The Quest for Black Gold

In this episode, in the first instance, I take a closer look at the vocalisation of two common migrant species here in Sweden over the Autumn period, Eurasian Siskin and Common Redpoll. Both these widespread European species are common migrants and an understanding of the calls given by both, whilst actively migrating, is fundamental to any birder with an interest in observing migrating passerines in the fall period.
 Following this, the main sound magazine in this episode, concerns itself with one of the most iconic species of mature Swedish woodland. I have made extensive efforts to record Black Woodpecker over the years and this sound magazine documents my efforts to do so. Join me an a wonderful acoustic journey, through the sprawling woodlands of wild Sweden...

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. 

 So here we 📍  are once again at Wild Bird Acoustics. It's the second episode of the second season and I'm very much looking forward to bringing this episode to you. We have some nice audio for you. We're going to start off with some vocalizations and visible migration and then later on I have a very special audio magazine for you concerning a very special species from here in Sweden. 

  Now as I sit here and record, it's late November 2024. The first snow has actually arrived here in Sweden and I'm using the time just to go through some knock make files from my listening stations here in Sweden. There's not a lot to do at this time of the year. There's very few birds around and it's a good time to get through my audio.

I'm still running two listening stations here in Sweden at the moment. One on the island of Hallegern in northern Sweden, that's in Västerbotten. And one on the island of Landsort, which is south of Stockholm. 

Now I've been doing NocMig mostly from Landsort over the last few weeks. I think I'm up as far as the middle of September so far. I haven't even touched the VisMig stuff there, I have a lot of early morning audio to get through there. But generally speaking, I have a lot of audio from these two stations in 2023 and it's principally that audio I'm going to be using for the second season of the podcast here at Wild Bird Acoustics. 



 Now, what I wanted to do in the sound magazine is concentrate on two very common widespread species around Europe, and they are Eurasian Siskin and Common Redpoll.

Now, in the UK and Ireland you get Lesser Redpoll, and we get Mealy Redpoll or Common Redpoll here in Sweden, but for all intents and purposes, these birds sound exactly the same. Now if you're going to get out and just have a look at visible migration in the autumn anywhere in Europe, it really pays to have a good knowledge of the common species calls.

And these two, like I say, are very much bread and butter species. They're very, very common and very distinctive vocally. So I thought it'd be good just to put together a short sound magazine on Eurasian Ciscan and common red pall.  Now, there's no point in getting into any more detail on this. There's plenty of detail in the sound magazine. So, this is the calls of Eurasian Ciscan and Common Red Ball.

Enjoy. 

  Welcome to the Vismig Files once again here at Wild Bird Acoustics and in this time magazine we're going to run through two species of bird that are very prevalent right across Europe on visible migration and they are both species of finch and they are siskin and common red ball.  Both of these species are quite similar in some ways in their habits.

They often pass migration watch points in flocks and their calls are very, very distinctive and very, very useful to know as a result. So, the first one I'm going to run through is Eurasian Siskin.  Now, this species is a very common migrant here in Sweden, and indeed across Europe, and it's an essential call to know for any avid Vismig watcher. 

Now, if you're stood out in the autumn watching for a species, quite often if you get Eurasian Siskin flocks moving by, they do so in tight balls, and they are very, very vocal. The flock shape is often a giveaway. Like I just mentioned, they often pass by watchpoints in very tightly packed flocks, Often quite rounded in shape, and the birds are very, very vocal as they pass by.

And the call is very, very distinctive, and I'm going to run through that with you right now.  Now, in this first recording, you're going to hear the very much typical call of Eurasian Ciscan. And it's kind of a chew call, and once you get your ear in on this, folks, it's very, very distinctive. And you'll hear this, as I say, all over Europe.

It's one of the staple calls to learn for the avid Vismig watcher. So they do do a little bit of chatter as well. And there's a very small bit of that here, but generally speaking, what you're going to hear now is the typical call of Eurasian siskin. And please note, there's a few chaffinch in the background here, probably on the ground, but the main call you will hear is overflying Eurasian siskin.

We'll have to listen to that first. 

