An Interview with Teet Sirotkin

In this episode, Wild Bird Acoustic's is delighted to welcome a well known Swedish birding and field recording figure, Mr. Teet Sirotikin, for an extensive interview. In this episode, Teet talks about his sound recording journey and shares some quite incredible audio from many parts of Sweden. Furthermore, we journey to the Baltic States, into Latvia and Lithuania and listen to some incredible recordings and soundscapes, in areas rich in phenomenal birdlife. 

Join me here with Teet as we discuss his personal voyage into the world of field recording birds, as he shares some simply remarkable recordings from the past couple of decades. Some of the species here include some of the most sought after European bird species. In short, this is a very special episode, which you will not want to miss...

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 welcome everybody to Wild Bird acoustics once again, and my word that we have a treat for you in this episode, it's gonna be absolutely fantastic. It's the first interview of season two. I spent a little bit of time last night talking to a well-known Swedish recorder. We had an absolutely incredible chat, and I think this episode is going to be very, very popular.

Now, before I get started with that, I just wanna give a quick shout out to Michael for his subscription to Wild Bird Acoustics on Buzzsprout. That's very, very much appreciated. Also, another big shout out to Julia Plummer and Paul Birdin for taking the time to put a little review on Apple Podcasts.

I think this helps greatly just pull people into the podcast and raise its profile. So thanks very much guys.   Now, as I just mentioned, this is the first interview episode of Season two.  More are on the way. I don't wanna give anything away at this point in time, but we have some fantastic interviews lined up for this, the second season of wild bird acoustics.

And before we get stuck into the interview, this I. 


 Now that was recording a black Woodpecker made by Teet Sirotkin our guest in this episode. It was made just this weekend, gone past in early March and it's quite wonderful.

You can hear the birds drumming, you can hear the song, you can hear a wonderful J between the pair and it's. Typical of the wonderful recordings that this man gets when he is out in the field. Now, Teet is a wonderful guy. I really enjoyed talking to him. And without any further ado folks, he's gonna share some wonderful audio as well.

 We'll get straight into the interview. This is an interview with Teet Sirotkin for Wild Bird Acoustics.   

  

 Now you're all very welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics. I am delighted to be joined by a very special guest here on the podcast Teat Sirotkin. You're very welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics. Well, thank you for having me. I really enjoy being here I've been listening to your podcast quite a lot and I do really  Like that you have you take the time to play long recordings and talk a lot about Birds going in depth to things.

I enjoy that. Okay.  Now tid, how did you first become interested in birds?  Yeah, it was actually,  when I was playing, uh, on the field with my, fellow, , kids, , where I grew up south of Stockholm, one of the older guys. , went around with binoculars and did something called birding and, um, he was a bit older and I knew his younger brother and we, we asked sometimes, what are you doing?

Can we join you?  And he said,  Ah, well, well, okay. Okay. You can come tomorrow morning, but you have to get up early. And then he took us out to, to a lake called Augusta, a small, , birding, uh, location in Southern Stockholm. And I thought this was fun.  So I, my parents got me a bird book, , Durango's little bird book with awful plates and, and so

But anyhow, I started. Ticking them off the birds I saw and then it'd be a beginning. Of course, I ticked off a lot of birds that I have to, , take away later. Like I thought I saw Kingfishers and, and blue, what's it called?  Rollers and stuff, but, uh,  uh, but I learned a lot and, um,  yeah, then I kept birding. 

And I, I suppose then it was a lot later in life that you got interested in a field recording boards and sound recording. Yeah, that's that that's correct. I guess the first time I really started recording seriously was when I was about to go out on a round the world trip  With the first stop in Southeast Asia. 

This was I think 1986 so I guess I was 22 years  and then I bought a Sony Walkman  With, uh, recording  capabilities and a Sony directional microphone.  Uh, and the idea was that I would record birds and identify them later because I know it was really.  Awful, um, bird books at that time, uh, there was a bird book by King, um, birds of Southeast Asia that had only a few birds depicted.

And then you had allied species like bulbuls. You had one bulbul and five other allied species with almost no description. But I thought I might, if I record them, maybe I can get a few extra ticks later. So, yeah,  I suppose those recordings must have been more identifiable year, sorry, identifiable years later, rather than at the time.

Yeah, I could actually go back to them now, I guess. And I still got the cassettes. I think I wasn't very organized then. So I don't, I don't have very good notes of where I recorded what.  Yeah, life is much easier now with the internet. You can learn all these calls before you go on foreign trips. It is, yeah, but I did use the recorder to play back if I had a bird calling,  uh, I could record it and then I played it back to get it out.

And I especially remember when I, I thought I was recording a garnet pizza and Tamanegara. And, and I played it, the call and out came a rail Babbler . Okay. And, and I didn't know that the rail babbler had the same call, almost the same call. So that, that was amazing. I also, I didn't realize how rare it was then.

