SOUNDS LIKE: The pressure release of rain drops hitting parched red sand after a sweltering day and possibly the best owl recording that Ann has ever taken.
CONTAINS: Patches of rain, and distant frogs happy with the rain, kingfishers with insomnia. And a spectacular territorial display from barking owls.
RECOMMENDED FOR: Lovers of weather, of romance and whimsy, and also of birds-which-sound-like-they're-anything-but-birds enthusiasts.
ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:
This is an incredibly dramatic place — and a special place in Yinjibarndi lore. It definitely has that gravitas. The water is surrounded in part by dark red, iron-filled cliff faces, cool grey-blue spinifex clumps and immense river red gums right at the water's edge.
Even in the middle of the night, and even when it is raining enough to form puddles on the sand, the waterholes of arid Australia are centres of activity. So, although the landscape is all red sand and rocks, spinifex and heat haze, beside this spring-fed waterhole at Millstream Chichester National Park in the Pilbara in WA, it is pure, cool air.
The water in this pool is so deep and cool that it gives you goosebumps if you jump in, even when it's 40 degrees in the shade.
And the string of waterholes here are home to huge Pilbara Olive Pythons , which grow up to 4m long and can stay motionless for days on end waiting for the perfect meal to come too close. They can eat a whole rock wallaby in a sitting.
Maybe they're the ones responsible for some of the quiet movements in this recording (which is, side note, possibly one of the most wonderfully surprising recordings I have ever taken).
Not one, not two, not three but MORE nocturnal bird species all making themselves known between the rain patches. Magic.
From the lands of the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people listen to raindrops hit dusty surfaces.
00:00:00 Hear the rain pattering on the water, and the occasional 'tong' as a drop hits the microphone or a branch of the tree the microphone is attached to.
Incredibly, you can hear a distant boobook (which sounds like its name boo-book) calling AND An owlet nightjar chirring (sounds a little bit like the turbo flutter on a souped-up car. If it was toy sized).
00:01:15 You may be able to hear the first hints of the star of this show. Not the boobook, but its larger cousin, who will approach closer and closer throughout this recording.
00:02:30 A tiny sacred kingfisher is calling in the middle of the night. It sounds like one of those toy dogs they sell at markets that walk round and round in tight circles. In fact, I suspect this is two kingfishers. They may be calling to keep in touch with each other in the darkness, or even as they migrate (many birds travel at night).
00:04:54 There is a sound like a computer mouse clicking but I have no idea who makes it, whether it is an insect or a movement of another critter, perhaps a grasshopper eating dry grass, the sound of the tree 'relaxing'? Please let me know if you have an idea.
00:04:55 There is a very high pitched squeaking. Could it be a rodent? A marsupial? an Insect?
00:05:34 A distant scream. It sounds metallic, like shed door being slid back. This is probably a barn owl — a wonderfully handsome owl with white chest feathers and a disc face. THOUGH, it could also be another bird getting a fright like…
00:06.10 Your ears do not deceive you it is barking owl. There is a pair in residence, and throughout this recording they will get closer and closer. I believe this is the male.
00:06:35 in other contexts I would say this is definitely a woodpecker. But in Australia we don't have them. Perhaps a water bird growl? A frog? A Tree with a backache?
00:12:40 Heavier rain here for a time.
00:13:12 Though it sounds like a meow, or a whine, this is actually more likely to be a mosquito-like insect whirring past.
00:18:5 0 Here you can feel the breeze building and the start of light rain. You might hear the rustling of grass, or leaves touching the microphone casing.
00:19:40 An insect gives a call much closer to the mic. Remember that these sounds are likely made by rubbing parts of the body together imagine wings shivering, feet agitating, extremely fast, thousands of times over to give this chorus. The whole chorus is likely made up of katydids and crickets, but further identification is beyond me.
Over 100 000 invertebrate specimens have been collected by the Pilbara Region Biological Survey (across the whole Pilbara) and experts thing that at least 85 per cent of the species collected are new to Western science. They also think there is 'a high degree of endemism' which means that there is a high likelihood that some of these insects you're listening to are found nowhere else on earth.
00:21:15 A kingfisher is still awake.
00:21:30 Multiple kingfishers are still awake!? Perhaps set off by breeze and a sprinkle of rain? With the 'apple mouse' sound (very quiet clicking) scattered throughout.
00:26:32 Who the hell flies around that fast at night? The wings are cutting through the air quick enough that they sound like a passing skateboard. My gut feeling says ducks, but they are often quite vocal when coming into land, so who knows who the midnight speedster is.
00:27:50 For those with good high-frequency hearing there is an insect calling here that sound like a horse whinnying.
00:22:54 Not a garden hose set to a fine spray, but an insect testing its 'voice'
00:23:18 I think some of these sploshes are likely fish moving quickly at the top of the water and some of them are likely roosting birds doing midnight poos into the water.