So as you'll hear there, it's quite a mellow sound, a chew call, just descending and it carries quite a long way.  That was a single bird and I just wanted to introduce that first as it's quite clear and it gives you an idea of what a single bird sounds like. And I think it's more simplistic just to listen to a single bird first.

So that was Eurasian Siskin and that was recorded at Landsort in 2022 in late September.  Now generally speaking you can expect Eurasian Siskin right through September and October. And indeed, sometimes into November, they have quite a long migration period, so right through mid and late autumn is the time to expect this species.

And as I mentioned earlier, sometimes they give this kind of chatter, these kind of little harsh kind of checking, checking calls. And quite often you need to be quite close to hear this well. In this next recording, you will hear that this is a small group of Siskind passing the recorder on Landsort in early October, 2022. 

So that's a very typical recording of a small flock of Eurasian Siskind there. And you heard those kind of harsh contact calls, which are often given inside flocks. And quite often, as I say, you need to be quite close to hear this very, very clearly. Also, there you heard the regular descending chew calls of the species. 

Now the species can be quite variable and they give a range of calls and in this recording you're going to hear the regular Descending chew call once again, but also here you'll actually hear a little bit of subsong as the word passes by and this is not Infrequent in finches. So we play that for you.

Now. Once again, this is Eurasian siskin again lands art in late September 2022 

now at the start of that last recording you probably heard the tech calls from close by and that's probably a black hop or even lesser white throat quite common on the island of Landsort.  Now on to the next recording and again it's a single bird passing quite close over the recorder this time at Hallegern in northern Sweden.

This bird was recorded in early October 2023 so we'll have a listen to that now. 

So as always, we'll just keep playing recordings. And again, this is Siskin from Landsort, quite a windy morning on this occasion, and it's a little bit of a longer recording. But generally speaking, these are the typical descending cue calls once again.  Now, if you listen carefully to this recording towards the end, you will hear another species,  and that is Common Redpoll.

So a much harsher kind of checking call will come in towards the end, and that is Common Redpoll. But for the most part, this is Siskin going over the recorder at Landsort in October  2021. Have a listen, folks. 

Now, the next recording is a little bit longer, and in this recording, you're going to hear a number of flocks of Eurasian Siskin passed by the recorder. Now, there's a little bit more going on in here as well. Towards the start, there's White Wagtail going over. There are calls clearly at the start. And then from the middle towards the end, you will also hear a number of calls from Common Chaffinch.

So see if you can pick those out.  And again, it's good to note Flux of Eurasian Siskin, they give the Descending Chew call, but they also give these harsher Contact calls, which we've mentioned already. And this is an excellent example of that. This was recorded at Halligarren in Vasterbotten in 2021, I believe in the middle of September.

So we'll have a listen now to that. 

Now the final recording on Eurasian Siskin comes from Halligarren once again. That's in Vasterbotten.  And last October I had some wonderful passage of Eurasian Siskin on the island. And on this particular morning, I had well over 2000 birds and quite often in the right conditions, if you're in the right spot, you can get large numbers of this species.

So this is a particularly nice recording of Eurasian Ciscan flocks just moving over the recorder. And this was recorded with a Tilinga Brabula. So it's slightly better quality perhaps than some of the previous recordings. I think it gives a very good impression of what it's like to actually stand out and listen to these birds pass overhead in the odd.

So we'll get on with the recording now. It's a little bit longer once again, and once again this is Eurasian Siskin on passage in Vasterbotten in Sweden. 

Now, of course, Eurasian Siskin is a finch species. It's quite a small finch and so is the next species I am going to discuss, Common Redpoll. Now Common Redpoll also pass in similar fashion to Eurasian Siskin, quite often in tight flocks.  And sometimes these flocks can number in the hundreds at a good location. 

And both of my listening stations are happily superb for red paul migration.  Now generally speaking, red paul is a late autumn migrant. I don't really get to see them much until late September, but they peak around mid October and they can run right into October. So, sometimes the really big numbers come true in kind of late October time, and that's more or less when I expect to see the bulk of birds passing. 

