Wildlife spectacles in April
What wild nature is doing in April along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: 107 spectacles at their peak and 132 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. For exact listening times on a given day, open April in the interactive calendar.
At their peak in April: Europe
Spring crane staging: Hornborgasjön and PulkenThousands of cranes bugling in chorus — trumpeting that carries for kilometres, rising to a roar when a flock lifts; unison calls of pairs, wing noise of landing flocks, whooper swans and lapwings in the background.
Tåkern: booming bitterns in Europe's biggest reedbedsThe deep, bottle-blown 'whump' of bitterns booming across the reeds, several males answering; reed, sedge and Savi's warblers, water rail squeals, cranes and geese; at Väversunda in late May the strange clicking display of great snipe towards nightfall.
Cranes dancing on the dune heaths and bogsCrane pairs duetting and bugling across the wet dune slacks at first light, the dance's wing-flaps, curlew, golden plover and snipe drumming around them; ravens; the North Sea in Thy.
Vejlerne: bitterns, cranes and Northern Europe's largest reedbedsBittern booming from several directions at once, spotted crake whiplashes, water rail squeals, cranes trumpeting at dawn, bearded reedlings pinging, greylag families, black terns over the lagoons; wind in 8 km of reed.
Bitterns boomingThe deep boom (fundamental around 150 Hz, carrying over 3 km), plus water rail squeals, reed and sedge warblers, and marsh harriers.
Natterjack toad chorusThe loudest amphibian in Britain — a rolling, ratcheting chorus audible up to 2 km away across dunes.
Nightingales singingFull nocturnal nightingale song, often with several males counter-singing; tawny owls and the first dawn birds behind.
Upland wader breeding songBubbling curlew song, snipe drumming (tail feathers), lapwing display flights, the mournful golden plover whistle, and greenshank 'tew-tew' over bog pools.
Woodland dawn chorus peakFull layered chorus: robin, blackbird and song thrush first, then wren, warblers, chaffinch; in western oakwoods add wood warbler trills, redstart and pied flycatcher.
Natterjack toad chorus on the Kerry dunesA loud, ratcheting 'rrrrRup, rrrrRup' chorus from dozens of males in shallow dune pools — the loudest amphibian in these islands — with the Atlantic surf behind the dunes and snipe overhead.
Meadow-bird chorus: godwits, redshanks and lapwings over the Frisian poldersThe 'grutto-grutto' yodel of godwits in tumbling display flight, redshanks' ringing calls, lapwings' wheezing aerobatics and wing-thrum, skylarks, snipe drumming and the bleating of hundreds of birds at once — the sound of the Dutch spring polder.
Berlin: the nightingale capitalDense nightingale song with several males counter-singing within 100 m, over a city bed — trains, sirens, the airport approach; in the Grunewald and on the Havel shores, a cleaner mix with tawny owl and reed warblers.
Fire-bellied toads, natterjacks and blue moor frogsFire-bellied toad's melancholy 'uh...uh' by the hundred over shallow pasture ponds, moor frog's bubbling 'waug-waug' underwater chorus, natterjack's ratcheting trill carrying 2 km across dune slacks, tree frogs at full volume, bittern and crane in the background.
Marsh dawn chorus: Brière and DombesBittern booms across the reed, great reed warbler rasps, bluethroat song from the willows, heronries croaking, whiskered terns overhead, and a marsh frog chorus that runs all night.
Marsh frog & tree frog chorusesWall-to-wall marsh frog laughter from the Camargue ditches, ratcheting tree frogs from Brenne ponds, and natterjacks rolling across the Landes dune slacks.
Provençal nights: nightingale, scops owl & stone-curlewNightingales in every tamarisk, scops owls' 'tiu' on a 2–3 s metronome, stone-curlew wails from the Crau, nightjars churring on the garrigue, tree frogs from the marsh.
Frog nights in the Danube floodplain forestTree frog volleys and fire-bellied toads' soft hooting from the oxbows (Altarme), marsh frog laughter, night herons croaking overhead, nightingale and beaver tail-slaps; Danube barges as a slow low bed.
Reedbed dawn on Europe's largest steppe lakeGreat reed warbler's grating song from every reed clump, Savi's reeling, moustached warbler, bittern booming, marsh frogs, spoonbill colony chatter, black-headed gull colonies, the reeds themselves in the morning breeze.