Yep.  Now, years later, what recording equipment do you use, generally speaking? Yeah. The, the one I use most is the Linga Pro X, uh, parabolic microphone. We, we just a simple Olympus recorder  and I.  Uh, carry it along, uh, either when I walk in a forest or something, uh, and record singing birds or, uh, woodpeckers or something.

But I do also use it when I'm standing, uh, watching visual, visual migration. Then I put it on a tripod and I put it in the direction of the migrating birds.  And, uh, usually I use, uh,  Bluetooth transmitter, so I can send the calls, uh, to my earphones simultaneously as I record them, uh, which, uh, gives me an edge because I hear the birds a lot clearer than the other bird is standing in the same place.

Spot, but I do also miss some birds that come very low. Um, since it's so directional, you only get,  you hear the  birds. Well, in one certain direction, if it goes another way, you, you might miss it. Totally.  It's, it's interesting. I come from Ireland and there's very little active. Migration monitoring, it's not something people in Ireland and England do very much of.

I think it's changing now a little bit in England, it's starting to become quite popular, but it's fantastic here in Sweden to go to a place like Landsark just south of Stockholm and just watch streams of birds going over your head calling. I absolutely love it.  Yeah, that's true. It's really big in Sweden.

And I think one of the reasons is that there are some really good headlands where there's a huge concentration of birds. One of the famous ones is of course Falsterbu, where you don't only have the raptor migration, which is, which it is famous for. You also have so much passerines flying by. It's incredible there.

I was blown away the first time I went there, just by the numbers of chaffinch and brambling and even things like Bluetooth.  Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's amazing. And, um, also, uh, land at ought them be a birding station. Uh, the southernmost tip is also. Equally good, I would say.  So that's the autumn migration.

The spring migration is a little bit more difficult because it's more on the broad front.  I  usually try to go to more like lakes, for example, or valleys that funnel the birds. It's a bit more difficult. Yeah, I think so.  Do you have a favorite group of species or particular species you're, you're more interested in? 

Uh, yes, I would say I do like passerines and especially, uh, contact calls, flight calls and other types of calls. And, and  that goes also for stuff like, um, waiters. Yeah. Uh, I, I'm interesting in, in, um, Detecting  flying birds, even if I don't see them. So that's my speciality, really, to try to record, um, contact calls of any taxa, really.

Even stuff like herons, bitterns, and  Great egrets and, and purple herons and stuff is interesting to, to learn the calls of. Yeah. Do you, do you record much at night? They move quite often at night herons too. Yeah, I used to, since I live in a suburb to Stockholm, quite a busy area, there's not much recording I can do at home, but I did try several years and it's amazing how much.

Fly past a large city,  like I recorded nocturnal snow bun things, a lot of water rails, uh, moorhens and, and even bittern. So I'm still waiting on bittern here in Södermalm in the middle of Stockholm city, but I did have a temmingstint in the middle of May a few years ago, which was incredible. Oh, that's beautiful.

Yeah. I, I remember you also had a. Two barred, um, crossbilled, right? Yeah, that was, yeah, it was amazing. It was early in the morning. I think it was late July or August. I can't remember, but yeah, I'm still, parrot crossbill is the one I'm waiting for, for the apartment list.  Okay. Yeah. You should keep your ears open now because there is a lot of them around.

The last few weeks I only had parrots, no, no red crossbills. So. Okay.  Okay. Now you mentioned, or Lapland Longsborough, you did a paper on quite recently,  Yeah, that's true.  I, I did,   end up in a discussion on Facebook. There's a group where we discuss, ,  complicated bird calls. , so, uh, someone posted the bird and asked, it's just two calls and, and,  this person asked, , is this an ortholand bunting? 

And someone said, no, no, no, no, this is Lapland bunting,  but, but I, I didn't think it really fit with Lapland bunting. So I, I, I suggested, uh, I think this is a reed bunting.  And then there was a long discussion back and forth,  , with sonograms and stuff. But it actually ended up on me doing a lot of research and trying to find the calls of all these birds, like snow bunting, Lapland bunting, reed bunting. 

Uh, and it, it actually turned out eventually that this is a reed bunting. So reed bunting does have the J  call, which is very similar to Lapland bunting. Uh, not at all  like the two more common reed bunting calls, the C U or the B S H. The nasal polio. Yeah. So this is a third type that people usually don't know about.

And I didn't either before I started. It's amazing field record when you really start to dig into things, how much you can learn, even with very common species. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.  So have you any other projects lined up going forward or?  Yeah, I,  I have, as you said, I have been writing some papers like about tick sparrows and about woodpeckers,  like drumming woodpeckers.

