The VisMig Files; Summer Soundscapes from Västerbotten

 I open this episode with another edition of the VisMig Files. Here I run through some of the Spring migration highlights from my main listening station at Landsort. As usual, I have tried to include only the better quality audio files, recorded during the months of March and April of various migrant species, all recorded early in the morning as they made their way north over the island. 

The main feature relates to a midsummer trip to Hällögern, a small island located on the coast of Västerbotten, Northern Sweden. Here is where I unwind each summer, relaxing in the solitude and silence that this wonderful location offers. The island is full of breeding bird species and their calls and songs fill the air, here in the land of midnight sun. In this sound magazine I have put together a particularly relaxing collection of audio, in order for listeners to experience the wonderful sounds of Hällögern for themselves...

Transcript

 You are all very welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and I'll be taking you on a journey into sound.

 Now you're all very welcome once again to Wild Bird acoustics. This is season two. It's episode 12, and it's going out on the 1st of June. And around this time of the year, I am preparing to get up to Västerbotten in Sweden to a small island call Halligan, which I absolutely love to be on a little bit more of that later.

Now first up we're gonna get into the VIS MIG files. I have a lovely sound magazine for you concerning spring migration. Now, spring migration in Sweden is on a much broader front than autumn migration. So typically an autumn gets sways of birds, a large F flux moving through, but in spring, quite often you get less birds.

 Now at my main listening station in Lan Ort, I record right through the night  and typically for the first three hours of light during the day, I don't get huge amount of birds moving through, but I do get some lovely files every year and I still isn't gonna share with you in this Short Sound magazine just as a little kind of taster as we get into the main Sound magazine.

And before I start to waffle a bit too much, let's get straight into it. This is the VIS Files Spring migration at Landsort in Sweden.

 Now  📍 welcome everybody to the VIS MIG Files here at Wild Bird Acoustics in the Short Sound magazine. I'm going to be running through some nice random calls, which are recorded in the spring of 2024 at my main listening station at Hort. Here in Sweden, so a number of nice species here for you. Quite a lot of audio.

Some of 'em are short, some of 'em are a little bit longer, and we'll run through them one by one. It's just kind of, as I say, a random selection and some nice vi here, and a few interesting species. So we'll crack on straight away. This is the Viss MIG Files at Wild Bird Acoustics.

Now the first bit of audio I have for you was recorded on the 9th of April, 2024, and it is Chaffinch going over the recorder and also a nice spring Dunnock. 

And it's a nice bit of spring audio now, quite often in spring, vis mig is on a broader front. You don't get the huge amount of birds you do in the autumn, so it's quite nice to get these nice, clear files. Now in the background here, you can hear some great tit. Just calling. Spring is always a busy time on the islands, but listen carefully first for an overlying chaffing, 

and the very familiar, clear calls of Dunnock on migration,  it's usually a triple or quadruple kind of a whistling call. Very, very distinctive. Have a listen for that here. Now Chaffinch itself can be quite quiet on migration. This one is quite close and you can hear the fly calls very, very well in this recording.

. A very common species around Europe  and I think most of you out there will recognize that straight away. So this is Chaffinch and Dunnock at Landsort in April, 2024.

  

 📍 Now, next up I have a species which you actually get quite a lot of questions about, and that is common goal. Now they're quite difficult sometimes in some places if you're not used to them on Vismig, but I get a lot of them moving through in spring at Lanor, and these VisMig files are quite nice. I'm gonna play a recording now.

In the background is Green Finch, yellow hammer, Great Tit, and Chaffinch. All calling, but the main species here going overhead is common goal on spring migration. Have a listen.

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Now another recording of Common Gull on migration here for you. Just before we move along to the next species  in the background here. You will hear quite a few white wagtail moving through on passage. Also, Blackbird and other species in the background, but quite clear here, the main species flying over is Common Gull.
Have a listen to these calls...

  

 📍 Now next up is Bulfinch one of my favorite species. I absolutely love this call. I've actually played a lot of these calls for you on the podcast to date, but this is a particularly nice recording,  a little bit more unusual on Spring Passage than Autumn passage, and a particularly nice recording 

in the background, you're gonna hear blue tit and yellow hammer distantly in song, but a very clear recording of bullfinch flying over on migration at Landsort on the 12th of March, 2024.

  

 📍 Now, next up, another favorite species of mine, European Golden Plover. This was recorded at six 30 in the morning. On the 4th of April, 2024, the plaintiff calls of European golden plover on VisMig migration. Lovely call list. Will have a listen to that now.