Amphibian chorus of the intermittent lakeWall-to-wall Pelophylax chorus with tree frog 'krak-krak' on top, toad trills, yellow-bellied toad's soft 'poop-poop' from karst puddles, Savi's warbler and bittern in the mix.
Lake Cerknica reedbed chorus: bittern, crakes, great reed warblerBittern booming across open water, spotted crake's 'whit' whiplash all night, little crake, great reed and Savi's warblers, cuckoo, a huge pool/edible frog chorus underneath, corncrake from the wet meadows on the fringes.
Frog choruses of the Sava and Danube floodplainsFire-bellied toads' soft 'oop-oop' by the thousand across flooded pasture, tree frog volleys, marsh frog laughter, green toad trills, cuckoo and nightingale at the edges, storks clattering.
Mediterranean nights: nightingale & scops owlNightingales everywhere, the metronomic 'tiu' of scops owls (often several in duet), stone-curlew wails, tree frogs.
Reedbed dawn chorus: great reed warbler, bittern, purple heronGrating great reed warbler song from every reed stem, bittern booms, little bittern barks, whiskered terns overhead and marsh frogs beneath.
Tree frog & water frog chorusDeafening tree frog 'kra-kra-kra' choruses, with the laughing croaks of water frogs from rice paddies and ditches.
Dawn chorus of the Mediterranean scrub and dehesaNightingales as the backbone, golden orioles fluting from the poplars, azure-winged magpie flocks rasping through the cork oaks, hoopoes, bee-eaters and cuckoos — the classic Iberian spring chorus.
Spring frog & toad choruses of the Andalusian marshesMassive Perez's frog choruses from the temporary lagoons, tree frog 'crra-crra' from the marsh edge, natterjack ratchets across the dune slacks, spadefoots' hen-like clucking from underwater, plus stone-curlews, red-necked nightjars and scops owls.
Steppe dawn: Dupont's lark and the Belchite larksDupont's lark's strange nasal, ventriloquial phrases from the dark steppe, then a wall of calandra lark song at sunrise, sandgrouse and stone-curlews — one of Europe's rarest dawn choruses.
Capercaillie and black grouse leks in the eastern forestsCapercaillie's clicking, cork-pop and grinding song from pine bog edges, wing-beats of cocks flying in, black grouse bubbling on the open bogs; cranes, whooper swans and Tengmalm's owl in the same nights.
Puffin arrival day on Lovund and the Røst coloniesThe wing-roar and growling of a puffin colony wheeling over the slope, kittiwakes, eagles; on Røst, Leach's and storm petrels at night; the Atlantic.
'Sort sol' — starling murmurations over the Wadden Sea marshesThe rush of a million wings folding in a single turn, the crackle of the flock settling into the reed, then a vast chattering roost; a raptor strike sends a rippling roar through the whole mass; morning departures leave in waves.
Black grouse leksBubbling 'rookooing' from displaying males, hissing 'tchu-wee' sneezes and flutter jumps; curlew and snipe often in the same soundscape.
Breskens: spring migration over the Westerschelde dikeA river of flight calls — meadow pipit, yellow wagtail, finches, linnets — low over your head, with the Westerschelde ships behind; screaming swift flocks on a May top day; harriers silent overhead; a crowd of counters calling out species.
Bavarian Forest: pygmy and Tengmalm's owls, woodpeckers, lynx countryPygmy owl's piping series at dusk, Tengmalm's 'po-po-po-po' from the bark-beetle deadwood forest, Ural owl barking, three-toed woodpecker drumming rolls, nutcrackers; the loudest silence in Germany in the dead-spruce stands.
Capercaillie and black grouse — the ones you do not visitThe capercaillie's accelerating clicks, 'cork-pop' and grinding — a very quiet song (audible to ~200 m) that is almost never recorded in Germany without a permit. Black grouse bubbling in the Alps.
Müritz: cranes, ospreys and sea eagles in summerCrane pairs duetting at dawn from the bogs, bittern booming, osprey whistles over the lakes, eagle calls, woodlark and nightjar on the sandy heaths at dusk, marsh frogs; in autumn thousands of cranes flying into Rederangsee.
