Nature Is My Jam

I would like to thank everyone that has donated or otherwise supported Nature is my Jam by liking, following, sharing and/or subscribing to the podcast. Your support goes directly to creating future episodes and allows this podcast to be ad-free and 100% listener supported. Your kindness means the world to me and I hope you might feel inspired to explore the natural areas where you live.

Welcome to the 16th episode of the Nature is my Jam Podcast. As this episode gets published, we are closing in on 1000 downloads! As a podcasting metric, I’m not entirely sure what that means, but as a personal metric, it means the world to me. When I came up with this crazy idea to have a non-speaking podcast, I can’t say that I thought it would be more than a personal sound journal. Imagine my surprise when my friends, family and complete strangers welcomed this tiny podcast into their lives to immerse themselves in a few minutes of nature every week!!

Diving into creating this podcast became a passion project and something I desperately needed to occupy my time after losing my job in a career spanning 25 years in cybersecurity. This space and time to nurture my creative side is exactly the focus I needed after leaving the corporate world. My wife, Rhonda, never hesitated and encouraged me to take this time to heal and define my next chapter. I owe her a debt of gratitude and love for allowing me this space. Thank you, Rhonda! ❤️

Okay, you didn’t come here for a life update. Let’s get to the good stuff! Hello from the Crisp Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior. We are in the upper peninsula of Michigan to spend a week exploring and recording. This recording features the waves of Lake Superior as they collide with an old pier left over from the heyday of this amazing lighthouse. As I walked down the beach, I kept hearing a “tink think” sound rise from the waves. I looked around and discovered the pier/piling had a bolt sticking through with a large washer getting moved around by the water. Once I heard it, I became slightly obsessed with it and setup my recorder.

This sound reminds me of a singing bowl used during meditation. That crisp, clear bell and the calming sounds of the waves. Yes, the water is interacting with a manmade object, but this is nature negotiating and interacting with the pier that was placed in its path decades ago. Listen to this with headphones and let the cling of the washer bring you back to center as you breathe. Or, just listen to a cool sound on Lake Superior. : )

As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks again for your continued support!

Recording Summary:

• Date and Time: 9/13/2022 | 1:15 PM
• Location: Luce County, Michigan, USA
• Landscape/Feature: Crisp Point Lighthouse | Lake Superior
• Conditions: Mid-day, Sunny, Light Breeze, Clear Skies, Mild Temps
• Recording Device: Zoom F6 Field Recorder
• Microphone(s): Audio Technica BP 4025
• Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.

Quick Note: I am on my way to Houston, Texas to help a friend pick up his new overlanding trailer. Our annual camping trip had to be postponed, so we used the time to make a road trip from Michigan to Texas. I’m taking my camera and a recorder, but I’m guessing that chances will be slim that I will have time to do any recording. Fingers crossed.

Welcome to the 11th episode of the Nature is my Jam Podcast! We are still at the Peterson Road Beach at Sleeping Bear Dunes and revisiting the gentle waves from last week. I received a lot of great feedback for that episode and thought it would be fun to listen to the waves from a different perspective; the seismic activity of the waves recorded from beneath the sand on the beach.

While I was recording the normal wave activity last week, I had the Zoom F3 paired with the Lom Geofón to record seismic activity. The Geofón is hand built in Slovenia by a cool group of field recordists and engineers. Getting one of their microphones is an effort as they don’t build many and the demand is very high. They will announce when an item is planned to be in inventory and then it is a mad dash to get your order confirmed before they sell out. There is a reason their gear is in such demand! Their version of the geophone is an omnidirectional microphone that has been adjusted specifically for field recording. For this session, I used the spike adapter so I could easily capture the sound from beneath the ground.

This recording is around 25 minutes and very different from what one might consider a natural soundscape. I find the sound to be very hypnotic and feel a sense of calm as I listen. This may come across as abstract, but this is the sound I would conjure up in my head if someone asked me to describe the heartbeat of Lake Michigan. Let me know if you agree!! As always, I love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for areas to record. Have a great week!

Recording Summary:

• Date and Time: 8/9/2022 | 9:15 PM
• Location: Benzie County, Michigan, USA
• Landscape/Feature: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore | Peterson Road Beach
• Conditions: Sunny, Warm, Gentle Wind
• Recording Device: Zoom F3
• Microphone(s): Lom Geofón
• Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.

I would like to thank everyone that has donated or otherwise supported Nature is my Jam by liking, following, sharing and/or subscribing to the podcast. Your support goes directly to creating future episodes and allows this podcast to be ad-free and 100% listener supported. Your kindness means the world to me and I hope you might feel inspired to explore the natural areas where you live.

Welcome to the 15th episode of the Nature is my Jam Podcast. When this episode gets published, I will be in the upper peninsula of Michigan to observe and record the fall bird migration. The Crisp Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior is also on my list of places to visit. This will be a solo camping trip and, as usual, I am going to bring too much gear and not have enough time to visit all the sites I have on my list. Of course, that is the beauty of life in northern Michigan. There will always be an adventure to be had, no matter the day or season.

We are still at the Lighthouse West Natural Area in Leelanau County but have moved from the beach to an open meadow. Please note that I covered the area in last week’s episode so won’t repeat that information here. This meadow used to be part of a farm and still have a few apple trees mingling with the fresh growth that is quickly reclaiming the old farmland. This was another overnight recording, with Barred Owls making their presence known and a pack of coyotes making a ruckus several times throughout the night. We can also hear deer running through the brush and even sniffing the recording equipment.