Now, there are a number of subspecies of redpoll in Europe, and I don't really want to get bogged down with taxonomy at all. They all actually sound the same.  So, here in Sweden we have common redpoll, sometimes known as mealy redpoll.  And they're the predominant race here. But in Britain and Ireland you have what is called lesser redpoll, the cabaret subspecies.

But to all intents and purposes, these birds sound exactly the same.  Now, common redpoll, in comparison, say, to Eurasian ciscan, give a harsher, more grating call. And in flight they give these rhythmic kind of chet calls. So it's chet chet, chet chet, chet chet. And you will hear that now. Now, the first thing you will hear in this initial recording is passage of Northern Bullfinch.

So these low chew calls that just start off the recording. And then you will hear a flock of redpoll come over and you will hear these harsher rhythmic chet calls. So we'll play that for you first. This was recorded at Hallagern in Vasterbotten in October, 2023. 

Now, one of the things about Bismig is it's really simple and quite often you have multiple species going over at the same time. And that's the case in this next recording. So the main species here is common redpoll, as we have been discussing. And once again, the recording will start off directly with the rhythmic chet calls of these species.

Now Common Redpoll also give this descending kind of harsh chew call. It's quite different to Eurasian Siskin once you get your ear on it. Has slightly more grating quality.  Now in the following recording you are going to hear a flock of Redpoll going over the recorder and it's a slightly longer recording than the previous one.

Also in this recording you will hear overflying Common Dunnock and also a few calls, the high sip calls of Meadow Pippin. Now, also in the background here, there's actually some Chew calls from Eurasian Ciscan, and they're a little bit more mellow than the calls of Common Red Paul. So, this is quite a good one to listen to, I think, if you want to get your ear in for these species.

So, we'll have a listen to that now. 

Now, a little bit confusing, I think some of you will be thinking, and you're probably quite right. And, I have to remember, sometimes I'm quite experienced with VisMig, and it can be quite difficult to separate species out. So, So with that in mind, I'm going to play a recording now. This is quite a simple recording of a single common red poll going right over the recorder.

Now, there's a very distant Eurasian ciscan also in this recording, but the main bird by far the loudest bird is a single common red poll giving check calls as it goes right over the recorder. Once again, October 2022 at Hallagern.  Vasterbotten in northern Sweden. 

Now, as mentioned previously, apart from the very obvious check calls, Common Redpoll also give a descending note, a kind of a chew note, but it's quite grating and sounds a little bit slurred in comparison, say, to Eurasian Siskin.  Next up, I have a very nice clear recording of Common Redpoll from October 2023 on Hallegern, again in Vasterbotten, Sweden, and this is an excellent recording.

So, you'll hear both the check calls and the kind of descending call of common redpoll. Have a close listen to this, folks. 

Common redpoll, I often find, kind of jump along the coast in stages, and quite often if there's any kind of low growth or alder or willow or that kind of thing, they will land quite often. And on this occasion, I got a lovely recording of some birds landing on the island as others flew around over the area.

So, in the air here, you boys give them the check call. And then some birds perched on the ground giving the kind of descending call. And that is the loudest call you will hear here. A few blue tit also here in the background. But this is quite a nice recording of Common Redpaw. And I'll play that for you now.

Once again, this was recorded at Halligarn in Vasterbotten in October 2023. 

Now I'm going to close out with Common Redpaw with a longer recording. And another call type that I don't have too many examples of.  And that call is a kind of a harsh trill, which you will hear very well in this recording. On this particular morning, October 2023, there was a large passage of Common Redpoll over Hallegern in Sweden, and I got some lovely audio. 

This was recorded with a homemade binaural recorder, and it's quite clear and very, very nice. And this will be the last recording I will play for you. So once again, this is Common Redpoll at Avasta Button. in Sweden. 

 📍 So there you go, folks. That's Eurasian Ciscon first and Common Redpoll second here on the VisMig files. And going forward, I hope these will be kind of an audio identification guide and something that people can listen to for reference if they want to try and get out into the field in autumn and watch visible migration.

I would highly recommend it. As I always say, it's one of the most enjoyable forms of autumn birding for me. And I absolutely love getting out there and just watching what flies over my head. It's quite a wonderful pastime. So why not give it a go?  Rest assured, there will be plenty more from the VisMig files in season two, and I hope to go through a wide range of autumn migrants.

