Towards the end of last summer I recorded my windharp at sunset at Scorhill stone circle on Dartmoor. A local artist, Eleanor Tallowin was also visiting the stones with her partner and young daughter. We got talking about the wonderful quality of the light, and their youngster had a go on the harp.
Eleanor has since created a dramatic and atmospheric artwork inspired by our encounter called “Capturing the wind at Scorhill”.
She uses molten wax infused with pigmented colour – “I love working with the molten wax as every piece I create is spontaneous and unique, I can never replicate any painting as I am working with a liquid medium.”
The windharp recordings are equally spontaneous and unique, and with her permission I’ve used her painting as the image for a video and added the sounds that I captured during that same evening.
Archives for March 2025
Herons
Grey herons above the meadows this morning. I very seldom see them flying together. They appeared from upriver, one following the other, and further apart to begin with. There were a couple of loud calls as they came over North Bridge, then they came closer to each other before heading off towards Cotterstock lock.
It didn’t look like one was trying to scare off the other. No obvious belligerence. The nearest heronry is maybe seven miles upstream at Titchmarsh. If they are a pair with eggs I’d expect one of them to be on the nest at all times. But they could be a pair that hasn’t laid yet.
If they’re the foraging partners from different pairs then perhaps they’re not as territorial when far away from their nests? Maybe they even cooperate, or at least tolerate each other? Or they could be first year birds, which don’t mate till the following year. Just thinking aloud…
Silence
This afternoon I walked the old railway line between Stanwick Lakes and Thrapston. It’s a lovely stretch of around 4 miles through rivers and lakes, but at the start there’s horrendous noise pollution from the A45. By the end the same roar is coming from the A14.
The two roads gobble up vast tracts of silence. It’s not till about halfway along the route that neither can be heard. For just a few hundred yards there’s nothing but natural sounds. Bliss! Sad though….
Little grebes at Holme Fen
We went for a walk at Holme Fen yesterday and there was a sound coming from a reed bed I’d not heard before. Loud, bright and ecstatic – a bit like a female cuckoo, but they won’t arrive for another month or so.
Turns out it was a Little Grebe. The thought of recording it got me out of bed to drive there at 4.30 this morning. Here’s a rough edit, with the video picture showing my parabolic microphone balanced on a fallen birch tree.
There are a couple of grey heron calls early on, Canada geese and whooper swans, then the grebe itself calls at 18 and 54 seconds, and again at 1.12. What an amazing sound for such a tiny, shy bird!
Cetti’s warbler at Otmoor
The sound of a Cetti’s warbler at Otmoor reserve. They have a sweet and gentle tone at the start of the breeding season, but later it becomes an explosive quack that can make you jump.
I saw a grey heron sitting on a nest in the reeds, and there were bittern booms nearby. Curlews and lapwings too. It’s a quiet place a long way from traffic. I hope to return to make some early morning recordings when spring gets properly going.
Snettisham – oystercatchers
Snettisham yesterday evening – high tide and oystercatchers