Black grouse leks in the AlpsBubbling 'rookooing' and hissing from males on snow patches at the treeline, ring ouzels, water pipits, and meltwater.
Flamingo colonies of the CamargueGoose-like honking from thousands of birds, the massed 'marching' displays, and flights of hundreds passing low over the étangs at dusk.
Garrigue dawn chorusA Mediterranean chorus quite different from the north: rattling Sardinian warblers, woodlark descending phrases, hoopoes, nightingales in every gully, bee-eaters overhead and cicada-free silence between.
La Crau steppe: little bustard, sandgrouse & stone-curlewLittle bustards' dry 'prrrt' with a foot-stamp and wing-whirr jump, sandgrouse 'catar-catar' flights to drinking pools, calandra larks in continuous song-flight, stone-curlews at dusk.
Midwife toad piping in the villagesPure, bell-like single notes at about 1.2 kHz from dozens of males in dry-stone walls and rubble, like an out-of-tune carillon across a whole valley.
Shearwater colonies: Îles d'Hyères and LavezziWailing and cackling shearwaters arriving over the cliffs at night to their burrows — Port-Cros holds about 90% of France's Yelkouan population — with the Mediterranean swell below.
Spring migration counts: Col de l'Escrinet, Pointe de Grave and Le HucelA river of chaffinch flight calls over the col at dawn, meadow pipits, serins and linnets in the flocks, woodpigeon wing-clatter, cranes bugling northwards in March, and at Pointe de Grave the May sound of swifts screaming low over the dunes and bee-eaters calling in off the Gironde — one of the few places in France where spring migration is a sound you can stand under.
Black grouse leks in the Alps and JuraBubbling 'rookooing' rolling across a snow-patched alpine meadow from several cocks, sneezing 'tchu-shwee' hisses, wing-flutter jumps; ring ouzel and water pipit around them; cowbells not yet arrived.
Bolle di Magadino: spring fall-outs and nightingalesNightingale night chorus in the riverside scrub, Cetti's explosions, reed and great reed warblers, cuckoo, penduline tit; tree frogs; waders on the delta mud; Lake Maggiore lapping.
Frog and toad choruses of the Mittelland marshesTree frog 'krak-krak-krak' volleys carrying a kilometre, water frog chorus, midwife toad's single flute notes from stone walls, natterjack ratchet in gravel pits, bittern and cuckoo behind.
Black grouse leks above the treelineBubbling 'rookooing' and explosive hisses from several cocks on a snow-patched clearing, wing-flutter jumps, ring ouzel and ptarmigan croaks; cowbells arrive later in the season.
Thayatal: river gorge dawn, eagle owl and wildcat countryOak-hornbeam dawn chorus with collared flycatcher, wood warbler, both nightingale species meeting (thrush nightingale reaches here), golden oriole, kingfisher along the meandering Thaya, eagle owl from the gorge cliffs in late winter.
Tree-nesting white stork colony, March floodplainBill-clattering across a colony of 40–50 nests in the oak canopy, chick hissing, black-headed gulls from the oxbows, oriole, nightingale, tree frogs and fire-bellied toads in the flooded meadows, Konik horses.
Black grouse leks above the treelineBubbling 'rookooing' and explosive hissing from several cocks at once on a snow-patched clearing, ring ouzel and water pipit around them; capercaillie 'cork-pop' song from the forest edge in the same weeks.
Heronries, cormorant colonies and spring flood chorus, Kopački ritCroaking, bill-snapping heronries in flooded willows, cormorant grunts, spoonbill chick begging, eagle yelps, fire-bellied toad and marsh frog choruses under everything, cuckoo, golden oriole.
Neretva delta: the Adriatic flyway stopoverBittern booming from the reeds, whiskered and black terns over the lagoons, marsh frogs, great reed warblers, glossy ibis and egret flights at dusk, Cetti's warbler explosions; frog and cicada layers by June.
Plitvice and Lika beech-fir forests: owls, woodpeckers, dawn chorusMountain beech-fir chorus with collared flycatcher and wood warbler, three-toed and white-backed woodpecker drumming, pygmy owl whistles at dusk, Ural owl barking in March, the constant waterfall bed on the lakes themselves.
