130: Early Spring Morning Beside McArthur Swamp

03/27/23 • 193 min

2 Listeners

This was recorded on a cold morning in early spring beside McArthur swamp in Shasta County, California. Located just south of the rural town of McArthur, the McArthur Swamp provides important habitat for migratory waterfowl and other birds traveling the Pacific Flyway.

The recording starts in the early morning beneath the stars as light just began to build on the eastern horizon, and continues well past sunrise. You will hear numerous bird species including Snow Geese, Greater White Fronted Geese, Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, a variety of ducks, songbirds, and more. Listen for the sudden whoosh of hundreds of Snow Geese taking flight all at once, the gentle splashing of ducks and geese moving around in the water close by, the song of the Marsh Wren, and the wing sounds of ducks flying past. I recommend using headphones for the best listening experience. You will also hear distant sounds of the highway and other man made noise, and of course air traffic, which is unavoidable on a recording of this length at this location or just about anywhere in the state.

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I really hope you enjoy this recording, thank you very much for listening. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sound.

https://soundbynaturepodcast.com/donations/

https://www.patreon.com/soundbynaturepodcast

You can become a monthly supporter at Anchor by clicking the link at the end of this podcast description.

Thank you to my current and past monthly supporters, those of you that have made one time donations, and my supporters on Patreon. I truly appreciate your help!

Questions or comments? Send me a message on Facebook or Instagram, or email me at [email protected]

I really hope you enjoy this recording, thank you very much for listening. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sound.

Previous Episode

Bonus! Sacramento River Bend Area- Afternoon Birdsong On Blue Oak Savannah

This was recorded on a cool spring afternoon at the Sacramento River Bend Area in Tehama County, California. The area is administered by the Bureau of Land Management and is located along a large bend of the Sacramento River in the Sacramento Valley, which is the portion of the Central Valley of California that lies north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

It was my first time visiting the area, and I was hopeful that it would be a good place for sound recording. Though I did bring my recording gear, this visit was really a scouting trip to check out the area and hopefully find some good places to record in the future. It's a beautiful landscape of rolling hills covered in blue oak savannah, with lush riparian habitat along the river and creeks. With the abundance of precipitation we have received this winter, the area was saturated and every possible feature of the landscape that could carry water was doing so. Birds were singing, water was flowing, wildflowers were blooming, fresh green grass was growing, and the oak trees were just beginning to leaf out; it was an absolutely beautiful spring day.

There was an unfortunate amount of air traffic and other noise pollution, but I did manage to get this recording of Western Meadowlarks, Mourning Doves, and other birds in the oak savannah during the afternoon. I look forward to returning soon and trying to capture a dawn chorus, the sound of the river, and the sounds of the many seasonal streams.

Full disclosure- I did have to use a pretty aggressive high pass filter on this recording to remove low frequency noise pollution. Though this was recorded during a short break between passing aircraft, there was still too much noise pollution to make for a pleasant listen, and the filter didn't affect the subject of this recording, which is the birds, so I thought it would be okay. I hope you don't mind.

Next Episode

Bonus! Lesser Goldfinch Singing Beside The Sacramento River

This was recorded on a cool and partly cloudy spring day beside the Sacramento River in the Sacramento River Bend Area, Tehama County, California. I set up the microphone at a small opening in the dense vegetation growing along the muddy bank of the river. The river was running high and swift, which was very nice to see after the past couple years of drought. A Lesser Goldfinch foraged in the willows just to the right of the mic, then stopped to sing its song.