Microphones in the Moss; The Tyresta Files #2

March in Sweden is a period when resident species begin to become active after a long winter here in Sweden and woodland habitats begin to ring with the sounds of singing birds once again. In 2025 I visited Tyresta National Park throughout the early Spring period in order to record these resident species, before the return of summer migrants. I was interested in recording the soundscape within woodland before it became saturated with the song of a wider range of species. In effect, the sound of woodland in early spring is rather pure and it is an excellent time to obtain high quality recording of several special species, such as Black Woodpecker and Red Crossbill. I found a wonderful soundscape to record within the park, as I traversed this massive tract of woodland in search of birds. The results of this intensive sound recording project were quite wonderful and surpassed my own expectations. In this episode, I share recordings from that early spring period, just before most migrants return to Sweden. 

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 welcome everybody to another episode here at Wild Bird Acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton,

it's wonderful to be back, and we have a wonderful long sound magazine for you again here today. And this time we're gonna be delving back into the wonderful world of National Park now during the early spring period, as you will now be aware, I had an absolutely incredible time roaming around tears National Park, right through the months of March and April.

It was avoided discovery in many ways, woodland is a quite incredible habitat, especially here in Sweden and Pearson National Park is absolutely vast, and I think that's what makes it really, really special. You know, you never know what you're gonna get around the corner. There was large areas i'd simply never explored before,

There's so many different habitats and micro habitats there. Conifers, forest, Scots, pine forest. Then you have desiduous stands, various types of trees. There's freshwater streams, small brooks, huge freshwater lakes.

And it just goes on and on. And because the place is so big, you can hike for days in there and get completely lost in it. And that's pretty much what I did for a couple of months. Now, the result was a massive amount of audio.

I ended up with just tons of audio and that is what has basically put together these istic files.

I'm gonna give you the second one today. It's a long sound magazine. Once again, I really hope you enjoy these. I think they're very atmospheric recordings, lots of wonderful species, and I think we will just crack on with that now and get straight into it.

Enjoy this, folks. This is the second installment of the Tier National Park files. Have a listen. I.

 And now welcome everybody to another sound magazine here at Wild Bird Acoustics. And we are back in tourist, the National Park in the second installment of the Tourist Files. I'm gonna be taking you through some March audio from the site, and it's a wonderful time to be in the glorious woodland realm here in Sweden.

And early on the morning of the 9th of March, 2025, I arrived to find a wonderful scene of a squabbling, great spotted woodpeckers. I'm gonna play that recording for you now. A wonderful recording just to kick things off.

Now quite wonderful scene recorded with the Tinga Pablo Pbla quite close to the area where I found Black Woodpecker nesting. And very close to that. Also, I found this singing Goldfinch, which isn't a very regular species in the interior of the park, so I was quite happy to get this. This is a singing goldfinch, and in the background there's a little bit of nut hatch here, as well as a few other species, notably singing Goldcrest.

Have a listen. This is Goldfinch.

Now these early days in the park, I was still trying to find my way around trying to locate certain species, and I spent quite a bit of time quite near a stream which connects two of the lakes, lake Floden being one of them. And Lake Floden turned out to be an excellent area for birds. I spent a lot of time there and deployed some SM minis, but at MLS strumming on the 9th of March, 2025, I located a gray wagtail.

Quite a rare species in Sweden. Just a few go through on passage and quite a good bird at Thta National Park. Now the first recording I'm gonna give you of Gray Wagtail is a bird just passing by upstream giving the flight call as it went by. Have a listen to this folks. This is Gray Wagtail at Gamal Strum.

Strumm into the National Park.

So quite a short recording there and quite often typically I just try and grab a recording when I find something good just to get a record of the species. But this bird did settle down and I was able to get a better, longer recording, which I'll play for you now. The bird was an adult female and it was just fitting along the edge of the stream as they typically do now.