You can actually  use quantitative methods to determine what woodpecker it is. And what I'm saying is you can.  You can count how many strokes per second there is and how long the drumming is and then you can plot the graph and then you can see that all the common woodpeckers here are in a small, um, what do you call, um, small areas that you can distinguish from each other.

There's some overlap of few species. For example, a black woodpecker and three toed woodpecker, they can sometimes be impossible to differentiate because they're so similar. But, but, um,  so this was fun. So I'm, also I'm look, done the same thing with locustella warblers, uh, how the,  um, savvies and, uh, especially the Um,  uh,  grasshopper and,  and what's the third lanceolated.

Yes. Thank you. Lanceolated warbler.  So that's also lanceolated and grasshopper can be pretty similar if you just hear it in the field and you're not very experienced, but it's very, very easy to determine which one it is if you have a sonogram.  So. Everything I've been writing, writing here, I think I would put into a book eventually.

So I've been working up to this. The first edition will be in Swedish because all the articles are in Swedish, but if it gets good response, I will probably  publish it in English as well. But this is a long project. So I'm doing a group of birds  at a time. So  I look forward to that.  Yeah, thank you. Now you seem to be very well traveled.

Do you have any favorite? Countries or areas in Sweden that you like to or you just prefer to visit your favorite places so to speak Yeah, well, it depends on what time of year, uh, now we have February and then I really like recording woodpeckers and owls and  hazel grouse and stuff in the forest, in as pristine forest as possible.

And you only need to go about an hour and a half north of Stockholm to start getting these birds.  So that's really cool. But then a bit later then I go to the migration spots Uh as we already mentioned I do like visual migration So I usually  Listen to birds and  at the same time when I watch visual migration So then  I know you've been a lot to land sort And it's an island south of sweden and and that's a lovely spot that I like to go to but both spring and autumn Yeah, maybe not so much in summer because there's not much happening there. 

But uh during summer I Mid summer, I usually go far north as far north in sweden as I can get up to the fjells  , high up in the mountains  and,  then, then we have a lot of birds singing there and a lot of good rarities to look for as well, like, like blue tails and, , nor, um, Arctic warblers and stuff. 

Yeah. Do you have a dream destination to go to?  Anywhere in particular you really want to get to someday?  Wow, that's, that's a difficult question, really. , I've been to some dream locations already, like Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island and those islands, which was a dream destination, although it was difficult to record there.

Uh,   there are some places in Russia that I would like to go to, to record spoon builds, uh, sandpipers and stuff, but that's, that's a bit, uh,  that's a bit awkward now I would say. So yeah, it can be done. I suppose Mongolia could be a good option possibly. Yep. Yep. Definitely.  Yeah. Okay. , one more question before we get into recordings.

How would you say the field recording has say enriched your birding experience in general?  Oh, in general, I would say I have, I have observed a lot more birds that I ever would have without, , learning,  from doing field recordings. The, the interesting thing is if you  are keen on visual migration,  you can have your parabolic microphone recording all the time. 

And if you hear something you don't recognize, uh, you can just put down the time or make a note. Uh, I either, uh, you can talk into the microphone or just as I do. I, I, I usually. Make a coughing sound  because I, I don't want to disturb other birders then, then I know before the cough, uh, I had something I need to check. 

I do something similar. I either generally clap my hands. I'm usually alone. I generally birdwatch when I'm recording alone.  I just speak into the microphone just to mark it. Right. And, and if you are, if you really try to find out all the weird calls, then you learn a lot. I think I have learned the more unusual,  uh, flight calls of many birds just that way, uh, to, to don't let anything pass. 

Like, like even if there's a suspected, there's a strange, um, pipit, for example, always check it out.  I have, I have, for example, recorded  at least two olive pipette, olive backed pipettes.  Um, we, which I need the recording to, , to get accepted. So that was good. I  think you also had,  yeah, I've had, yeah, I had one up in Halligan up in Foster button, which went right off my head.

I was pretty sure in the field, but like you say, I have, it's only when you get back to the desktop, have a look at the sonogram and get the right height and shape that you can be absolutely 100 percent sure.  And I've recorded one as well. I've recorded so actually now on Halligurn and two or three on Landsort.

No, that's nice. Yeah. So two years ago, I think I had five words. Yeah, that's cool. And especially if you have these, uh, birds flying over saying tick, tick, tick, then you need to have a recording to be sure if it's a little bunting or rustic bunting or, or. Even song thrush. So,  um,  And if you do this all the time you check them then you learn the call.

So I think I actually can differentiate Rustic bunting and little bunting on on call now if I hear it reasonably well Well, like you say it's it's great to have that fallback on who recording Yeah.  Speaking of recordings, you've spent, you've actually sent me some absolutely incredible recordings. Some, we should probably start going through those.

