concentrate on the audio that I want to share with you, the audience. So I think that's just what I'm going to do. So without any further ado, I think we'll get into the next sound magazine.

And this is from Northern Sweden. So we're back to Vastabotten once again. And the next film magazine will feature a lot of early morning recordings from the small island of Hallegern in Vastabotten. Now, when I'm up there, I tend to get up around dawn, quite early in the morning, and that's the best time to record. There's so much going on on the island at any time of the year. But sometimes when you're up early, it's quiet as well. There's no humans around and it just allows for some fantastic recordings. So I don't want to prattle on too much. I'm just going to play the sail magaziNe. 

so you could loosely actually call this to visit make files. It's quite a lot of early morning audio and migrant species. So as I say, we'll get into it now. Have a listen, folks. 

 

 Now, folks, welcome to the VisMig Files. And as always, I will be playing you little bits of audio from early morning or VisMig sessions here around Sweden. And this occasion, we are returning to Hallegern in Västerbotten. It's one of my absolute favorite locations, folks. I have some lovely audio here to share with you.

The first of these is one of the most iconic sounds of northern Sweden, and that is the dawn display of Common Crane. Now, common crane is a very regular species, very common species here in Sweden, and in the morning in northern Sweden, quite often you will hear their calls just echoing across the landscape, and I absolutely love this call folks.

So I'm going to play a nice long recording now for you of common cranes early in the morning in late August from Hallegern in Västerbotten, Sweden. And what you will hear is the dawn call of common crane followed by the birds just flying towards the recorder and actually passing very, very close. So this is quite a long recording, folks, but bear with me.

It's quite amazing. So this is common cranes early in the morning at Västerbotten in Sweden. 

Now, northern Sweden. Not surprisingly is an excellent location for crossbills and in late August, Red Crossbill is the prevalent species and I got an awful lot of nice audio of that species from this location at that time. So first up, I'm going to play you a nice bit of audio of a flock of Red Crossbill passing over at about 630 in the morning on the 20th of August, 2022. 

So, quite a short recording that one. And you will have heard things like reed bunting, there's young mallards feeding, and hooded crow in the background there. 

Now, as I got a lot of recording of the species, I'll play you a little bit more audio. And this time it's a little bit different. It starts off with some close birds in some spruce trees, followed by the flock actually taking off and flying away. And that's when you will hear most of the calls. So once again, this is Red Cross Bill at Hallegern in Sweden. 

Passing the recording early in the morning picks up a lot of local birds. Obviously it's a time when birds are actually very active and very vocal. They sing or call early in the morning and it's quite often the best time to leave a recorder out. And a lot of the species in this particular sound magazine are actually local birds, or birds that are just resting on the island.

And that's the case in the next recording. So this next recording is of a juvenile Eurasian hobby, and the bird is actually begging for food from adults who are feeding nearby. And I was quite lucky last year to actually have two juveniles on the island quite often in late August, and they were very, very vocal for a few days.

So this is a particularly nice recording of a juvenile Eurasian Hopi at Hallegern in Northern Sweden. Enjoy this folks. 

Now all of the recordings in this small sound magazine were made with a Wildlife Acoustics SM 4 recorder. It's a device I use a lot on the island, especially for nockmeg and early morning recording.  One of the species it allowed me to record was Eurasian Pygmy Owl. And on this occasion you will hear the scale song, which is a typical song given in autumn by the species.

It was very nice to get a recording of this particular scale song. It is typically given by male birds in autumn, and I'll give you a listen to that now folks. So this is Eurasian Pygmy Owl at Hallegern in Sweden. 

Another local species prevalent in Hallegern in Sweden in late August is the Red throated Diver. And early in the morning, there's a wonderful staccato call that rings out over the landscape. And it's actually the adult red throated divers as they fly out to sea to feed. Now, these birds breed on the inland lakes, but in the morning, they fly out to sea and give these calls.

So, I'll play one recording now for you of these birds flying out to feed at sea.  Now, on occasion, you will get multiple birds flying out to sea together, quite often in pairs. I have lots of audio of this species, so this is Red throated Diver overhead, and this time it's multiple birds, probably a pair on their way out to do a bit of feeding.

So, enjoy this, folks. 

Now, when I think of visible migration in August, one species springs to mind, and that is Tree Pippet, and it's very, very common on Halligern. And I actually got some lovely recordings of the species going overhead. But in actual fact, I also got some very interesting audio as well of birds that had landed quite close to the automated recorder, perhaps perched in a nearby tree, or on the ground, and they gave slightly different calls with less modulation than we're used to.

