Sights and Sounds of Brandywine Park
Please click on the arrow above to hear the symphony of city and sylvan sounds of Brandywine Park, in Wilmington, Delaware. If you have earphones they will enable you to appreciate the full texture of this recording made with an Olympus LS-10 digital recorder, and mixed with Audacity, a free recording and sound editing application.
Brandywine Park is a city park maintained by the state parks administration of Delaware. It runs a mile along the swift Brandywine Creek (though I call it a river) whose muffled rapids you can just make out in the background, interwoven with traffic noises. If you are acquainted with bird calls and other wildlife sounds you may recognize here the versatile mews and chirps and warblings of the Catbird, the clear “chip-willow” call of the Carolina Wren, the chirps and prattle of Robins, the mellifluous virtuosity of the Song Sparrow, the thin, sharp bush call of the Cardinal, the trill and ratta-tat-tat of the Flicker, and the summer castinettes of the Cicadas.
I began my hobby of digital photography capturing small birds in their natural habitat of the park, using first a Nikkor 70-300 zoom lens, and later a prime 300/4 with a 1.4 teleconverter that magnifies the image and gives one the equivalent of a 420mm lens. As I have become more and more interested in video I’ve come to recognize that sound is just as important if not more so in producing compelling interpretations of nature. Humans who have their sight usually let it dominate their consciousness. The complex tapestry of sound all around us is largely ignored. Oh, we do notice sounds that are out of the ordinary; but once identified they soon sink into a well filtered oblivion.
I’ve found that I could not memorize bird songs by listening to recordings, but as I stalked birds trying to get close to them and focused on a singing bird, its song and the image would bond in my memory. So now I can easily tell what avian neighbors are close by without seeing them.
I invite you to view more of my photos showing the rear-round beauty of Brandywine Park. Click on the slideshow icon at the top of the window, sit back, and enjoy the show!
BTW, the podcast for this post is streamed by PodBean.com. Check ’em out!
bird photography, birdsong, Brandywine Park, Delaware, digital recording, nature sounds, Nikkor 300/4, Nikkor AF 70-300, Olympus LS-10, photographing birds, PodBean.com, podcasts, Wilmington
Thank you for this! We live in the hills of southern Ohio and have 4 acres of woods. In the morning, when I open the back door to let our dogs outside, the sound of birds is incredible…It’s like waking up to a natural symphony.
I love taking photos, but the trees and leaves are so thick and tall, I’ve not had much luck with summertime photos… I’ve wondered how to capture the sound, and appreciate the challenge. Now you have done it and shared it with us all. Thank you!
Hi, Janice
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I’ve learned that summer in the zone of broad leafed trees isn’t a good time for taking pictures. The solid green isn’t very interesting, and the birdies hide behind the leaves. On the other hand, it’s a good time for putting a diopter onto the end of a zoom lens and getting closeups of bees, butterflies, and spiders. (See: http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/closeup-diopters.html). I can’t say enough good things about hand held digital recorders. The LS-10 is lovely, but I’ve heard good things about the Zoom H4N, which is multi-channel. And here’s a review article with several more mentioned: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/officeequipment/tp/voicerecord1.htm.
Your bird pictures, and now recordings, are something I truly envy!
For now, both time limitations and cost limitations keep me from trying it for myself, but your pictures really are excellent!