17/5/2020
Recorded at 4.45am this morning, just off the path along the Curragheen River between Model Farm Road and the Lee Fields. I’ve been to the same spot a few times over the last couple of days and wanted to get a nice recording of the Song Thrush. I placed my microphone on a rock pointing towards the bird’s favourite perch at the top of a tall tree. It was dark and while I was fumbling about I missed the start of his song. You can also hear some revellers still out from the previous night, I think they’re quite musical too! As the dawn chorus progresses it gets pretty raucous with plenty of crows, and also blackbirds, robins and wrens. The recording fades out just before the point where my recorder’s batteries run out. The image is of the flowers on a Hawthorne tree nearby (taken a couple of days previously).
I’ve been doing a lot of field-recording during the lockdown, trying to get nicer recordings. I don’t really know what I’m going to do with them all. It’s just nice to be sitting outside listening, and exciting to cycle around looking for things to record! It seems an interesting idea to combine long form recordings like this one with an image taken in the area, to give a little window into the recording, and so combined they can work as an audio-visual background. I might try to get more images next time to paint a fuller picture (it’s not all picturesque, there’s also lots of cans and rubbish around, and places where people have been lighting fires).
Benjamin Burns 