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Now with VisMig migration, Finches are a big feature, and in spring I get quite a few. Moving around on the island that Landsort is difficult to say. How many of them are actually migrating over and how many of them are actually some of the resident birds? But European Goldfinch is one of my favorite calls. Have a listen here.

There's blue tit and gray tit in the background, but the lively kind of. Clicking calls of a goldfinch going over the recorder here, quite unmistakable. Very, very good. Call to learn if we're out watching MIG migration. This is one of the staple species in spring, but especially in autumn when big flocks can move through in certain locations.

Have a listen. This is European Goldfinch

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And that was European Goldfinch. We're gonna stay on that species because that is not the only call they give in flight. You're gonna hear another recording now of Goldfinch going over the recorder. Quite a nice recording. Very, very clear in the background. Again, there is Yellow Hammer and great T, but concentrate on the overlying Goldfinch here.

A different call type. Also often given on active migration.

  

 📍 Now we're gonna stay on Finch species. The next up is Common Linnet, not actually as common as you might think in this part of the world.  They're largely replaced by Twite here in the winter and late autumn. Linnet is fairly local here in Sweden. They don't breed in massive numbers. They're much more common in places like Ireland and England, so always nice to get them on migration.

I'm gonna play a lovely recording now. Some lovely calls when overlying common linnet, or two, probably more than one bird here in the background. You're gonna hear yellow hammer, possibly a distant sky arc. If you have very good herding, see if you can pick that out. But the main species here is Linnet. Have a listen.

  

 📍 Now another recording of common line for you. It's a very variable species vocally, gives a lot of different types of calls. So I thought I'd give you another recording of these species at Landsort late March, 2024. I'll play it for you quickly just now.

  

 📍 Now each spring, the first Wader species I generally get coming through at Landsort in, any kind of numbers, is oyster catcher. I particularly love to hear these in the spring 'cause it just tells you that good things are on the way. This is a particularly nice call,  in this recording, you're gonna hear a small group of oyster catcher moving over the island, giving the typical calls on migration.

Like I say, a fantastic call and one that really cheers me up. This was recorded on the 28th of March, 2024 at Landsort.

  

 📍 Now next up is a species that occurs in phenomenal numbers at Landsort it's a very special species to me and it's Tree Pipit, but I get very few of them in spring. So it's always nice to get a good recording of a spring bird. I'm gonna play a lovely recording now. It's quite a nice, clear recording 

of the call of Tree pivot on spring migration, very distinctive call  now, in my opinion, if you are out there regularly doing a bit of migration watching at any location, this is a call that you simply must learn.

This is Tree Pivot at Landsort in April, 2024. I.

  

 📍 Now next up of species I possibly overlook quite often. I haven't played much audio of the species, even though it's incredibly common here in Sweden. And that is a white, white tail. Little bit of a longer recording here. And in the background you will hear the pink calls of Chaffin, some calls and Song of Green Finch.

There's Eurasian Siskin flying over a little bit later there's a displaying wood pigeon and then later. Just for practice, a bit of golf, I action just a few calls of a bird flying over, but the main species here, I think just jumping around on the roof beside the recorder, are the calls of a white, white tail.

Have a listen.

  

 📍 Now next up is twice. This is a species. I do not get the record very often. I'm always very, very happy to get a good recording of the species, a single bird flying over the recorder here, giving these slightly nasal grating calls of these species. The general fly calls are very similar to common limit, which you've already heard.

What you need to listen for is that nasal kind of call, and you will hear that very clearly in this recording. This is Twite at Landsort in April, 2024. I.

  

 📍 Now on time on our tradition, I've saved the best of the last. This is Ring Ozil. It's a call type I have never recorded before. I've been waiting on this one. I was absolutely delighted to get this recording. In the background here you're gonna hear missile thrush going over with some white wag tail.

Also a Song of Blackbird and quite a few red wing. Moving over on this morning, there was good passage of thrush species and like I say, I was absolutely delighted to hear this Ring U will go through. Now, this is quite similar to the calls of Field Fair. Perhaps just this kind of triple harsh call, typical thrush call, but this is Ring Ringle.

Like I say, absolutely delighted to get this call. It's a rare species. It's quite unusual on Landsort, I get one or two a year maximum, and this is only my second springboard. So like I say, absolutely delighted with this one. This is renewable at Landsort in April, 2024.