So stay tuned folks to Wild Bird Acoustics, and I hope you have enjoyed the VisMig files.



 So there you go, that's the typical sounds of autumn for me, and it really takes me back to sitting out in the autumn, watching migrants go overhead, and those species, like I say, Eurasian Siskin and Common Redpoll, they're very typical of that time of the year. Now, we're going to move along to our next sound magazine,  and it concerns a pretty magical species for me here in Sweden.

Now, on occasion, I have found over the years, I've become very preoccupied, but recording certain species, and there's usually a reason for that. And most often the reason is the vocalizations of that species are just a little bit special.

 Now, here in Sweden you have what I would consider quite a lot of iconic bird sounds. So species like Black throated Diver, Common Crane, Ural El, there's so many to choose from here in Sweden. But the species I'm going to talk to you about today is Black Woodpecker.  Now Black Woodpecker is a very special species for me and I first saw my first Black Woodpecker in Sweden when I was just 19 years old and it left an indelible kind of imprint on me and I'll never forget my first one.

It was down in a place called Vimmerby in southern Sweden and it just came out of the woods, landed on a telegraph post, gave some incredible views, and then as is absolutely typical of the species, just kind of ghosted off into the forest, giving its flight call. Now, ever since then, I've pretty much been obsessed with black woodpecker.

I've seen them all over Europe.

It's a species that's never easy to see. And as soon as I became interested in sound recording, it was one of the species that I focused on pretty much immediately, but things were not simple at all. And there's a reason for that. The bird is extremely elusive in habits. Now you might think such a large bird would be easy to find, but in actual fact, they have massive ranges and the whole process of recording a nice range of species audio has taken years. 

Now in many ways it's been a great adventure and it has led to some wonderful moments and as a result I thought I'd make a really good subject for sound magazine and I'm going to let you the listener be the judge of that. This is the quest for black gold. 



 Now you're all very welcome to this sound magazine here at Wild Bird Acoustics and this is the quest for black gold. And what am I referring to? Of course, it is a species here in Sweden, a very special species at that. It's often known as the king of the forest.  Now Swedish birders have a saying, which is, Do hitta inte fogel, fogel hitta dig.

And basically what that means and what it translates to in English is that you do not find the bird, but rather the bird finds you.  Now, I first heard that saying several years ago, and it really resonated with me because it is absolutely true of this species. The species has a very large forest range, and it can cover a huge amount of ground.

So quite often when you go out looking for this species, you do not find it. It helps greatly if you know the calls, but on some days the birds are just moving around very, very widely, and you may hear them, but very rarely will you see them. And what I have found is quite often, they just appear out of nowhere.

It's only when you're very, very lucky and the bird wants to give itself up that you get some tremendous views, which is always a special day here in Sweden. The species of course I am referring to is black woodpecker. 

Now in European terms, black woodpecker is the largest member of the family. It's a spectacular bird and even after 20 years here in Sweden or more, I still get a real kick out of seeing or having good views of black woodpecker.  And when I did start sound recording, I was quite keen to record this species.

And considering how common or reasonably common the bird is here in Sweden, I can tell you it really gave me the runaround. And I thought I should do a little piece on the species as finally in 2024,  I managed to get a series of audio files that I had been chasing for years, and that was the excitement calls of the species.

And it was a long time coming, I put a lot of work in for these recordings, and when it finally happened, I was over the moon.  Now I think most of the listeners will be familiar with black woodpecker,  it's a very large woodpecker, it's about the size of a crow, but as I say, it can be surprisingly hard to find.

And quite often, I've found when I'm out in the woods, the bird is aware of my presence before I am aware of it.  On these days, when the bird is aware of you, it can be very difficult to get a view of the bird. It just eludes you completely and ghosts through the forest. You might get a brief view of it, or you might hear it disappearing at a distance, but I've always found they're very, very intelligent birds, and you can really pick this sense of intelligence up when you're in their presence.