Yeah.  The first one I'm going to play is black throated loon. Um, this was recorded in Plarce, Gleason in July, 2022.  I'll just play a true first Teet and then we can have a little chat about sure. This is black throated loon  

 quite incredible recording. Yeah, thank you. Well, this was recorded during night time. So it's a nocturnal. I was actually  sleeping in my car by a little lake far from roads. I put, I saw the loons on the lake and I just put my parabolic microphone in that direction. And during the night they started calling. 

This is not the most. Common call of the black so so I was  Happy to get a a variant of of the call  one funny thing is that a lady from  I think poland  Mailed me and asked If I, if she could use this recording in a Requiem, some kind of funeral setting, I didn't really understand, but  of course she could. 

Why not?  Yeah. That's amazing. It's a species that's given me terrible trouble over the last couple of years, but, um, yeah, I'm sure I got around them eventually just to get, I have a recording kind of in my head that I want to get. If you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I have found that generally just single pairs aren't as vocal. 

It seems to be when you get multiple birds on the same lake, that they really start to get vocal, but we'll see,  we'll move along.  So next up we have Boreal Owl recorded at Nortelia on the 1st of October  2016. And I'll just play that quickly, it's quite a short recording this one. 

So that's the typical call to give on migration.  Yeah, exactly.  That's the call you get from Boreal Owl during autumn. And this was an unattended recording. I had a parabolic microphone out during nighttime. And I think this Boreal Owl was really, really close because  it's very loud.  And this is the call you can hear when you play back the usual territorial call during autumn.

Then it could answer with this call, which is like a squirrel squirrel call. Really it's called. Yeah. I get a lot of these,  this type of call up and, , faster button in the autumn. , I  get birds moving down the coast in a subtly direction in the autumn. It's quite nice at nighttime on still nights only.

Yeah, that's quite good. Next up we have another owl species and it's Eurasian Pygmy Owl. This is a female bird giving some frustrated hoots. Quite a nice recording as well. We'll play that for you now. 

Very unusual recording that. Yeah, you don't hear this very often. Usually you just hear the male calling. That's the whistle. Uh, 

but, but this is how the female calls and this is a bit similar to the autumn call of a pig meows, , that you can hear. I guess you hear that one as well in the  scale song, very, very autumn,  very typical in the autumn up there. , and occasionally just the regular kind of male call as well, but not so common.

Yeah. Right. Not in the autumn.  But the next one, I guess you haven't actually heard.  I haven't actually heard it. I was very lucky to get a record, almost an identical recording to this. Oh, really? In August. Um, it was 2023  and I was just checking to my knock make stuff. I couldn't believe it. . Mm. Cool. I knew what, I knew what it was straight away.

It's an absolutely incredible noise. Yeah. I'll play, I'll play it. Actually, this, we won't say what it is first.  I will listen to this folks. 

Quite an incredible noise, isn't it? Yeah, it is. So, uh, I, I guess you understand that we are talking about another owl and that's a special out for Northern Sweden.  Northern Hawk Owl.  And this is not the usual territorial call. This is some kind of  agitated call. I heard it a few times. And one time I know I was too close to the youngs.

Then it made this call. Okay. I must send you the recording. I got. After this at some point, it's amazing, exactly the same, but I,  I just wonder the context of the bird overflowing the island in August. It's, it's quite odd.  Yeah. Yeah.  We're going to move on to a completely different, uh, group of species, actually, um, philosophy warblers.

Um, we're going to start with Iberian  chief Jeff. Um, you have this down as, wait till I see now, Dalarna in July  2019.  So we'll have a listen first. You 

can hear little kind of tret calls in between the strophes as well. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. , I've been, uh, listening to other Iberian chief chef recordings, and it's not very common.  Although, I know that all the chief chef taxa does have this tret  in between the song. 

It's probably just such a high quality recording. You must have been very close to that part, were you? Yeah, it was pretty close. This was a vagrant that was suddenly singing in the southernmost part of the Swedish fjells.  Really weird place for it. But  it was there for a few weeks.  So I could get a really good recording of it, uh, standing just beneath it.

Uh, it was actually next to a, , hostel. A lot of birders had this, this bird. Okay. Obviously it's a very rare species, but not actually as rare as the next species. Um, I let you just, , tell the story on this one. It's green marbler. Yeah,  this was, this was really, really weird and something that you, you can't even believe is happening.

But I was as far north as you can get in Sweden in a national park called Abisko  and I was actually looking for Arctic warbler because in late June, early July, there's always one or two Arctic warblers in, in that area.  And I, I really enjoy finding my own birds instead of twitching birds. So I thought I, I go and get myself an Arctic warbler.

So I started, uh,  transecting, , birch forest where it has been seen, , many times before. And I was walking, walking and I heard. Heard something singing that I didn't immediately recognize.  And I thought it's a bit, bit like a greenish warbler, which is not totally impossible, but still quite rare. But as I listened for it to it, it didn't fit.

