Night recordings and moving to the other side of the River Guadalquivir.
Friday 17th February 2023
Axel closed the day by setting up 6 different microphones to record Lesser Kestrels and Barn Owls at dusk and early morning. He was so excited he decided to use all his recording rigs to increase the changes to get a good recording, knowing that the day after he would find himself without batteries available.
One 360 microphone (Atype 8 by Reynolds Microphones) with a Zoom F8 close to a Lesser Kestrel nest (we made sure to place it when they weren’t in the area).
One in the middle of the buildings to get more Kestrels, White Storks and, hopefully, Spotless Starlings, 360 microphone (Atype 4 by Reynolds Microphones with Axel's f****-up Zoom F4, more about this disaster soon).
One 360 microphone (Atype 4 by Reynolds Mics) with a 50m cable from Daphne, near a Barn Owl nest, so Axel could monitor it in real-time with his trusty Zoom F6.
AudioMoth close to one Barn Owl nest.
AudioMoth close to one Lesser Kestrel nest.
One small mic is hidden near a hole which seemed interesting.
Results? Oh well, it took a bit to get them done this time. Axel ran out of all the batteries, even my laptops, so he couldn’t really do anything, which is amazing (sometimes). We've installed a Raspberry Pi then, a small card-sized computer which runs on almost no power, to analyse all the data before using Axel's beefy laptop.
Lesser Kestrels calling close by.
Recorded by Axel with Reynolds Microphones Atype 8 and Zoom F8.
Barn Owls have such a weird, scary, horror-themes call.
Recorded by Axel with Reynolds Microphones Atype 4 and Zoom F4.
A Barn Owl calling DEFINITELY TOO CLOSE, make sure to have the volume at max level to really jump from your seat. It is slightly distorted as it was probably sitting on top of the mic.
Recorded by Axel with an AudioMoth.
Lovely Little Owls calling, they sound like cats don't they?
Recorded by Axel with Reynolds Microphones Atype 8 and Zoom F8.
Click on the video above to see where we are.
We’re still in exploration mode, and our contact has advised us to check out another location, the Brazo del Este, a one-and-a-half-hour drive from our current location. This seems like a great location when the rest of the wetlands are dry, there is always water there. We made the move and went for it, and we couldn’t have been happier.
After some off-road to get to more tricky places, we’ve spot a lovely location near a lake with Flamingos, Avocets, Warblers of many kinds and one of the Migratory Birds for People initiative's main species, the Bar-tailed Godwit. The latter initiative is powered by Wetland Link International, our partners, and it aims at linking various visitor centres on the East Atlantic Flyway. If you’re unsure what a flyway is, check out our webpage SWMigration.
Taken by Ario, Sony A7iii, Sony 200-600mm.
We parked, and Daphne's handbrake broke. Fun times. Something to fix tomorrow.