  

 📍 So there you go. That just about rounds things up. That's a nice selection of springboards. Just moving over on migration at my main listening station at Landsort here in Sweden. It's a wonderful, wonderful location. I hope this has been very instructive for some of you guys, especially those of you who get out there and listen to birds going over on active.

Migration. My thought process behind putting these sound magazines out is they can serve as kind of an educational body of calls. If you're learning, if you're kind of semi experienced and want to learn some more difficult species that are quite rare in your area, you can do so. Some species here in Sweden are quite common.

Whereas they may be very scarce in other places. So I hope that helps y'all, and I hope if you are just interested in listening or just relaxing to the calls and listening to these sound magazines, you find it enjoyable as well. I absolutely love getting out in the mornings and enjoying all of these calls.

It's fantastic to be on site. All of these actually were taken with a wildlife acoustics SM Mini at my listening station. So these are passive recordings. I wasn't present for any of them. So we go through this audio after the fact and just kind of pull out the better audio files and use them as a reference for my library, which have been building up over the last few years.

And like I say, the idea for the podcast has been over the years. What am I going to do with all these recordings? Shouldn't I use them for something useful? Therefore, just put them into sound magazines, publish them, and I think they can be of great educational use for active birders in the field all over Europe.

Now, once again, all that remains is for me to thank you, the listeners here at Wild Bird Acoustics for listening to this Short Sound magazine. 

That's off me. Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics thanks for listening, folks. I.

So there you go. That's the VisMig files. I hope you enjoyed that. And I'm gonna move straight on to the second sound magazine in just a moment. I just wanna thank the listeners again for just lovely feedback over the last few months. , the podcast is growing very, very steadily. It's been absolutely wonderful to actually realize that when I put it out the second season of the.

 Podcast. Basically what happened was a large amount of people, especially from places like Board forum, where put a little thread on there, I've actually had a huge response as well from Blue Sky. I have a lovely following there, much more engaged than on Twitter. Like I've said before, in previous episodes, I'm probably gonna transfer to Blue Sky pretty much permanently now and delete my Twitter account in the near future. So if you want to follow me, just get on to Blue Sky.

And of course I do actually advertise on places like Facebook as well. So we will see what happens in the future. Like I say, the most important thing is the podcast is growing and getting to the point now where I am actually eligible to add adverts to the podcast, which is, you know, it's a little bit tough for me.

It's very hard to actually refuse the revenue. . It's a first kind of step for a podcaster to get to that kind of 1000 listens in the last 30 days, which is kind of the threshold for being able to add.  Paid advertisement to your podcast. It's not something I really want to do, but it's very hard to turn on the revenue.



I am not crazy for the money. It's one of those things I just want to cover my costs  it takes a little bit of money to actually just host these sites.  You have a Buzz Sprout account, you know, it costs a little bit of money. I use the script that costs a little bit of money, and then I pay a little bit more for a hosting services to do my interviews.

So all of these things add up. So it's nice if I can cover the costs of the podcast in that way  anyway, all small donations from listeners are so much appreciated and thank you very, very much for all of those that have come through already. We'll see what happens in the future.

 Now I'm looking at things like maybe starting a Patreon account, maybe add some bonus materials, some extra episodes, some long soundscapes for Patreon listeners.

But that's for the future. Just right now, I want to just slowly grow the podcast, and for me, it's not about the money. Like I say, it's about you listeners.  I have a very nice listening group now of about 250 regular listeners. I think it's absolutely incredible. I think some of you guys are really enjoying the podcast.

I've got some lovely feedback, like I say, and that's the way I just want to continue it.

For now, I think I'll just dive into the next sale magazine and it concerns a place called Halligan in Västerbotten. And last year I got up there once again in July for several weeks and it was quite incredible. It was the first year I got up there with the new Sennheiser array, the 8020's, and it was wonderful to leave them out, get some lovely long soundscapes , it was so relaxing up. There wasn't a great year for waders. I was up there a little earlier than usual. Passage hadn't really started yet, but I just really enjoyed my time on the island. And as a result, I got this sound magazine put together. This is July in Halligan. It's a wonderful, wonderful place.

 It's so quiet up there . And effectively it's just piece of heaven for a sound recorder. There's so many nice species up there, and the soundscapes are absolutely incredible. I don't wanna waffle too much. Once again, we're just gonna get stuck straight into, this is July on Hoggarn part one.

 Now here we are again at Wild Bird Acoustics and I have a very nice sound magazine for you all the way from Västerbotten in Northern Sweden in this sound magazine. I'm gonna concentrate on the period of early July. I visited the island for the first two weeks of the month and it was quite wonderful just to be up there.