And I'm going to play one of them for you now. So this is a tree pipit very close to the recorder, probably perched in a small rowing tree, giving some calls. Have a listen to this, folks. 

One of the things I love about passive recording is that you get very, very natural audio of birds calling and behaving in a natural way. This is a case in point. It's a tree pipit here, probably perched close to the recorder, and it's giving a very low bass buzzing call. It's something I just hadn't heard before. 

Ssss 

Late August. He is the beginning of visible migration very much here in Sweden. And one of the first species to appear in numbers is Western Yellow Wagtail. And I just love this call. And I have lots and lots and lots of audio of this. And I'm going to play a few recordings for you now from Hallegern in Sweden.

So first up now is a simple recording of Western Yellow Wagtail. Migrating over Hallegern. in northern Sweden. 

So it was perhaps a bit too brief. So here's another recording of Western Yellowback Tail on active migration over northern Sweden. 

So there you go folks, that's the VisMig files all recorded between the 15th and 20th of August in 2022. It's quite amazing if you just get a passive recorder and just leave it out for a week, you will get an incredible amount of audio and find out an awful lot about what's going over, what's calling locally early in the morning.

So I'd recommend folks, just give it a bash. Just leave a recorder out in the morning. See what happens as always. I hope you've enjoyed this little section here at wild bird acoustics. And we'll move on now. Thanks for listening, folks. 

 So there you go, folks, that was some wonderful audio from Hallegern in northern Sweden from early in the morning. And it really is, as you can probably hear, an incredible place to sound record. You can hear the pin drop in the place at times. And it's the reason I try and get up there so very often. Now we're going to move on straight away to Knockmig Corner.

And we're going to stay on Hallegern. 

And I thought maybe with the autumn coming in, that would be a good time to look forward to some autumn knockmeg.  Now Hallegern is a place I'm doing quite a bit of knockmeg over the last few seasons in the autumn and it has turned up some incredible audio.

Like I say, it's really quiet. You can hear the pin drop up there and that is very much the case at night  that leads to some particularly nice nocturnal files. Quite often at Landsark there's noise from the sea. But generally speaking in northern Sweden the wind is often quite low.

There might be a bit of gentle noise, sort of wind through the trees or some lapping waves. But generally speaking it's so quiet and it really allows for some exceptional nocturnal audio. Once again, I don't want to bang on too much. Time is getting on here in the podcast and we'll get straight into this. This is knock me corner. And this is autumn recording at Hallagern in Västerbotten in Sweden. 

  Now welcome to Nockmig Corner once again and in this episode we have some absolutely incredible audio for you all the way from northern Sweden and specifically the small island of Hallegern in Västerbotten.  Now I'm very very fortunate to have access to a small log cabin on a tiny little island along the coast of Västerbotten and it's perhaps two or three hundred meters offshore and the greatest thing about it is not only that it's full of birds folks, But that is absolutely quiet up there and it's right out in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere.

And what this leads to is wonderful, wonderful conditions for field recording.  Now I've been recording there for several years, but natural fact, I only set up a listening station there a couple of years ago when I began to record in the autumn time. And for the last few years, I have recorded from the middle part of August right through until the end of October.

And it has revealed some fascinating insights into that part of the world. I have gained some incredible audio, and I'm just going to share a little bit of it with you today.  Now, as a field recorder, I'm always looking for quiet places to record, and the less Noise from humans the better and fast button ticks all the boxes really this location has very little noise You have a lot of summer homes up there and that's when you get most activity from people but in the autumn There's very few people around only one or two residents in the area and the nearest road is a few kilometers away It's not particularly busy and you just get a little bit of noise from that early in the morning as people go to work  Another plus is there's very few planes overflying this part of the world.

And because of all of these things, you get a very, very quiet environment. And this makes it particularly good for longer soundscapes and longer recordings. And I absolutely love being up there. I have spent an awful lot of time there in July and August in the past. I do spend a week or two every autumn up there.

But in the future, I hope to spend a lot more time there. And the dream is perhaps to spend an entire season. Right through the spring, summer, and autumn.  So that's the dream, just to spend more and more time at this wonderful location. And actually explore the mainland a little bit more. I've barely scratched the surface.

So think of this as an introduction to Vasturbotn by night.  Let's start things off fairly modestly, shall we folks? So this is an overflying yellowhammer species of bunting. It's quite common in Vasturbotn,  relatively scarce at night. So this is quite a nice recording and it will give you an idea of how quiet the place is at night time.