Alpine black grouse leksBubbling leks on snowy slopes at the treeline, with ring ouzels, alpine accentors, and snowmelt streams.
Flamingo colonies & courtshipGoose-like gabbling of big flocks, and the synchronised 'marching' displays with a constant honking.
Spring passage on small islandsIsland scrub full of freshly arrived, singing migrants after 'falls', with night flight calls overhead.
Balearic shearwater & storm petrel islandsHoarse, cackling Balearic shearwaters arriving to cliff burrows after dark, storm petrels purring in cave crevices, Audouin's gull colonies and Eleonora's falcons screaming over the sea in late summer.
Fuente de Piedra: the great flamingo colonyTwenty thousand flamingos honking, growling and gabbling across a flat salt lagoon — the colony is a continuous roar from kilometres away on a still morning — with the goose-like flight calls of flocks commuting to feed, gull-billed terns and stilts yelping over the shallows.
Lesser kestrel colonies of TrujilloA colony of small falcons chattering — the 'chay-chay-chay' and trilling of dozens of lesser kestrels over the bullring roof, swifts screaming through the Plaza Mayor, storks clattering on the church towers and the market noise of an Extremaduran town beneath it.
White-tailed eagles: Smøla, Lofoten and the TrollfjordThe eagle's yelping 'klee-klee-klee' duet from a nest crag, wing-rush of a 2.4 m bird taking a fish 10 m from the boat, gull and tern colonies, otters whistling in the skerries.
Ottenby: autumn at the southern tip of ÖlandOn fall mornings the Lund rustles with hundreds of goldcrests and robins ticking; eider and long-tailed duck flocks calling as they round the point; wind and surf; eagles' yelps over the meadows in October.
Tipperne: wader passage on Ringkøbing FjordWader flocks calling over the wet meadows, godwit and lapwing display in spring, avocets, geese lifting in autumn, the fjord's chop on the western dyke; almost no traffic.
Woodcock rodingCroaking 'grunt-grunt-tswick' of males flying circuits over the canopy, often with nightjar or tawny owl later.
The Zwin: wader passage, ringing season and the stork colonyBill-clattering of storks greeting at the nest; dunlin and redshank flocks over the salt marsh at the top of the tide; curlews; the sea behind the dunes; in autumn a steady trickle of migrating pipits and finches over the dike.
Stork villages: Rühstädt and BergenhusenBill-clattering duets from nests on every roof, hissing chicks begging in June, the whoosh of adults landing; swallows, village sparrows and church bells; cranes and geese on the Elbe floodplain behind.
Lac de Grand-Lieu: the great heronry and the spoonbill colonyHeron and egret traffic croaking and barking overhead at dawn and dusk, black terns and whiskered terns squabbling over the water lilies, Savi's warbler reeling and a booming bittern from the reedbeds at Pierre-Aiguë, cuckoos and water rails — the colony itself is heard only as a distant, constant squabble across the water.
Vulture cliffs of the Jonte, Verdon and OssauWing-rush of griffons passing a few metres over the rim, hissing and grunting from the colony ledges, chough flocks and the river below; more a sight than a sound.
Rhine delta on Lake Constance: migration and winter raftsDiving-duck rafts and wing-whistle, coot, whooper swans, gull roosts, curlew and godwit on the shallows in autumn; reed warblers and bittern in spring; the lake's fetch.
Waders and terns on the Sečovlje salt pansLittle tern colonies screaming over the pans, stilts and avocets yelping, redshank and Kentish plover, reed warblers in the Dragonja channel; salt-worker rakes and the sea beyond the dyke.
Vrana Lake: wintering ducks and the reedbed springMassed coot and duck rafts, wigeon whistling, marsh harrier; in spring purple heron croaks, pygmy cormorant colony chatter, great reed warbler, tree frogs and marsh frogs, scops owl from the olive groves at night.
Great bustard & little bustard displayGreat bustards are almost silent in display (a low grunt and the rustle of the 'foam bath' plumage), but little bustards give their dry 'prrrt' snort and wing-whistle jump, sandgrouse call in flight and calandra larks sing continuously overhead.