They always seem to be aware of you. And they are not particularly shy of humans, and on certain days they will give themselves up and give great views, but they are special days.  Now, the vocalizations of Black Woodpecker can be quite spectacular. They have a wonderful song, they do some drumming in the spring, that can be very, very loud and travels a long distance through the forest.

They also have a number of flight calls, they have an excitement call, and they have a static call, which I call the Klee call. Now in this sound magazine, I'm going to take you on a little journey, just following my quest to actually sound record the species in the wild. And hopefully you enjoy these recordings.

I actually have a big soft spot for Blackwood Becker. I think the vocalizations are a little bit special in European terms.  Over the years, I've probably spent hundreds of hours in the field, kind of with the species in mind. Like I say, it can be very, very difficult. And it was wonderful finally to actually get a collection of nice sound recordings of the species.

So I'll share a few of those with you now, folks. This is the quest for Black Woodpecker.  So the first recording is from Tirista National Park, just south of Stockholm City, and it is the stationary call. And this is a very, very useful call to learn if you want to find Black Woodpecker.  Now these calls are usually given by a bird just sitting atop a tree in the forest and it's kind of a contact call and quite often pairs will use this, just let the other bird know where they are.

It can be heard at all times of the years and it's one of my favorite sounds of the Swedish wilderness. Now in the background here you'll hear blue tit and also just a faint rumble of singing oyster.  This is a winter soundscape. It was recorded in late March 2022,  like I say, at Lake Stenquirn in Tyriste National Park. 

Have a listen folks. 

So that was the Tle call or stationery call of Black Woodpecker.  That was recorded with a binaural recorder, and I have another one here for you recorded with the Tlingit Prabhla. And this is just two Tlí Cháil from a stationary Blackwood Becker. This is quite a short recording, and we'll have a listen to that now straight away. 

Next up is another early recording of the Tlí Cháil of a Blackwood Becker. This time it was recorded at Algesta Reserve in Sweden. And again, it's a rather distant bird. There's a little bit of noise in the background here from a distant road. But still a reasonable recording. So once again, here's the kli call of Black Woodpecker. 

Next up is a recording from northern Sweden at Robertsfors in Västerbotten. It's an autumn recording and in the background you'll also hear Red Wing and Fieldfare here. Now this bird came out of nowhere, started to call, and I just managed to grab this quick recording. Now as well as the clea call here, you will also hear the kind of song type call, which is often given in the autumn, and you'll hear that here.

So that's the call you haven't heard yet in this section. I'll play it for you now. This is Black Woodpecker in Faster Button in Sweden in 2021. 

Now Fast button's a wonderful place to record, and I have a song leader there, a SM four recording in the autumn, and that's how I manage this next recording, which is a passive recording. In the background here, you'll hear autumn thrushes again, blackbirds, field fairs, redwing and songflush in the background.

But have a listen to these lovely calls from Black Woodpecker. 

Now another passive recording for you next, again from Hallegern in Vastapotten, but a little bit earlier in the year. This is in August and you will hear Tree Pippet in this recording as well in the background, which kind of betrays the time of year. Now there is a call here you're going to hear for the first time.

It's the Cree, Cree, Cree flight call of the species. It's a wonderful, wonderful noise. And there's a few people here in the background. I think it was a small family gone fishing in a boat. But they're very, very distant. And it doesn't really take away from the soundscape. But it's a very nice call here.

There's some clee calls. And also the typical cree, cree, cree flight call of Blackwood pecker. Have a listen to this, folks. 

So, plenty going on in the background there. As you will have heard, there's Red Cross, Bill, Blue Tit, Gray Tit. mallard and of course some chaffinch. That's a very nice recording. I think even despite a little bit of background noise from people.  Now you've heard some early recordings of the species that is early recordings by me.

And as time went on and as the years went by, I became very, very interested in actually getting some top quality recordings of the species. And things started to take an upturn in 2023 when I got a number of nice passive recordings of blackwoodpecker.  Especially up on Halligan in VA button. Now on this occasion, it's September, 2023, and I got some lovely clay calls here, followed by a wonderful recording of the flight call as the bird goes right over the SM four recorder.

