Digital Download Catalogue — Natural Soundscapes (Section 1)
— Dartmoor

Classified listing

Dartmoor

• River Teign upstream from Teign Gorge, with early spring birds

  5 March 2013
  

  Very peaceful! Gentle babbling of River Teign as it runs through a line of copse between fields as it approaches the so-called Teign Gorge (Drewsteignton, Devon, UK). Bird sounds are mostly robin, with the odd chaffinch, though there's a brief episode with a flock of jackdaws having a flyabout; Near the end we hear blue tit and apparent hints of coal tit and long-tailed tit. — 49'

  
  Recording code: 130305_r1-09

• Remote solitude with skylarks, by Black Ridge Brook on Dartmoor

  20 April 2013

  A peaceful and eerily intense sense of remote solitude here (you can surely almost cut it with a knife!), with the continuous muffled burbling of Black Ridge Brook (next to the hill known as Little Kneeset), heard from near the ground, sheltered from a stiff breeze by a boulder, with the wind gusts blowing all around in the moorland grass and heather. Contrasting with all that stern austerity is the sweetness of the skylarks and occasional distant meadow pipit. — 43'

  
  Recording code: 130420_r1-01+r2-01a

• Remote solitude with skylarks, on Cut Hill, Dartmoor

  20 April 2013

  A brief gem! — A peaceful and eerily intense sense of remote solitude here (you can surely almost cut it with a knife!), on what is reputedly southern England's remotest spot, on the top of Cut Hill, Dartmoor, Devon, UK, with just a little breeze chasing around the peat hags. The sun goes in as the recording starts, so the skylark sounds progressively peter out… — 6'

  
  Recording code: 130420_r2-02

• Remote solitude with skylarks and wind, on Cut Hill, Dartmoor

  6 May 2013

  A peaceful and eerily intense sense of remote solitude here (you can surely almost cut it with a knife!), on what is reputedly southern England's remotest spot, on the top of Cut Hill, Dartmoor, Devon, UK, with fairly stiff breeze chasing around the peat hags. The odd meadow pipit can be heard, and a distant carrion crow. An end-to-end succession of the four recordings made during this session. — 100'

  
  Recording code: 130506_r1-01+02+r2-01+02

• Birds and ambience on in Taw valley on open Dartmoor

  26 May 2013
  

  Peaceful springtime on open Dartmoor (Devon, UK), on lower flank of the Belstone Tors ridge, overlooking a copse in bottom of Taw valley. Distant birds (including occasional cuckoo calls), occasional sheep bleating, the constant distant sound of the River Taw tumbling over boulders in the stream bed — its sound strangely dispersed over the hillside beyond, thanks to a constant echo off all the boulders on that slope. The overall most prominent bird sounds a bit like a blackbird to the 'newbie' (that was me, at that time!), but is really a mistle thrush.

  This recording faces obliquely downstream and across the valley, rather distantly overlooking a valley-bottom copse. — 62'

  
  Recording code: 130526_r1-01

• Birds and ambience on in Taw valley on open Dartmoor (2)

  26 May 2013

  Peaceful springtime on open Dartmoor (Devon, UK), on lower flank of the Belstone Tors ridge, overlooking a copse in bottom of Taw valley. Distant birds (including occasional cuckoo calls), occasional sheep bleating, the constant distant sound of the River Taw tumbling over boulders in the stream bed — its sound strangely dispersed over the hillside beyond, thanks to a constant echo off all the boulders on that slope. The overall most prominent bird sounds a bit like a blackbird to the 'newbie' (that was me, at that time!), but is really a mistle thrush.

  This recording is a very few minutes' walk away in upstream direction at the same height, and facing obliquely upstream and over the valley bottom, with a steep bouldery slope just behind, which has made everything sound closer than in the other recording. — 45'

  
  Recording code: 130526_r2-01

• Evening birdsong by River Teign near Teign Gorge — Blackbirds & Jackdaws

  18 June 2014

  An abundant and exuberant early evening bird chorus, with the River Teign close in the background. Blackbirds, jackdaws and blackcaps especially prominent, but a fair number of others too. — 41'

  
  Recording code: 140618_r1-01

• Evening birdsong by River Teign near Teign Gorge — Jackdaws, Rooks & grazing cattle

  18 June 2014

  Made concurrently with the previous recording here, but with a big emphasis on jackdaws, rooks, and, late in the recording, purposefully munching (not mooing) cattle, getting progressively closer to the recorder. — 36'

  
  Recording code: 140618_r2-01

• Full birds' Dawn Chorus, from high on Hunter's Path, Teign Gorge

  19 June 2014

  One of two concurrent recordings from my first-ever dawn chorus recording session — a full one from pre-dawn to about 6.15 a.m. This is a very expansive and mostly distant soundscape, so mostly quiet to very quiet. — 122'

  
  Recording code: 140619_r1-01+02

• Full birds' Dawn Chorus, from Sharp Tor, near Castle Drogo, Teign Gorge

  19 June 2014

  Made concurrently with the previous recording here, this was from a less high position, which has a much more prominent background sound of the River Teign, and was less distant from many of the birds. After a little lead-in period it starts with very quiet (distant) nightjars. — 113'

  
  Recording code: 140619_r2-02+03

---