I brought my new Sennheiser array up and I was very keen just to record some nice sounds at that time. In the middle of summer when there's several breeding species on the island now, you're not gonna hear anything terribly rare. You're just gonna hear just the wonderful vocalizations of the various species that breed.

On this tiny island, it's probably about a hundred meters by about 70 meters. So very, very small. But it's excellent for breeding species in the summer, and although it's quite simple in some ways to just record these breeding species, it's very nice just to get a kind of. Audio account of the island and the species that inhabit the area.

Being northern Sweden, of course, it's just very, very quiet and this leaves some wonderful, wonderful recordings. Now we got up there, as I say, for the early part of July, and it was wonderful just to spend 17 days leaving the recorders out for long periods at a time, up to eight hours, and then just going back through the audio and picking out some very nice soundscapes.

Now, in some ways it's been quite difficult to break these down into just favorite bits and pieces as a lot of these recordings are about eight hours long. And what I did was basically I just took out my favorite bits, but I have been listening to these in entirety since July. It's late August, as I actually record this sound magazine, and it's been quite wonderful to have these longer soundscapes just to listen to as I work at the computer.

I find them very, very relaxing and I hope you enjoy these recordings folks. So the first recording I have for you is of a waiter species. It is common green shank. And in the background here you're gonna hear a bit of green finch at the start. The singing Common Chaff Finch in the woodlands. It's Red breasted Merganser, very close to the recorder.
You're gonna hear their soft kind of chuckling grunts. Also in the background, you're gonna hear Black-headed Gull. They're very, very raucous up there. And the calls of common gull adults and begging juveniles. So we'll start off with this. This is one for recording of Common Greenshank at Halligern in Västerbotten.

Now, next up, another whiter species or two from the island, and this is an evening recording. You're gonna hear two waiter species here. First up, you're gonna hear a piping oyster catcher. Just some calls from an Oystercatcher in the evening in the background of some nice blackbird song. A little bit of robin, and again, some common gull.

Calling in the background and then towards the middle part of the recording and towards the end, some nice common sandpipers just giving you a little bit of display. Now, once again, common Sandpiper is very common on the island, several breeding pairs, and it just makes a lovely, lovely recording in the evenings when these birds are just moving around calling.

So we'll have a listen to that now, folks. This is Oystercatcher and Common Sandpiper amongst others at Hallögern in Sweden.

Now, the next species I have for you is a favorite of mine there in the summer. And it's probably one of the sounds of Northern Sweden in the summer, and that is Arctic turn. I've got a wonderful recording for you now of Arctic turn. In the background, you've got Black headed Gull, as always. On the island there's some deep calls of a great black back gull, also near the start, and also some fly by red breasted Mergansers.

We'll have more of them later. But for the moment, this is arty turn and I will return to the species a little bit later. But just for now, I'm gonna play a wonderful recording of some adult Arctic turns. Just give us some wonderful calls on the island in early July.

Now, next up I've got a recording of a mammal species and it's red squirrel and there's red squirrels all over the island in the summer, actually throughout the year. And this year was no exception and it was something I really, really wanted to record. So what you're gonna hear in this recording is a couple of red squirrels just going at it as they chase each other around the trees and it's just such a nice sound in the background.

As usual, blackhead a goal and common goal. There's Red-breasted Mergansers flying by in the background and also the high call of common sandpiper. You will hear here as well as a little bit of looted. But have a listen to this folks. This is a couple of red squirrels just going at it in the trees in the Pines, right around our cabin at Halligan.

Now the next recording is of a very common species. It's a favorite species of mine. It's ush. And this was recorded at midnight. In the background here, you can hear Robin, common goal, a bit of common Sandpiper, but what I absolutely love about this recording is the ambience from the Baltic Sea, just the wave slapping against the coast.

And that's something I already tried to concentrate on this year. Just getting nice ambiences in the background, getting my mics into the right places to get that kind of background noise into the recordings. Now it's very interesting with Song Thrush, they never sound. Same really in two places. They have dialects and hopefully in the future if I get to travel around Sweden a lot more, I will get more of these songs and get to study the wonderful dialects of the species.

It's beautiful, beautiful songster. But for now, this is just a wonderful recording. I was very, very happy with this. So sit back with your headphones. Relax. This is five minutes of song thrush singing at midnight in Northern Sweden.

Now, next up Red breasted Merganser, and I spent a lot of time recording these in July and the birds come in in the evening and they roost in these small rocks around the island. And they're very, very fateful to these roost sites. And it was quite easy to get my recorder quite close to these areas and just leave it out.