The background here is wonderful as well. You're gonna hear species going over and migration such as rambling tree, pivot white, white tail dunk, and chaffing. And it's a typical autumn scene on the island. As I've mentioned so many times, it's so quiet up there. It's just a wonderful place to record. So I hope you enjoy this one, folks.

This is a very nice recording. Blackwood pecker, once again. 

Now, Blackwood pecker is a species that breeds widely here in Sweden, both in upland and lowland areas. But it does like mature forest, quite often mixed forest. And it likes trees such as beech, oak, Norway spruce, Douglas fir, that is big mature trees. And they're incredibly powerful birds when they're making their nest.

They generally make their nest in live trees,  which is quite an achievement in hardwood species such as beech or oak. But quite often as well, you get them in Norway spruce and Douglas fir. So they're immensely powerful birds, like I say, and rotten trees are used, but mainly for feeding. And quite often you will see trees stripped of bark on the ground, quite often they like to feed or a low down on dying trees. 

Now, in the last few springs, I spent a lot of time in the field in early spring, trying to record the song of Black Woodpecker.  And it was something that just had eluded me over the years. I had some distant recordings, but I wasn't really happy with the quality. So eventually in 2023, I got some decent quality recordings.

And I'm going to play one of those for you now. This is from a guest in Sweden. So this is the song of Black Woodpecker.  Have a listen. 

Now, I had a great deal of success out of Augusta in the last couple of springs, and this spring in 2024,  I was back on site, and I managed, again, this recording of Song of Black Woodpecker. Have a listen. 

So, I think you'll agree, it's an absolutely wonderful song, and it's great to hear that in the forest in early spring. It's one of the great sounds here in Sweden.  Now, we also got some nice flea calls and flight calls in Augusta earlier this year, and I'll play a quick recording now. There is a little bit of noise here in the background again from distant traffic, but the bird is very close to the recorder, which was the Tlingit Prabla on this occasion. 

Augusta Reserve really produced the goods in 2024, and I located a pair of birds on breeding territory quite early in the year, and it was a boon for sound recording. On the second occasion that I attended, I actually found three birds present. So it was a male and two females in the area. And this caused kind of a great deal of vocalization.

I don't think one of the females is very, very happy, probably the resident bird. But like I say, it resulted in lots of nice calls, and I got this wonderful recording of the Klee call and the Floyd call of Blackwood Pecker.  So this is a particularly nice recording, and I'll give you a listen to it now, folks. 

Now life is never easy for the sound recorder, and one of the sounds that has pretty much eluded me is the drumming of Blackwood Pecker. But I do have a single recording of drumming, and I'll play that for you now. It's very, very short. It's very, very difficult to hear the power of the drumming in this recording.

It was quite distant, but I think you can get some idea. There's a little bit of a different tempo in the drumming of Black Woodpecker to say Great Spotted Woodpecker. It's quite powerful. Like I say, it slows down a little bit in the middle and tapers off, but it's quite distinctive when you get your ear in on it.

So I'll play that for you now. So once again, this is a drumming Black Woodpecker. 

Now a few years ago I put out some passive recorders in an area of woodland in a place called Varmde in Sweden and when I checked the recordings I heard these very distant calls in the forest. It was March and the calls were very very odd. And eventually I identified the species as I thought they were black woodpecker and what they were were excitement calls and I found these quite incredible.

It was a terrible recording, but what it did was it kind of lit a fire in me and I really wanted to get recordings of these excitement calls of black woodpecker. There's very few examples that I could find of the call, but eventually in 2024, I struck gold out against it in Sweden, when three birds, as I mentioned already, were found on breeding territory and it was quite incredible.

One day I was just sat quietly in the woods with the parabola pointed at the birds and they just ghosted out of the forest. Now, one of the females was really, really annoyed with another female. Obviously, the bird was probably intruding on territory and she was very, very excited. Now, the male was also in the area.

He was also very, very excited. And all three birds were given these excitement calls. And I was absolutely thrilled to bits to get them. Um. I will say it was a very, very frustrating morning in some respects. There was an ice cream van in the background at a distant estate, which gave me all kinds of trouble.