Now it's, it's, it's not a greenish warbler. And I thought,  could it be a, another bird, like a red start mimicking? They can be really good mimics,  or is it something completely different that I just. Don't recognize. So, uh, so this bird was singing now and then for 20 minutes and I think in total I, I got to record about 20, 25, um, parts of the song.

And, um,  then I,  I went down to the, the office at the, um, where there's a birder walking, uh, working, uh, At the nature reserve, and I said, I have very strange birds hanging there, but  it's probably nothing. I said, I'll check it when I get home. And that was a mistake though. So when I get home, uh, I, I. Put some noise canceling in it, and I, I cut out the, the parts where the bird was singing, uh, and I listened and then I thought, oh my God, this is actually something of the greenish warbler taxi.

But I, yeah, warbler. Thank you.  I didn't know which one. So I, I started playing, um, the different,  calls of green warbler. And it was a perfect match. So now I realized I found the second green warbler for Sweden. And I didn't even realize it when I recorded it. And this was seven days later. So when I put it out on the bird alarm system, unfortunately the bird was gone. 

We played a recording. Let's just do that first.

  Apa? 

Salam,  untuk  siapa? 

Saya  minta  maaf,  saya  salah.  

It's not unlike greenish warbler. It's quite explosive, isn't it? Yes, it's shorter and more monotonous.  Yeah, kind of song. You can hear it's the same  quality to it.  But if you  look at the sonogram, you see the individual.  Uh, parts, they, they do differ a bit.  Yeah, we actually, you've actually sent a  file also of greenish warbler on this board is actually mimicking.

Willow warbler in this, this, this song strove. Yeah, that's funny. Quite interesting. We can play that just for comparison now in a minute. Yeah. , it's interesting because I have read about greenish warblers being able to mimic other birds, , specifically wren, winter wrens have been, , noticed, , the greenish warbler have, can do a perfect imitation. 

But, but this one, well, as you hear, is, is quite amazing, , mimic of a very common bird.  So this is Greenwich warbler mimicking Willow warbler.

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 Yes, this was recorded in Latvia, another place I like going to because there are some birds there that I don't get easily here, like beaters and hoopoos and Orioles and yeah, a nice Eastern flavor. Yes. And also the, uh, as you hear the greenish warbler and, , all these, ,  Eastern, , night singing warblers.

Yeah.  We're going to stay on Phyllosc warblers just for one more because this is a board I would love to record some. I've never seen an Arctic warbler, nevermind heard one. So it's on the bucket list to go up North and find one of these guys. , where was this recorded?  This was in Norway, was it? Yes, it's in Varanger.

It's, it's far northeast. It's just about a few miles from the Russian border as far north as it can get. It's a fantastic recording. This is Arctic Warbler in Varanger in Norway.

  Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. 

 And again, you're getting the, almost like a 'tret' call in there as well, just like the regular call. That's the contact call really. So in autumn on migration, if you have a,  an area where they can stop over, you can hear that,  especially in wintering grounds. If you have been to Southeast Asia, this is a bird you can hear in the parks and such. 

Yeah. Gotta move on now to,  Great Grace Reich. , this is a particularly nice recording. I think again, it's not a species. I've only recorded this species very, very distantly. Just given the odd call. So I've never actually come, come across as she's singing anywhere. So very nice to hear this. Where was this recorded? 

This was, uh, just, uh, Northeast of Stockholm in a area called force Mark.  Okay. So this is great. Great. Great. Shrike. I think this is springtime. Is it? This is just before it went north because they don't breed here, but it obviously started to singing in their wintering grounds very early spring.  Very nice recording.

Great. Great. Shrike folks. 

Yeah,  this is the only time I had this bird singing, really.  So I think they should sing for a very short period. 

It's a lovely recording.  Thank you. This is, this is one of my recordings that is included in the Collins, uh, app. Okay. The birding app. I  sent a few of, of the recordings, uh, they were missing. Okay. Yeah. I'd imagine it's not a very, , well recorded song in European  terms, great, great strike.  , we're going to stay kind of in the north of Sweden now, and this is very much a specialty of Northern Sweden and it is Siberian Jay. 

That's what we have next up. Where was this recorded to you?  This was, uh, in Dalarna too, the southern parts of the fjells.  Yep, and it's March is the time of year on this in 2023.  So this is Siberian Jay. 

So 

this bird is actually mimicking a Pygmy Owl yeah, it's a scale song. 

They have a host of different calls, the Siberian Jays.  Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah. I think that's going to be one of those spaces you could almost do an entire study on, isn't it? Yeah, definitely.  Um, they, they have so much different calls when you hear them interacting or. Yeah.  When you heard that bird, did you know it was a Siberian Jay? Did you have eyes on it or did you actually go in after it?