Just leave it out for several hours and just come back and get some nice audio of the species. So this is pretty simple. This is red breasted merganser just chuckling away to each other. It's a wonderful recording. As always in the background, there's Black headed Gull, Common Gull. There's some chaffinch, some willow warbler, some mallard.

The main species here, once again, is red breasted Merganser, and I just love these calls. It's a very nice species to record. So this is Red Breasted Merganser at Hallögern.

Now Northern Sweden has several species that are quite a bit special, I suppose, in a breathing sense, and I, I tend to take them for granted sometimes 'cause I'm so used to hearing them when I'm up there. But I do forget, I'm from Ireland and it's quite nice to hear species like this singing. So next up, you've got a singing red wing.

There's a couple of birds here singing One more distantly and one occasionally. Just give them some song. Closer to the recording array, you're gonna hear some, uh, chattering. Feel fair than this as well. Another northern species of Trush. And as always in the background, some black had a goal. This was recorded in the dead of night, in the second week of July.

The birds aren't particularly vocal at that point, so I'll play it for you now. This is a very nice recording of a red wing, just given a little bit of song the second week of July at Hallögern, and we.

Now I am gonna return to Arctic Turn now and I've got another recording of the species. I'm not gonna say too much about it, it's just a very nice recording. Um, I have so much audio of the species and it's so nice just to get high quality recording like this. It's the same. Houses have been absolutely wonderful.

I'll just play it for you now. This is Arctic Turn at had. In July, 2024.

Now folks, I was chasing ambience a little bit in July and it's quite nice to work in a small area like this and just collect audio scenes. And towards the end of my stay, the wind got up a little bit and I collected this lovely bit of audio of just the wind rushing through the trays. A little bit more of high seas noise from the sea and calling common goals.

I won't say too much more about it, I'll just play it for you. This is a nice ambient recording of high seas on the Baltic and common goals. Calling in the background. This was recorded on the 17th of July, 2024. Have a listen folks.

So I am gonna give you a nice evening soundscape. Now it's common sandpipers just calling the high call red breast Merganser insects buzzing. Will a warbler is a redhead calling in here, her gold calling in the background. Common goal once again, and some singing chaffing. I'll play that for you now.

Now folks, I'm gonna leave you this one of my favorite recordings of the entire trip. It was a recording I strived really hard to get, and it's just the beginning of auto migration in many ways for me. And it's Eurasian Curlew. So Eurasian Curlew migrating down the coast of fast button. It's something that I really wanted to try and capture.

I wanted to get the whole ambiance of the scene. I spent so long getting my mics into position and I was really unlucky for the few nights. I, I was sitting out several times and saw parties just migrating down the coast calling, and every time a scene, like I just put my mics in the wrong position. But finally I got the recording I wanted.

I got my mics into position just to take in the ambiance of the Baltic Sea. The wind was up a little bit, it was a southwesterly, and I got this recording and I was absolutely thrilled with this. So this is a lovely recording of a group of Curlew, just my great down the coast of Sweden, and it's absolutely fantastic.

I'm gonna leave with this folks. This is your agent Curlew at Faster Button. The second week of July, 2024.

So there you go. That's Eurasian Curlew. Just migrating down the coast of as button kind of an inkling of what's to come. For me. I just love to hear these birds just moving on the coast. I was, I was sitting out so many nights just, and it's such an incredible sound. Like I say, I am from Ireland. I'm used to in winter.

They're quite a local species here in Sweden and not as easy to record as you might think. So I was absolutely delighted with that recording and I've hope you've enjoyed it. Indeed, I've hope you've enjoyed the entire sound magazine. I'm gonna have plenty more for you from Vassar Button over the next couple of months, and I hope you have enjoyed this for now.

That's off me, Alan Dalton here at Wild Bird Acoustics, and we'll see you next time at the podcast.

Well that speaks to itself really. It's just an incredible place  it's so nice just to be up there recording these kind of sounds.  And it's quite simply a pleasure just to be able to share those soundscapes with you listeners here at Wild Bird Acoustics.

Once again, I wanna thank you all for listening. It's been an absolute pleasure, and we will see you next time at the next episode in a couple of weeks here at Wild Bird Acoustics. As always, episodes will release on the first and 16th of the month. Once again, thanks for listening. That's off me. Just now at Wild Bird Acoustics.

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

Now all feedback is greatly received here at the podcast. And if you'd like to write 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 will 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.