There was a kind of orienteering event going on in the woods, and I spent hours in the forest just trying to record these calls. But I had some excellent success in the end, and I'm going to play some really amazing recordings now. So first up, ice cream van and all. Here are the quite amazing excitement calls of black woodpecker. 

Now, I hope you can kind of sense why I was so excited about hearing these calls and actually getting to record them. They're quite remarkable. And obviously the birds are doing some sort of excitement display. They're very, very wound up and it was quite incredible just to sit and watch these birds moving around right in front of me.

And we're very, very close. And in some of these recordings, you're going to hear just how close they were. You can actually hear the birds claws moving around on the trunks of the trees and the wing beats in flight. I'll give you another recording now to some people here in the background on the Orienteering Day, but this is still a fantastic recording of the excitement calls of the Black Woodpecker. 

Here's another close up recording of excitement calls and also here's some quieter calls that I'd never heard before. Again, all recorded with the Tlingit Prabhla. 

One more recording here, very close to Birdsware here, as you will hear in the recording. Had to turn quite quickly with the parabola. There's a tiny bit of handling noise, but it's quite an incredible recording. Once again, the excitement calls of black woodpecker. 

So there you go, folks. That's the quest for black gold or black woodpecker. One of my favorite species here in Sweden. It's been a pleasure to get out into the field and sound record this species over the years, sometimes as a sound recorder. Things don't come easily and it can take several years to build up a collection of audio of certain things or certain species that you're interested in.

And this was certainly one of those species for me. It was quite difficult at times. I put a lot of work in. But if you just stick with it folks, you can get some wonderful, wonderful audio. And apart from just recording these black woodpeckers over the years, I can tell you some of the things I came across in the woodlands here in Sweden whilst looking for black woodpecker were quite incredible.

So there's all kinds of knock on effects. You come across other birds, mammals and other things. Just wonderful experiences. So that's one of the major upsides of sound recording. Just gets you into wonderful, wonderful places. And sometimes when you're chasing species like this, it actually leads you down paths you wouldn't normally go down.

So I recommend it fully, folks. Just try and do these little projects. Pick a species, and try and get out there and record them as much as possible. And build up a nice library of reference calls. 

I'm going to leave you with a nice soundscape from Sandimar Reserve. This spring it was recorded in April of 2024  and it's recorded with the Sennheiser 8020 microphones that I bought over the winter. It's quite a nice soundscape and once again you'll hear the click call and the flight call of Blackwood Pecker. 

Once again I hope you've all enjoyed this sound magazine and thanks to all the listeners for tuning in here at Wild Bird Acoustics. 

Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh,   



 So there you go, that's Black Woodpecker, and it's been a wonderful adventure. And I'm sure there's a lot more to come with that species for me, it's something I'm never going to tire of. I remember, uh, As a kid, just going through the bird books, the field guides, , Blackwood Pecker was just one of those magical species that I used to just sit there and imagine in my mind's eye what it must be like to come across one in the field, so when I did do so all those years ago, it made a huge effect on me, and like I say, it's still a very special species to me these days, and one that I will definitely spend a lot more time on in the field in the years to come.

Not something you ever tired of.

 Now, I think this is one of the reasons I love sound recording so much in that you never know what avenue it's gonna take you down next,

so, for example, with Black Woodpecker, I just found myself preoccupied in trying to gather as many different vocalizations of the species as possible and learn about the species.  And the secondary thing is, this brings you Into wonderful habitat kind of pristine old forest and I've had some absolutely incredible mornings in this habitat There's so many other species there and it's been an absolute privilege to be out in these kind of habitats

Early in the morning, and I've come across all kinds of other birds and mammals whilst looking for a black woodpecker that I never would have come across otherwise. So, it's a privilege just to be out in these places, looking for such iconic species. And that's basically what sound recording is. It just gets you out there, into the wild,  if you get your target subject, that's fantastic, but you will never, never come home without something good on your recorder, something that you can listen to for years and years. And if you have a podcast like I do, you can share that with other people. And that's what this is. 

  In the meantime, that's it for me, Alan Dalton here at Wild Word Acoustics. We'll see you again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for 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 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.