Yes. Yes, I did. I actually, the story is that I thought it was  a pygmy owl, but it was a bit weird because that call is usually an autumn call. So I started recording it and I went closer and then I saw the Siberian Jay sitting in a top of a Spurs booth. That was funny. I know. I, I, I, your Asian Jay are terrible as well.

They've cut me out a few times. Yes. Yes. You know, I think you're, you think you're maybe getting onto a goshawk or something like that. And as you get closer, you realize, Oh, it's, it's done me. Yeah, definitely. And it's a perfect mimic of buzzard. Yeah, that's the most common one. Yeah, for sure. We'll stay with Northern specialties and the next species up is Red flanked Blue tail.

And,  this is another species I've yet to record. I'd imagine there's a lot of, uh, bird watchers listening in to this screen with envy. There's a lot of species on here which are very much specialties of, uh, Northern Europe, I think.  So, this was recorded in Yorkmook, was it?  Yes, it's actually in a very small forest reserve, but it's far north, northeast of Sweden. 

And this is dated the 25th of June,  2021. We'll play the recording, Red Flanked Blue Tail, in song. And 

you can hear all the mosquitoes, right? I was going to say, the insects are horrendous. Yeah, it's really terrible. You have to get used to them if you want to. Yeah. Record and feed these birds. 

It's funny regarding insects. I've had a couple of comments on my , recordings, especially in Halligan. , about how many insects are actually in the recordings on apparently now in a lot of places, there's very few insects around and people have noticed, you know, when they make the recordings, they just say, God, we've noticed how many insects just buzzing around in your recordings is incredible. 

So it seems like insects are not doing very well in some places in Europe. That's, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. , I would like to tell a bit of this recording. We just heard sure. Um, in, I think it was 2020. It started to. become more common with red flanked blue tails, especially in Finland. There were reports of many hundred pairs, and they started coming into Sweden then.

So, um, before that, it was a very rare bird with only a few. , sightings during the summer, but 2020, there was a few records. So 2021, I went up to Northern Sweden. I, I had looked,  at a few maps and flight, , aerial photographs and tried to find pristine forests with spruce and, , mountainous regions.

, so I spent a week in South, in Northern Sweden, Northeastern Sweden, and I ended up finding nine. Singing males, well, which was unheard of them.  , and I think this was a particularly good year, 2021. So I don't think so many birds have been counted any other time, but I do want to go back. It was wonderful.

It wasn't a good year last year. I know that,  Vasta button had a couple of pairs only last year that were quite scarce.  But, yeah, it's, it's an amazing,  to be honest with you, when I was growing up, red flank blue tail was up there with things like Siberian ruby trout for rarity value. You know, they're incredibly rare.

It was something you dreamt of finding. Yeah. And they're still very rare in Ireland, but it's, there have been several records now, but, um, it's incredible how even the autumn records have just gone through the roof. Yeah.  Around Europe.  We're going to move on. We're going to go on to that Eastern flavor, Eastern promises  we were talking about earlier on.

And the next recording is of a Blythe's Reed Warbler from Brannshirke in Stockholm city, actually in 2020.  It's just like, , 400 meters from my apartment. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's a very nice recording actually. Was this recorded at nighttime? Yes. Okay. We'll play it. I think it's about two minutes long. But, uh, this board is a very, very good mimic, obviously, it's, .

It's a lovely thing to listen to. 

The call you hear, heard there, the falling call, that's specific for this species. Yeah.  The arpeggio.  And the tempo as well is very distinctive with Blythe's reed warbler compared to marsh warbler.  Yes. It's much slower. And also you hear the tic tic between the  different parts of the song. 

And then there's these little recess where it just kind of starts up again. 

And this can go on for hours and hours. Yeah, they just don't stop. Nah. 

It's another species that's moving westwards pretty rapidly.  That's true.  And this, this bird songs long into the summer.  So if you're lucky, the thrushes has started calling and singing. So you can have it alone.  Yeah, it's quite nice that. , it's a species I go looking for kind of from mid June onwards. 

, it's quite nice if you can find one, it's a nice species to find here in Sweden, isn't it? Yeah.  Okay, we have golden oriole next, , I think this was recorded in the Baltic states, was it? Yes, this is in Latvia as well, that's the same place, uh, that I talked about. Kolka, which is a spit, where, where is a migration trap, mig, migrant trap. 

How was Latvia in general? Is it a very good place? Is it quiet or? Yes. Yes. I would say it's a quiet place apart from, uh, if you,  if it's windy and there's waves, you get all that noise, but there's not so much traffic and  people are nice and it's a pretty cheap accommodation. So you get all the Eastern good stuff there.