Gray Wagtail call is noticeably higher pitched in that of white whitetail, and it's very, very distinctive once you get your ear in on the call. Now I'm gonna play it for you now, a slightly longer recording of Gray Wagtail just fitting along a stream edge at Gammel Stoneman.

Now the reason that I was at Camel Strum was searching for a target species and that species is white Throated dipper. Now Dipper has given me the run around for several years. It's not that I haven't been able to find birds, it's just that I haven't been able to find birds in streams where there's quite a gentle flow and that a nearby area called ne forests.

There's a very, very strong current, and whenever I tried to record these birds in song or even calling, it was completely drowned out by the noise of the rapids, the heavily flowing waters of the stream there. So I was absolutely delighted when I arrived on the 9th of March and found a male dipper. I presume it was a male.

I'm not sure if females actually sing, but here was a bird singing quietly in a fairly gentle flow, and I was able to grab my first ever decent recording of a singing white throated dipper. I'll play the initial recording now taken with a Tinga parabola.

Now this board has moved around quite a bit and on occasion it was calling, so I was also able to get a nice recording finally of the call of the species, which is very, very distinctive. So I'll play that quickly for you now. This is the call of white Throated Dipper just moving around in the stream at Gammel Strum.

Now I spent a bit of time watching this bird and I soon realized the bird was returning to a few purchase to sing at kind of habitually. And what I decided to do was put down a drop break. So down went a couple of uc, micro bro mics. Fantastic little lav mics with my Zoom F six recorder. And I just sat back and waited.

It's quite incredible this recording. I was absolutely over the moon with this. Eventually, after about 20 minutes, the bird flew in and began to sing right beside my microphones. Now if you listen carefully, there's a wonderful moment. This where the bird actually picks up my lab mic. It does it twice, but this is a wonderful close range recording.

Pretty much a point blank range of a singing white throated dipper, and I was absolutely delighted to get a target species like this so early in the campaign at tier, the National Park, a wonderful recording of a white throated dipper.

Now on the same morning, I was doing very, very well. At this point, I just relaxed and sat down beside a blackboard that was giving a little bit of song beside a lake floating and decided to record the bird with the parabola. Now in the background here, you can hear Robin singing as well as wood pigeon drumming.

Great spot of the woodpecker, as always, at this hum of year in the background. But listen carefully near the end also for the calls of Hoff Inch. A nice recording here of a singing blackbird.

An incredible recording. Next, I'd just arrived on the 15th of March, 2025 at the park. I was beside Lake Floden and there was an incredible scene of drumming, great spotted woodpeckers and half inches, and I stopped to record that. I'm going to play you a form in recording now. There's lots of birds here, wood pigeon.

Wonderful, wonderful drumming, great spotted woodpecker. Action here. Half inch calling constantly in the woods, there's the clea call of a black woodpecker. There's blackbird nut hatch calling hooded crow, various tits. There's a J in here mimicking a common buzzard as well. Something to list now for, but the magical moment in this recording comes just at about two minutes, 45 seconds.

I was just standing there recording, minding my own business, and I heard a disturbance, and you can hear that in the recording. Just a leaf litter, something trotting through the woods. And it was a small group of wild boar, four animals, all females I think. And they approached quite closely. And when they realized I was there, they stopped dead in their tracks.

One of the animals gives a little snort and they just barrel off into the forest. It was an absolutely magical moment. And things like this happen quite often when you're out field recording. And I'll never forget this moment. I don't see wild boar very often. They're very, very secretive, and this was truly a bit special.

I'll play it recording now. This is drumming great spotted woodpeckers and wild boar and nut hatch at National Park on the 15th of March, 2025.

Now the 15th of March was a wonderful morning. I'm going to play you with some wonderful calls here. The excitement calls of Black Woodpecker. I came across three birds just moving through the forest and they were interacting with each other, giving high excitement type calls. Towards the end. There's no hatch as well, but listen to the excitement calls here of Black Woodpecker.