Barking owls again along with owlet nightjars, and an insect that sounds like it's sending morse code during in the war.
00:24:15 What's so fascinating about his 'hose fine spray / morse code / radio tuning' insect (which gives a little burst here) is how neatly it occupies a hole in the sound frequencies of other insects in the chorus neatly in between the almost constant crickets (probably) and the higher maraca-like jazz drummer who plays in rhythm but with the 'rest' at a different point in every bar.
00:24:50 Someone is rustling. In the reeds? In the grass? Along the dry wood of the tree?
00:26:10 Dr Jodi Rowley tells me this is the quite newly delineated Western Desert tree frog (Colleeneremia larisonans), found only in this patch of West Australia!
00:26:35 The owls slowly moving positions to come closer and closer to where I've put the microphones. You can clearly hear the pair calling back and forth here.
00:27:50 Are there… three?
00:28:10 Definitely three you can hear the third Barking Owl butting in on the duet, with a lower, more distant roof-roof.
00:34:40 A Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo is heard in the background, with a repeating descending call. It's a tiny bird just 22grams or so, and it lays its eggs in fairy wren or thornbill nests and leaves those parents to bring up its young. It's gorgeous with an olivey-bronze back and a stripey cream and brown front.
00:36:20 Who was that? I like to think it could be one of a Ngarrawirri (flat-shelled freshwater turtle), but perhaps it is a huge, endangered Bargunyji (Pilbara Olive Python), who love these spring fed, temperature stable waterholes.
00:38:00 It's quietly raining.
00:40:45 is that… a crunch? A mouthful being chomped? Or a scratchy sound across bark?
00:42:50 Very high-pitched sounds here my gut feeling says some sort of mammal, though I am not sure. And I suspect it is linked with the 'apple mouse' sound also.
00:44:50 The rain is sounding lovely here like a quiet wash of 'shhhhhh's' in between the more strident insects
00:46:15 An owlet nightjar and a very, very quiet boobook take advantage of the barking owls taking smoko from their territorial calls.
00:47:10 A 'day time' bird — a honeyeater calling.
00:50:100 They're back. And they're even closer. In the previous minutes a boobook was calling, and in between a very distant barking owl. Perhaps this local pair started up in response.
00:52:10 Spicy conversations.
00:53:50 Your ears are now being assaulted by some sort of cicada (possibly?) singing at about 12khrtz. If you are one of the people out there who can hear electrical appliances in stand-by mode, like me, I apologise.
00:55:20 I have not added any effects that reverberation is the bird calls echoing across the waterhole. It is more obvious here because it has stopped raining, allowing you to hear different things. The owls are so loud that I've had to bring the volume down in the recording. It sounds like they're standing right next to the recorder.
00:56:00 It gets slightly messy here, trying to tell how many birds are calling. But this waterhole is clearly highly-desirable property.
00:56:30 I love that there are some calls that literally sound like the bird is muttering under its breath. Almost as if the female is getting sick of his… barking.
00:59:00 Here comes more rain. A bit heavier this time.
01:01:30 Oh lord, they're still going even in the rain. As is the little 'apple smart mouse' sounding insect, and after a small amount of time a distant boobook.
01:09:30 It might sound like radio interference but it's an insect doing it's best to find a mate. Though it does sound a little bit like it's trying to do it while driving on a bumpy road without good suspension.
01:10:20 PHAOR! That sounded like a good bellyflop from a fish.
01:15:20 Enough water that it's dribbling into a puddle now.
01:16:00 It makes you wonder how they get any time to hunt. Though, it is raining consistently here that wonderful pitter-patter of a million drops hitting surfaces in the desert.
01:18:15 Our radio interference insect starts to get a good run here. It's a multi-tone call (like the insect is playing a chord rather than a note).
01:21:00 The rain seems to have eased slightly here and I can hear multi-layered insect chorus, the barking owls and an owlet nightjar joining in.
01:27:40 The kingfishers are still calling.
01:28:10 So. many. woofs.
01:30:00 The rhythm and volume of the insects has reduced here we're heading towards dawn. The fuzz of rain sounds is taking over. With the occasional pop of a raindrop hitting something solid near the microphone.
01:28:08 A tiny insect flies in and lands…
01:32:00 Here comes the dawn chorus with blue winged kookaburra's leading the charge. They're a different species than the Laughing Kookaburra's more common in the cities of the eastern states and they have a very different call.
01:32:30 I wish I knew who this radio-tuning insect was. It's so distinctive compared to the others in the chorus.
01:36:10 Truly, it sounds as if that bird needs to let out the choke to get the engine started.
01:38:10 What a way to finish an astounding soundscape with birds that sound like intergalactic spaceships.
With thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Gus Daly for putting up with a group chat where I send snippets of sound for them to identify as well as Dr Jodi Rowley who is endlessly patient with my frog questions.