Have a listen to this. This is Yellowhammer at Halligarn in Vasterpotten. 

Now this site has been the gift that just keeps giving as far as I'm concerned. And I'm going to run through a species now, Lapland Bunting. And Halligarn has proved absolutely superb for this species, both at night and early in the morning.  The species is a scarce migrant here in Europe and it's very, very nice to get good audio of such species.

So I'm going to play a short recording first. And in this recording, you will hear the single cue call of Lapland Bunting closely followed by the call of a nocturnally calling Tree Pips. Have a listen. 

Now, here's another recording of a nocturnal Lapland bunting. And this is from the 29th of August 2022. And Halligarn just repeatedly gives you these incredible backdrops. And the backdrop here is actually calling and displaying Pygmy Owl. But listen out for the chew calls once again of a passing Lapland bunting. 

Now, the chew call of Lapland bunting has a very peculiar kind of rasping quality to it. And once you learn it, it's very, very distinctive. I'm going to play one more quick recording of the call now, and this one was recorded on the 11th of September, 2022.  A single call from Lapland Bunting at night. 

One of the nice things about nocturnal recording is that when you get a device down at a new site, it can be very, very exciting. This was very much the case with this area in Northern Sweden. As far as I know, very few people have ever recorded this far north on the Swedish coast. And the first time I put a recorder down for a long period, I was absolutely dying just to get the audio back to check what might be passing.

And I was hoping maybe for something very unusual perhaps, or one of the iconic Northern species, and perhaps, if I was really lucky, one of the Northern Owls. Now before I ever visited the site, I had nothing to go on, so, like I say, you get the device down, you get your audio back, and you really don't have any idea of what you're actually going to get. 

Now this next recording probably represents the biggest shock I've ever had when checking nocturnal audio. You hope for something like this, but when it actually happens, it's just stunning. So I'm actually going to play the recording without telling you what it is.  You can try and have a guess if you like, and I'll tell you straight afterwards.

This was actually recorded on the 11th of September, 2022. 

Now, quite an incredible call, I think you would agree, and when I first heard it, I was not 100 percent sure of what it was, but I had a fair idea, and it was only when I went to check recordings on Xenocanto, I realised that I had a nocturnal recording of Northern Hawk Owl on my hands.  Now, this is a dream species to record for me.

It's a very iconic species, one of the Northern Owls. And the last kind of date I expected to record something like this was late summer, early autumn. And I really expected I'd have to be up there in the winter to record this species or maybe later in the spring when it's breeding. It's not very common in Sweden.

It's a very, very localized breeder. And it can be difficult to find these birds. So, as you can imagine, I was absolutely thrilled to get that recording. And to date, it's probably the best moments of my knock knicking career, if you want to call it that. So, not something I'll forget very, very quickly. And I'm just glad to be able to share such a nice piece of audio with you all. 

Now, we'll move along to something a bit more normal now. And one of the things I love about Halligarn is it's so quiet at night. And this allows me to get really nice recordings of quite quiet species such as Pied Flycatcher. And just to demonstrate now I will play you a short recording of the nocturnal call of Pied Flycatcher and you will hear its excellent quality and that is pretty much down to the quiet nature of the area.

So we'll have a listen to that now. This is a Pied Flycatcher on the 28th of August 2023 Halligarn. 

Vasterbotten is located quite far north, just south of the Arctic Circle and makes it very interesting geographically and that means that some species that breed in the area are quite unusual. Now coupled with the quiet nature of the area, it means that I can detect birds quite easily at night and it actually led to me detecting a large number of rustic bunting. 

Now rustic bunting is a very scarce European breeder but it has been increasing in Vasterbotten. But I had no idea whether the species would occur at night, or whether it would prove a diurnal migrant, and in actual fact, both is the case.  It migrates at night quite a lot, particularly in the last 4 or 5 hours of darkness, and passage continues through the early hours of the day, and drops off 4 or 5 hours after dawn. 

Now, I've had large numbers of rustic bunting migrating at Vastobotn in the last 2 years, and I think my nocturnal quote is for the last 2 autumns. have exceeded 100 birds in both autumns. Now, it's been a wonderful discovery and it has led to me capturing a lot of very interesting audio. So I'm going to play a recording now of rustic bunting.

This was recorded on the 3rd of September at 9. 35 in darkness at Hallegern in Sweden. 

Now, one of the things I've noticed about rustic bunting is that they quite often pass in small flocks, but when you do get a single individual. They do sound rather like song thrush, but they actually call a lot more regularly and metronomically. So you get these regular calls as they pass over the recorder.