Now these three birds put on quite a show. I've got another recording, some more excitement calls here. Another wonderful recording in the background is Green Finch Nut Hatch, hooded Crow calling blue tip and wood pigeon. But again, it's the excitement calls of black woodpecker. I was delighted to get these recordings.

Have a listen.

Another recording now of black woodpecker. This time the contact calls the clay calls of the species. In the background. Here you can hear drumming, grade spotted woodpecker. Also a bit of chatter from the same species. Later in the recording, there's cult. It's feeding in the background and a bit of chatter from Robin.

But again, it's the Clea Halls here of Black Woodpecker. Another wonderful, wonderful recording of one of my favorite species. This is Black woodpecker.

Now by this stage, I was starting to get to know my study area fairly well. I'm going to take you back to the Birchgrove now. For a wonderful recording, I'd left down a couple of SM mini recorders, and I collected one of them on the 15th of March and got this wonderful, wonderful recording of common buzzard.

The area is quite well cleared of trees. There's some open areas that the birds can move around in, and this time of the year, the birds are returning to Sweden and displaying. This is an absolutely wonderful recording of common buzzard in the Birch Grove early in the morning. And it's a wonderful, wonderful recording.

Have a listen. This is common buzzard in display.

Uh.

Now this recording really opened my eyes up to the possibilities of the SM Mini. You can hear excitement calls in the background there of Red Cross Bill Drumming Great spotted woodpeckers singing Black Bird does Siskin in the background. Such a natural scene and an incredible audio series of common buzzard just above the recorder.

And. It was something that just spurred me on to actually make several deployments in the forest with SM minis, and there will be a lot more of that audio later on in the series, but a quite wonderful recording. I think you'll agree. Next up, Eurasian JI recorded these with the Tinga Pbla, just a group moving through the trees and some wonderful, wonderful sounds here.

In the background, there's all kinds of things going on. Chaffing gold CREs singing stock, dove giving song, gra lag goose. Towards the end is Canada Goose trumpeting as well, and also the alarm of song thrush. But your Agent J are the species that will feature very much more in the series at tears to National Park.

A wonderful species, fantastic birds, incredibly intelligent and. A lot more to con the species, but for now, have a listen to this. It's a wonderful scene of a group of Eurasian Jay, just moving through the forest, getting some wonderful, wonderful calls.

Eurasian Jay gives some very strange calls. A very short recording now of some odd calls from this species. I'll play it quickly for you now. This is Eurasian Jay.

Another very short grab. Now, Ian Jay, again, a very odd call, not cleanest recording in the world, but very, very interesting. Have a listen. Again, this is your agent, Jay.

Now I am gonna play a nice audio now of crested tit. I found this bird quite close to the birchgrove, giving a little bit of chatter, just calling away, and then it gives some very, very interesting calls. I'm gonna play it for you now as I say, but there's a lovely backdrop here, this Raven overhead, northern Raven, as well as chaffing some great hit and also some bulling towards the end.

A lovely recording here of Crested hit, just moving around overhead in the trees. Have a listen.

Next up a little bit of audio of Eurasian nut Hatch. It's an incredible species. Vocally, they have such a range. And in this recording, there's a lovely backdrop here, just this soothing call. It's the song of Wood Pigeon. Anders and great spotted woodpecker, just tapping away in the background song crush starting to return, and also great tit, but this is Eurasian nut Hu.

Now the 15th of March was the fifth morning. I had taken a walk through the park, and by that point I was really trying to get back to the park as often as possible, and I found it with time, you know, I was really getting to know my study area. So for example, I knew when I walked around a certain band, it would probably be a singing gold crest or something like that, and I got to know all of these birds so very, very well.

I recorded many of them multiple times, and the more I visited, the more I actually got to know the area. Eventually I got off the beaten track down to some small hiking trails. I found more and more boards discovered the more and more areas and the soundscapes were quite incredible. It was difficult to work, to be honest, during the week, 'cause I found I was just waiting to get back to the park.