You may wish to use headphones for this episode to get the full experience of being there. A few sounds are subtle and some distance away from the recording gear. Microphone placement can sometimes be a roll of the dice, and that is clear in this recording. I think if I had moved the microphone to the other side of the meadow that we would have those owls all up in our business. However, the owls are very present and I think the deer were happy that the Coyotes were in a different field.

This part of Leelanau County is fairly remote, but still has a lot of activity during the day, so night recordings work best. I sometimes wonder if I should have started a podcast devoted to air travel because I have hours of planes making their presence known at all times of the day.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks again for your continued support!

Recording Summary:

• Date and Time: 9/6/2022 | 4:45 AM
• Location: Leelanau County, Michigan, USA
• Landscape/Feature: Lighthouse West Natural Area | Lake Michigan
• Conditions: Night, Light Breeze, Clear Skies, Mild Temps
• Recording Device: Zoom F6 Field Recorder
• Microphone(s): Audio Technica BP 4025
• Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.

I would like to thank everyone that has donated or otherwise supported Nature is my Jam by liking, following, sharing and/or subscribing to the podcast. Your support goes directly to creating future episodes and allows this podcast to be ad-free and 100% listener supported. Your kindness means the world to me and I hope you might feel inspired to explore the natural areas where you live.

Welcome to the 12th episode of the Nature is my Jam Podcast! This week we are taking in the hiking trails and beautiful geography of the Old Mission Point Park, on Old Mission Peninsula. The major attraction in this area, aside from the many wineries, is the Old Mission Point Lighthouse, which began service in 1870. My mantra for this area is, ‘come for the lighthouse, stay for the trails’. The hiking really is perfect, approachable for all fitness levels, and never crowded.

My goal for this recording was to capture the nocturnal calls of the Barred Owl. I was successful in recording their distinctive sound, but my microphone placement could have been better. Next time! This recording is very reminiscent of a typical Northern Michigan evening. Imagine sitting in front of a campfire, watching the stars and hearing owls in the distance. A bonus in this recording is a pack of coyotes howling and hunting.

This post is light on photos this week because of a corrupt SD card but I took a few with my phone. If you are in the area, then you should definitely treat yourself to a few hours on these trails. The terrain varies and the trail meanders through beautiful meadows, climax forests, deep ravines, and sandy Lake Michigan beaches. The wildlife is plentiful and vocal!

As always, thank you for listening and I appreciate your support.

Recording Summary:

• Date and Time: 8/23/2022 | 5:00 AM
• Location: Grand Traverse County, Michigan, USA
• Landscape/Feature: Old Mission Peninsula, Mission Point Hiking Trail
• Conditions: Night, Light Breeze, Clear Skies, Mild Temps
• Recording Device: Zoom F3
• Microphone(s): Audio Technica BP 4025
• Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.

I would like to thank everyone that has donated or otherwise supported Nature is my Jam by liking, following, sharing and/or subscribing to the podcast. Your support goes directly to creating future episodes and allows this podcast to be ad-free and 100% listener supported. Your kindness means the world to me and I hope you might feel inspired to explore the natural areas where you live.

What does one do when visiting Mexico on a family vacation? If you’re me, then I suspect you would beg for a few hours to record sounds and promise to be back before the rest of the family noticed you were missing. And if you’re still me, you decide to leave the resort property and hike into the jungle telling no one, including security, where you were going, but that’s a different story for a different day.

Welcome to episode 22 of the Nature is my Jam podcast! As always, I’m happy to see you again. This week, we are in a small jungle area a few miles outside of the resort where we were staying on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The resorts in Mexico are stunningly beautiful and cater to your every need, but are a horrible place for trying to record nature sounds. Knowing I could not get a clean recording at the resort, I plotted a course to a nearby Cenote that would take me through a couple of small towns and into a more secluded area of the surrounding jungle.

Have I mentioned it was hot and humid? I mean, it was HOT and HUMID. As the sweat soaked my clothes and the sun did its best to bleach what’s left of my hair, I suddenly became okay with, “I’ll just keep going until I see or hear something cool.” I watched Iguanas sunbathing and the cutest rodent I’ve ever seen scurry into the undergrowth as I approached. The animal I later learned is called an Agouti. I have no pictures but they look kind of like a short-haired Guinea Pig to me. The highlight, however, was getting to a Spider Monkey casually stroll past me as I contemplated the ethics of trying to take it home with me.

Okay, Wassom, six paragraphs in and we still don’t know what you recorded this week. Well, let’s get to it then! I found a small section of jungle where I could hear birds and other wildlife scurrying through the underbrush (is it called underbrush in a jungle?). I recorded for two hours and got some amazing sounds, albeit with a bit of background noise from another resort and what sounds like maybe some construction. I could only identify a Great-Tailed Grackle, Great Kisadee and a Hooded Oriole by sight. Not sure if their sounds are in this recording, though. I heard a member of the Dove family as I was editing this episode but didn’t see any. The database in my birding app is sparse for Mexico, so my apologies that I wasn’t able to provide a species list this week.

Recording Summary:

• Date and Time: 10/30/2022 | 11:00 AM
• Location: Playa del Carmen, Mexico
• Landscape/Feature: Small jungle area a few miles from a beach resort
• Conditions: HOT, HUMID with RELENTLESS SUN
• Recording Device: Zoom F3
• Microphone(s): Sonorous Objects SO.1
• Digital Audio Workstation: Adobe Audition

Support the show

Thanks for listening! ❤️ Your support means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter for daily updates.