Griffon cliffs: Hoces del Duratón, Hoces del Riaza and MonfragüeA griffon colony settling at dusk is a surprisingly loud thing: hisses, grunts and cackles from hundreds of birds squabbling over ledges, the rush of wings passing at head height, choughs and alpine swifts along the wall and, after dark in winter, eagle owls hooting across the gorge.
Pilot whales of Teno–Rasca, TenerifeWith a hydrophone: pilot whale whistles and clicks from a resident population of about 500 animals in deep water only 2–3 km offshore; above water, resting groups blowing quietly between boats.
Strait of Gibraltar: raptor & stork passageMostly visual — kettles of thousands — but bee-eater flocks pour over calling all day, honey buzzards pass at head height in a levante, and the stork pre-roost at Los Lances is a bill-clattering crowd.
Castro Verde steppe: great bustard display and the calandra lark dawnA wall of calandra lark song over the cereal steppe at dawn, the dry 'prrrt' snort of little bustards, lesser kestrel colonies chattering on the farm buildings and, with luck, the low booming grunt of a displaying great bustard — mostly this is a sight: white 'foam-bath' males on the ridge lines.
Griffon vultures of the Bosa coast, SardiniaMostly visual: Italy's largest griffon colony riding the updraughts of volcanic sea cliffs. Sound is the Mediterranean swell under the cliffs, the wing-rush of birds passing close, hissing at the ledges, blue rock thrush and, in summer, Eleonora's falcons chattering along the coast.
Raptor migration: Strait of MessinaMostly visual — kettles of raptors — but also bee-eater flocks overhead, and swifts and hirundines passing.
Cantabrian mountains: chamois rut, bears and wallcreepersChamois whistling alarms and clattering hooves on limestone, alpine chough flocks, wallcreeper thin whistles from the gorge walls, bells and the Cares river; bears are silent and distant.
Douro Internacional: griffon and Egyptian vultures on the canyon wallsMostly visual, but the canyon is a natural reverb chamber: griffon wing-rush as they pass the viewpoint at eye level, hissing and grunting at the nests carrying across the gorge, alpine swifts screaming along the walls, blue rock thrush and the river far below.
The Rock: soaring birds crossing the Strait over GibraltarA sight more than a sound: kettles of honey buzzards sliding off the Rock towards Africa, black kites in lines, storks clattering overhead in spring; the soundscape is the Levanter wind, the foghorn at Europa Point, yellow-legged gulls and the port. Barbary partridge calls at dawn on the Upper Rock.
Great bustard display, Havelland and BelzigBustards are essentially silent — the display is visual ('foam bath'); what you hear is the wet-meadow dawn: lapwing, curlew, skylark, whinchat, snipe drumming, crane pairs bugling, geese, and later corncrake.
Great bustard display on the Parndorfer Platte and HanságBustards are near-silent; the payload is the steppe dawn — skylark, corn bunting, quail, lapwing, grey partridge, crane pairs in the Hanság, marsh harrier, and the reed edge of the Neusiedler See a few kilometres away.
At their peak in April: West and Central Africa
Two million waders wintering on the Banc d'ArguinA roar of wings when a roost of tens of thousands lifts, knot and godwit flocks calling on the move, flamingos and spoonbills in the shallows, and the only human sound the creak of an Imraguen lanche's sail. Night roosts murmur continuously.
Pendjari: lions, elephants and hippos at the dry-season poolsLions roaring across the Pendjari plain in the small hours — one of the few places in West Africa where this is still likely — hippos bellowing at Mare Bali, elephants at the pools, hyena whoops and a savanna dawn of francolins, ground hornbills and doves.
Spring amphibian chorus of the Middle Atlas lakes and MamoraA wall of Sahara frog laughter and the slow purr of Berber toads from the reed margins of the crater lakes, tree frogs' hard 'crra' from the willows, and — in the flooded cork-oak dayas of Mamora — the underwater 'kok' of Morocco's endemic spadefoot.
Spring passage and desert night birds around MerzougaThe desert's two great night voices — the endless churring of Egyptian nightjar and the deep hoot of pharaoh eagle-owl — over a noise floor close to nothing; by day, the surprise of a full Palearctic passerine chorus grounded in a dune-edge tamarisk oasis, sandgrouse arriving to drink, and flamingo and shelduck on the salt lake in a wet year.