At the weekends, and it was incredibly relaxing to be there. It was so quiet in the mornings. So initially the project I had in mind was penciled in for just a month of March, but it didn't take me long to realize I was gonna keep going with this. And I decided to go right through April, and that may sound like an easy decision, but I do like to get out looking for passage migrants in April.

But honestly, it was so nice to be in the park. I just decided that. It was something I needed to do and the results were absolutely incredible. Now the next recording is of Common Goose under, and it's typical of the park. You never know what you're gonna find in any given morning, and I arrived on the morning of the 15th of March to find this wonderful group of birds intensively displaying three males and the female.

And the background was quite incredible. Displaying buzzard, drawing, great bottled woodpecker. Blue hit Hooded Crow and also a J Mo King Northern Goshawk. More of that in the future. I'll come back to it later in the series, but this is an absolutely wonderful recording, the Wonderful Sound of Common Goose under in full display at Tears, the National Park.

Okay.

Next base short recording of Eurasian Nut Hatch, calling a wonderful species. And in the background, again, just a wonderful backdrop. Distant fly calls of Black woodpecker half inch calling great spotted woodpecker drumming and calling Zoso Jay here in the background and a brief green woodpecker. Have a listen.

Now, one of my early target species was Red Cross Bill. I was quite successful in locating a couple of territories early in the spring, and this resulted in some wonderful audio. Now, first up, I'm gonna play you a nice recording of Red Cross Bill giving excitement calls, which I found on territory, and it's quite a nice short recording.

I'll play it for you now. This is the exciting calls of Red Cross Bill, as well as some regular flight calls.

Now what I was really after was the Song of Red Cross Bill. And I succeeded first on the 15th of March and got some wonderful recordings of these species. I'm gonna play you one now. I was delighted to get this. This is Red Cross built in song in a small area of forest, quite close to camels from month, probably about 200 meters away from the stream.

Have listened to this folks.

Red Cross Bill was a species that gave me such a lot of trouble. They're very, very flighty and several times I closed in on a singing male only to find the bird would take flight. So on the 15th of March, 2025. I found this bird singing and I just held back for a while. Took my time. It was quite windy. I think it actually helped and I managed to get very, very close to the bird.

The wind, the ambience is quite nice and recording, but the wind does die down. It does rise. But eventually I got this wonderful recording of a Red Cross bill, an adult male in full song. I was delighted this, this is one of my main target species for the early part of the spring. And I'm just gonna play the recording now.

This is the song of Red Cross Build at National Park.

So there you go folks. That's the tier to files. Episode two. I hope you have enjoyed it. It's been quite incredible just to experience Woodland over the course of the spring 2025. As always, folks, thank you for listening to me here at Wild Bird Acoustics. We'll see you again in a couple of weeks.



 So there you go. And I do hope you have enjoyed that sound magazine folks. It has been wonderful to put these together, over the last couple of months. And it's been amazing just to see them take shape and there's quite a few more to come from tiers, the national park.

Now before I go, a quick call to action to listeners do consider leaving a review on your podcast site, whether that be Spotify or Apple Podcasts. That would help greatly

it just raises the profile of the podcast here at Wild Bird Acoustics. Likewise, spread the word. Just let a few friends know about it, and that's all I can ask for. I'm actually recording this episode in October, late October of 2025, so it won't be going out until February of next year.

So I'm a little behind here and I've no idea how the podcast will be going at this stage, but I do hope it's on an upward trajectory. with that said, it's been absolutely wonderful to have such a loyal listenership. I reckon there's about 260, 270 people listening to the podcast on a regular basis, and that is absolutely fantastic.

I don't want the episode to drag on for too long, so I'm gonna love you and leave you.

And as always, we'll see you again in a couple of weeks folks. Thanks for tuning in to listen to me here at Wild Bird Acoustics. We'll see you again soon. Take it easy. Take.

 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.

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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.