Actually last year I had an Imperial Eagle.  Which was really really cool and  I didn't expect  and you certainly had golden oriole We'll play the recording now folks. This is golden oriole in song in latvia 

So what we're hearing are two males  that are competing so  The cat like call is is that they are meaning they are really upset 

So these birds sing really early in the morning. When the sound rises, they are quiet already.  It's a beautiful recording. Thank you.  Now,  speaking of beautiful recordings, this is, , the next species is barred warbler. And  I remember I used to go to the Landsort about 20 years ago and there was generally a pair or two around Breitmar.

But they really seem to have pulled back in Sweden. They've got quite scarce. Yeah, that's, that's true. Yeah. I'm not sure there are any breeding pairs at all around Stockholm anymore.  Uh, you might get them now and then in the autumn, but that's more like vagrants then. Yeah. I think the closest pairs might be maybe Oland. 

Yes. Oland, , it's probably, and Gotland of course, the other large island there, you can have a few pairs, but they're becoming a rare there as well. I think. And this is a very nice recording. You got this in Kalmar.  I think, Oh, this is actually our land. So I think it is our land. Is it? It's yeah, no, but I think when you don't put the correct name in Xenocanto, then it chooses,  yeah, for you, it's fine.

So this is from  June, 2019, and I'll play that for you now. So this is a lovely recording of bird warbler. So 

it starts with that characteristic call, rattling call,  and then it sinks almost like a garden warbler. Yeah, 

I think if you missed the rattle you could walk past this, possibly,  if you weren't paying attention. Yeah, 

I think the sylvia warblers can be really difficult to distinguish, especially when you get to the mediterranean's  and they do  vary a lot from one individual to the other as well. Yeah, this mimicry too, they're just, like you said, they're just very, very difficult. 

They're amazing birds, barred warbler, in the summer. Fantastic. Yeah, lovely.  They're really huge for, yeah, absolutely a massive  beastly things, you know, the smaller sylveys are very, very nice, but there's nothing quite like a big, big, you know, adult male hawk saying on a, as they call it in Swedish, just jumping out. 

Yeah.  And this raptor eye the yellow eye, yeah incredible 

Yeah  I I try to choose uh Recordings that might be of interest for for people on the british isles Like the eastern and northern  specialities Yeah, I think you've done that very successfully  Be green with envy so so yeah But, uh, you need to think this is perhaps 20 years of recording. So it's not that easy to get all those. 

No. And especially at that level of recording as well as some beautiful recordings in there,  we have two more recordings left. , before I forget, actually, , I put a recording into the intro. , at the head of the podcast, which was black woodpeckers. You were in Stigkärret, just over the weekend gone.

Yeah, this is really fresh recording. And the first time I recorded the jackdaw call, it starts with a, with a drumming, which is pretty, pretty long and slow drumming. Then it has the, the song.  Uh, and then in the end you have, , interaction between a pair and female and male. And that sounds like a Jack, Jack dog.

Yeah. A duet almost. Yeah. I call them kind of excitement calls. I don't really know what they're, what they're actually called, but they do sound very like Jack does. I recorded that for the first time last year, properly at August. Actually, we've mentioned it already.  I got some nice recordings of that.  , the next recording we have here in this series is of, it's species I haven't been able to record.

And it's not because I can't find the species, it's because of where they live. So whenever I try to record, , Dipper, or whenever, whenever I have done,  the noise of the river has been so, so difficult just to drown out.  , I haven't managed to actually record dipper and song yet.  No, I was a bit lucky because it was still ice on the river.

Uh, and, um, it was  late evening, everything was quiet  and, , it, it was also just next to a levy.  So it was perfect conditions. Yeah, I think you need to, maybe  they do. I generally go out to Nyfors places like that. The flow there is quite heavy anyway.  Yeah, so it's probably better maybe to go somewhere where there's a bit more of a gentle stream and a gentle flow I'll play the recording.

It's quite wonderful This is White throated Dipper, a tierp in Sweden. 

It's not unlike marsh warlberry, really. No.  I think it'd be a very interesting species again to study for mimicry. Yeah. It's 

a beautiful song.  It really is. As you said, it's not very often you can hear them in an area where You can appreciate all the nuances. 

Definitely hear little hints of things like blackboards. 

That's it. Very nice.  Thank you.  , I've kept my favorite recording that you sent to me. I've kept the last and it's the soundscape. It's the soundscape. You sent me from Lithuania.  Um, and obviously it's, it's taken on a wetland. Maybe you want to just tell us a little bit about that recording. Yes. So this is, um,  on the southern coast of Lithuania.

It's a delta, very much wetlands. And it's, , specifically interesting bird there is the aquatic warbler. Although I don't have that one in this recording,  however, during nighttime, oddly enough, uh, you have, , a lot of  birds, like, , great snipe,   displaying there. Uh, and then you have black tail Godwits and, uh, I can't really remember what else.