So I'm going to play a short recording now of a single rustic bunting and this bird passed on the 9th of September, 2021.  Have a listen to this. 

Now it's a huge benefit in such a quiet environment when it comes to recording species. like rustic bunting, and this leads me to extract really clear sonograms, which is really the key to identifying species like this. And again, the quiet environment makes things much, much easier. So, for example, Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher are quite difficult to identify in certain circumstances, and they can be tricky to separate.

And if there's a lot of noise in the area, it can become even more so. But up in Halligan, it's so quiet, it's just a dream to actually listen to flycatchers. And things are really greatly simplified as it's so quiet. You can hear almost everything and I'm going to play you now recording this time of spotted flycatcher and this was recorded in August 2020 21.

So once again spotted flycatcher at night over Halligan in August 2021  have a listen. 

It's just incredibly quiet at this site and I'm going to play you another spotted flycatcher recording now. This one is from the 12th of September, 2022, and once again, it's just a wonderfully clear, hinge sharp recording. 

Now, as fascinating as it was to uncover a nocturnal passage of rustic bunting in Vastobotn,  I think the biggest revelation for me has been the autumn passage of the next species. And again, it's quite an iconic northern species, and the species I'm talking about is Tengmam's Owl. Now, many years ago, when I first visited the island in September, I actually just left the parabola out a few times overnight.

And upon checking the audio on the very first morning, I was absolutely stunned to hear this call coming out of the darkness. And I was quite sure I knew what it was, and it turned out to be a Tangman's Elf.  Now since then, to cut a long story short. I have actually uncovered a very regular and consistent passage of Tengmam's Owl along the coast in autumn, and what I think this mainly represents is autumn dispersal of juveniles and perhaps of females.

Now I will go into this in a bit more detail in a future pod section, but for now I'm just going to play you some recordings of Tengmam's Owl. So this is one of the earliest recordings I ever got, and it was really incredible to hear this going on overhead on the islands. So this is Tengmam's Owl migrating down the coast at Vasterbotten in September 2019. 

Now as I mentioned at the beginning of this section, I do like to visit Vasterbotten every autumn. And Tengmam's Owl is one of the species that you can actually predict when there's going to be a good passage. They like fairly still nights with very light winds. And if you get a light set westerly, you're almost guaranteed passage.

And I love to just sit out at night and listen to the birds as they move down the coast. And, it's very obvious that the birds are actually, in fact, not just local, but moving purposefully south along the coastline. And you will hear the birds calling from the north, drifting over the island, and then drifting off to the south.

On occasion, I've had reasonably good views with a torch, quite often they'll cut right across the island whilst they are calling. So it was quite an incredible experience and I'll play another recording for you now. This one is from the 14th of October, 2021. 

Now Tangman's Owl is not the only owl species I have recorded on the island. You've already heard Northern Hawk Owl. I have also recorded Tawny Owl, which is extremely rare so far north and also Eurasian Pygmy Owl. And there are at least two territories in the area and in this recording, you will hear a passing Tangman's Owl as the Eurasian Pygmy Owl. 

It's a winter song in the distance. Have a listen to this, folks. 

So think of this section, if you will, as an introduction to nocturnal migration on Halligarn. And I have a lot more audio for you from this site, particularly visual migration. I've made an awful lot of efforts in recent years to actually get up there in autumn, get some gear out and record passage migrants going overhead early in the morning.

And the result has been some wonderful audio. Again, this is due to the quiet nature of the area in autumn, and in my opinion, it's the perfect place to record diurnal migration. So like I say, lots to come in the future from Halligarn, but for now, I hope you've really enjoyed this nocturnal section from the island.

It's quite an incredible venue, and you get some lovely species on the island, things that you just normally would not get to record in many parts of Europe.  Once again, I'd like to thank you all for listening and tuning in to Wild Bird Acoustics, and I really do hope that this section has whetted your appetite for more audio from northern Sweden. 

 So that wraps up another episode here at Wild Bird Acoustics.  I'd like to thank you all again for listening and we'll see again in a couple of weeks here at the podcast.  As always, I hope you've enjoyed the audio and it's a pleasure to share it with you guys here on the podcast. 

 I'd like to wish you all a fantastic autumn of birding, sound recording, whatever it is you'd like to do. If you're into rarities, I hope it's rarity filled and it's just wonderful to get out in the autumn.  So for all you birders, just get out there and enjoy your autumn and we'll see you again in a couple of weeks.

 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.