Week 22
Bees, Parc Tredelerch
May 29th, 3.30pm


I spent some time on a hot and humid day trying to get access to the Rhymney River to the east of Cardiff where it meets the A4161 (Newport Road), which eventually led me to Parc Tredelerch. The park is a fairly new green space that has been carved out of a tip. I gained access via a metal footbridge that crosses the Cardiff to Newport railway line, where I encountered a large group of bees gathering between the metal lattice work of the bridge. I recorded the bees, while keeping my distance.

(4:31)


Setup: 2 DPA 4060 lavalier mics in stereo position to Sound Devices 702

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Week 21
Blackbird, Gabalfa
May 23rd, 8.35pm

On a balmy evening, I recorded a blackbird singing from a rooftop in the Maindy/Gabalfa area of Cardiff. In the distance you can hear traffic on the A48 and a dog barking.

(4:30)


Setup: 2 DPA 4060 lavalier mics in stereo position to Sound Devices 702

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Week 20
Beaver dam, Knapdale forest, Argyll, Scotland
May 19th, 9.14am


I’m currently undertaking some research on the Scottish Beaver Trial (which concluded in 2014, but the beavers are still living within the trial site) located in the Knapdale forest in Argyll. While most of my time during a trip to Scotland was spent speaking to people who have been involved in the project, I visited the site one morning. The following recording is from a floating wooden pontoon (see the photograph above) that has been installed to allow visitors to get close to an area that has been dammed by a family of beavers between Dubh Loch & Loch Coille-Bharr (see the photograph below). The water you can hear trickling is moving through the beaver dam, which has now been abandoned by the beavers as they move ever further out from their release location.

(6:31)




Setup: 2 DPA 4060 lavalier mics in stereo position to Sound Devices 702

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Week 19
Cardiff Central Railway Station
May 12th, 1.14pm

A train trip to Bristol gave me the opportunity to slyly record the ambience of Cardiff Central station. The recording starts from outside the main entrance; I then walk to the central concourse and then through the ticket barriers, up a small flight of steps, and onto platform 2. This is recorded binaurally, so it’s best listened to through headphones.

(6:26)


Setup: 2 in-ear Soundman OKM II mics to Sound Devices 702

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Week 18
Heath Park woodland
May 5th, 4.45pm


Having not used it many times, I’m still getting used to my parabolic reflector. These are large dishes that help to amplify distant (especially high frequency) sounds, so many wildlife recordists use them to record bird songs and calls. I tried the reflector on a fairly windless day in a small patch of woodland in Heath Park, and got a quite clean recording of a song thrush doing it’s repetitive song, as well as a few other bird species (and a bee) that come within range.

(5:31)


Setup: 1 DPA 4060 lavalier mic in mono position in a Telinga parabolic reflector to Sound Devices 702