Urban Birder

Sound Recordings

Gilbert's Whistler

Gilbert's Whistler recorded New Years Eve morning at Terrick Terrick National Park, roughly 230km north of Melbourne. Conditions were somewhat windy and not especially conducive to recording.

  • Artist: Paul Jacobson
  • Title: Gilbert's Whistler
  • Length: 3:52 minutes (4.25 MB)
  • Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 153Kbps (VBR)

spiny-cheeked honeyeater NR example

This clip is a after and before comparison of the use of noise reduction on nature sound recordings. While the Izotope RX denoiser plugin is quite effective at eliminating background hiss examining the clip using a sonogram shows that some fine detail in the recording is also lost.

Clarkesdale: Dawn at the Bird Paddock

Dawn at the Bird Paddock - Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary

On the weekend of 3-5th October 2008, the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group held a small gathering of Victorian members at the Clarkesdale Bird Sanctuary near Linton. Located about 40km South West of Ballarat the Sanctuary provided a relatively quite location, with only a small amount of local traffic and only occasional passing jets.

The first evening was very wet, and things didn't look too promising, but I dragged myself out of bed at around 5am, and walked the 6-700m to the recording location in the dark.

This recording captures the sound of the "Bird Paddock" shortly after first light. and you can hear Pallid Cuckoo, Eastern Yellow Robin, Grey Shrike Thrush, Crimson Rosella, and Long Billed Corella, and many other species.

This was the first AWSRG gathering I'd attended and it was an absolute pleasure to meet and talk with some kindred spirits.

The new AWSRG website can be found at http://www.awsrg.org.au

Eungella Honeyeater

Recorded at Gamma State Forest, Near Eungella, Queensland, in fairly windy conditions.

  • Artist: Paul Jacobson
  • Title: Eungella Honeyeater
  • Year: 2008
  • Length: 0:55 minutes (1.42 MB)
  • Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 217Kbps (VBR)

Mount Samaria Dawn Chorus

This is an edit of a 18 minute recording of the dawn chorus at made at the Spring Creek camp ground, in the Mount Samaria State Park. The morning was cold (approx. 0degC) and clear. Birds that can be heard in this recording include Superb Fairywren, Scrub Wren, Eastern Whipbird, Gang Gang Cockatoo and many more....

The recording was made with a pair of AT3032 mics, a diy stereo mic preamp and Sony Minidisc recorder.

After waking to find the power switch on the mic preamp had been bumped when loading into the car and I had to change batteries in freezing cold conditions I decided that a recorder with built-in xlr mic inputs and phantom power was the only sensible way to go....

Bell Miners at Yellingbo

This is one of the first recordings I made. This was madeusing an Audio Technica AT897 shotgun mic and Sony Minidisc recorder on a BOCA bird survey of the Yellingbo Reserve, east of Melbourne.

Black Winged Stilts

Black Winged Stilts recorded at the Western Treatment Plan.

Recorded with AT3032 mounted in a Telinga dish, the file has been cleaned up with a low shelf filter to drop low frequencies by 6dB to reduce traffic and jet rumble.

  • Title: Black Winged Stilts
  • Year: 2008
  • Length: 2:21 minutes (1.69 MB)
  • Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 100Kbps (VBR)