Dawn Chorus Recording by Marc Hoffman
One of my favorite wonders of nature is the dawn chorus: a gradual crescendo of bird song that begins an hour or so before sunrise. With special permission, I entered Earth Sanctuary at 4:30 a.m. on May 31st, 2007 to record this phenomenon. The recording begins about 20 minutes into the dawn chorus and lasts 54 minutes. Click here to listen (streaming MP3) here to download the MP3.
WHY THE DAWN CHORUS?
The reason birds sing at this time of day is not known for certain. It is a time when they are awake but perhaps not yet ready to find food. It is the males who sing, probably to declare their territory and attract potential mates. The stillness of the early morning air helps their songs to travel better than later in the day. Singing during these lowlight hours helps the birds avoid being seen by predators.
SEQUENCE OF SONG
If you listen closely, you will notice the different bird songs enter sequentially. From day to day, the order of species singing is the same. Research suggests the first twitters are from those birds with the best low-light vision.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
This recording was made using a homemade 24″ fiberglass parabolic reflector to concentrate and amplify the sound into a stereo condensor microphone (Audio Technica AT822). The signal was recorded onto a Sony PCM-M1 portable digital audio tape (DAT) recorder. The recording was then digitally edited using Adobe Audition 1.5 software to optimize the signal level, remove a few short passages of severe road traffic noise, and create an MP3 file for web streaming (compression: MP3 Pro, 96kbps).
Marc Hoffman is a nature enthusiast, bird photographer, and musician who resides in Kirkland, Washington. He operates Poison Dart Frog Media (http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/), a company specializing in Flash interactive web animation. Marc welcomes you to contact him via email at marc@dartfrogmedia.com.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Thank you for posting these beautiful sounds. What a gift to hear these songs.
December 14th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Thank you very much for this wonderful recording – it was just what I was looking for and will help me (in a relaxing way) immeasurably.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:02 am
Though I live in the east (explains why I initially didn’t recognize several calls), I am so grateful today to be able to listen to your recording. What a great time of year (and Earth Day to boot)!
June 16th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Thank you so much for giving visiters an opportunity to listen to natures chorus. Given that I don’t live with much nature around me, being able to listen to your download, allows me to be surrounded by the sounds of nature as I engaged with writing or any other time when I could use the nurtureing sounds of nature.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
August 13th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Hello, namasté and thanks for this beautifull registration of one of natures oldest compositions….
I here frequently the sound as from a big animal and some times a traffic noice and an aeroplane ..? Is that wright ore are this also nature sounds and wich then ? As musician I am verry interested in all kind of sounds. It seems me great to use this trac as an improvisationskill…..
With love
Petrus Jopra