I have a concrete male gargony as well.  You can hear quite well. , does it distant bittern.  There's plenty of cuckoo and common snipe. And I think there's distant thrush nightingale as well, but, um, it's very nice for great snipe and actually black tail God, but it's not a species you hear very much anymore on display,  so I'll play it for you now.



 It's quite amazing, isn't it? You must've been delighted with yourself just sitting there listening to that. Yeah, yeah. That was lovely. At first, I thought I tried to record just the great snipes,  but then it was so much noise. I was first annoyed, but then later I realized that this is much better. 

 There's just so much going on. It's it's absolutely incredible. But the snipe overhead, the great snipe is it's it's absolutely bonkers. Yeah. Lovely. I, I can really recommend going there because you have a lot birds in a small area. It's called Nemunas Delta.  Uh, it's close to,  the Southern border of Lithuania and, and you have all the Clidonia's terns there and  yellow bitterns and stuff.

I heard cattle, I heard cattle in the recording. Is it managed with cattle or? Yes. Yes. This area is protected. So I think they're just keeping, um, the,  I call the, the small bushes away. Yeah. Just to keep the vegetation down, just to keep the wetland open. Keeping it open. Yeah.  And, uh, did you get white winged black tailed mini there?

Yes, you get white winged and, and whiskered and also black. So you have all three of them actually. Yeah. I think it's safe to say after listening to your recordings, that a trip to the Baltics is definitely on the cards.  Sounds absolutely incredible. Be a fantastic road trip. I think we went up to maybe late May on June. 

It'd be a great recording trip, I would say. Yeah. That's perfect. Yeah. Yeah.  And you have all the woodpeckers and black stork and stuff as well. Yeah. And plenty of white stork Yeah. Yeah. Too much. Yeah. Almost. Yeah. It's nice for a while. Just getting the recordings of the drumming bills and all that kind of thing.

And then, then you realize they're very, very common. Yeah.  I suppose it's a bit like Poland there is when I went to Poland, I was really struck by the amount of biodiversity there, you know, everything is. As it should be, you know, very high densities of bird populations in places. Yes. It's, it's very rural still.

So you can see even carriages with oxen and such where it feels like you're going back in time a bit.  Yeah. I think it's good for the borers. Not too much pesticide. It is. Yeah.  Well, that's about it. All that remains is for me to say, thank you very, very much for coming on to wild bird acoustics. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the recordings are absolutely incredible.

I think everybody will have enjoyed them here. Oh, thank you so much. It's been fun, fun,  chatting with you, uh, and, uh, making a few of my recordings public. So I hope it inspires others to go out and record some good stuff. No, I think so. I think it definitely will. , I wouldn't be surprised if a few borders already planning trips to Sweden and  maybe the Baltic States as well.

So once again, thanks very much for coming on and we'll have to meet up at some stage in the field. I don't know how we've avoided you there for so long. Yeah. Yeah. We'll catch up for sure. Thank you and continue your good work with the pods. I think everyone is very interested in hearing more of this.

Yeah, it's nice to get good feedback and it's nice to hear people are actually listening to it. So once again, Teet Sirotkin. Thanks for coming on to the podcast. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Bye. 

  📍  So that was Teet Sirotkin here at Wild Bird Acoustics. I just want to thank Teet once again for coming on and sharing some absolutely incredible recordings.  I think it's very inspiring to hear recordings like that. He's been recording now for a long time and it's so generous of him to come onto the podcast and share in such a manner.

 Now after I finished the podcast interview, I sat around and talked to Teet for a while and it was very apparent to me that, Teet is very enthusiastic. And another thing that struck me is that field recording is not the same for everybody.  He wants to understand what he's hearing in the field. It makes him a better birder and it's very refreshing to hear how field recording practices are different from person to person.

 And it just struck me. If you get into the field recording as a border, you may go in different directions. Some people might want to record soundscapes. They might want to be superb technicians, record perfect soundscapes. Others might want to delve into recordings of migrant birds, just get at nuances of separating species.

But there's so much there for everybody,  I believe it's an absolutely wonderful way to.  Basically increase your knowledge in birds. It will make you a better birder if that's what you want to do. If you want to just sit out and enjoy birds, enjoy the sounds, it'll do that for you too. And.  I just think it's a remarkable way to spend a morning or an afternoon.

Just get out into the field, do a bit of field recording, and then you can take from the recordings what you will. So once again, that's all from me. Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics. I hope you have enjoyed this interview Once again, huge thank yous to Teet Sirotkin, and you're an absolute legend, a wonderful man, and it's been fantastic to talk to you.

 We will see again folks here at Wild Bird Acoustics. As always, 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.

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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.