White storks bill-clattering on the Chellah walls, RabatDozens of pairs bill-clattering with heads thrown back on the minaret and the medieval walls, wings thumping on landing, and below them the cattle egret roost and the Bou Regreg valley.
Humpback whales breeding in Sal Rei bay, Boa VistaThe only place on the flyway to put a hydrophone on singing North Atlantic humpbacks: long structured songs that carry kilometres through the bay, plus the slap and crack of breaches and pectoral slaps on calm mornings. Above water it is wind, surf and the outboard.
Aftout es Saheli — West Africa's only lesser flamingo breeding colonyFourteen thousand flamingo chicks and their parents: a continuous honking, growling roar from the colony islets that carries over a kilometre of flat water at dawn, the wing-thunder of a few thousand adults lifting at a jackal, and the lesser flamingos' higher yapping among the greater flamingos' goose-like calls. Around it, the silence of the Sahel coast.
Seabird and spoonbill colonies on the Banc d'Arguin islandsRoyal and Caspian tern colonies screaming, pelican colonies grunting, spoonbill bill-clacking at the nest, and slender-billed gull chatter across the water from a stationary boat.
Niokolo-Koba — hippos, lions and the Gambia river in the dry seasonHippo pods bellowing on the Gambia river below the Simenti terrace, lions roaring across the dry savanna, hyenas, and at dawn the booming of ground hornbills and the calls of spur-winged geese and Egyptian plovers on the sandbars.
Tern and gull colonies of the Langue de BarbarieA packed royal and Caspian tern colony screaming on a sand islet in the Senegal river mouth, gull colonies underneath, and the Atlantic surf on the spit a few hundred metres away.
Hippos and the chimpanzee islands of the River Gambia National ParkHippo pods grunting and blowing on the river bends below Janjanbureh, chimpanzee pant-hoots carrying across the water from the Baboon Islands, baboon troops on the banks and fish eagles at every bend.
Chimpanzee dawn chorus in the Cantanhez forestsChimpanzee pant-hoot choruses and drumming carrying through the northernmost primary forest in Africa, colobus roars, hornbills' wingbeats and grey parrots' screeching over the oil-palm villages of the Nalu people.
Outamba-Kilimi — hippos, chimps and the northern savanna at nightHippo pods on the Little Scarcies river, chimps and colobus in the gallery forests at dawn, ground hornbills booming, and savanna nights with nightjars and hyenas — Sierra Leone's oldest park and its emptiest.
Western Area Peninsula forest — the dawn chorus above FreetownA rainforest dawn chorus 30 minutes from the capital: hornbills, turacos, greenbuls, sooty mangabey whoops, and at night the astonishing screams of tree hyrax and the pant-hoot chorus of Tacugama's 100+ rescued chimpanzees.
Kainji Lake: hippos and savanna nights on the Oli riverHippo choruses on the Oli river pools at dusk, hyena and nightjars around the camp, baboon barks, and the wide Guinea-savanna dawn of francolins, hornbills and doves.
Yankari: elephants on the Gaji river and Wikki nightsElephants at the Gaji river pools, baboon troops around Wikki camp, a savanna dawn of francolins, doves and hornbills, and at night the warm-spring valley's bats, nightjars and owls.
Bénoué: hippos on the river at Buffle Noir and the Guinea-savanna dry seasonThe Bénoué at the dry-season low: hippo pods grunting and blowing a hundred metres below the camp terrace, the splash and heavy tread as they come out after dark, lion at a distance on still nights, the hoot of ground hornbills and the piping of Egyptian plovers on the sandbars at dawn; carmine bee-eaters in their thousands at the river-bank colonies.
Northern bald ibis colonies, Souss-Massa & TamriGuttural 'hrump' and hissing calls at the cliff, and the low grunting chatter of a feeding flock working the coastal steppe. The world's last truly wild population — around 95% of it — lives on these few kilometres of cliff.
Saltwater hippos of OrangoHippo grunts and blows from a lagoon inside island forest, then the same animals walking past the village beach at night and surfacing in the sea in the morning — the world's only regularly marine hippos.
Haut Niger National Park — the Mafou savanna and the upper NigerHippos on the upper Niger, ground hornbills' bass at dawn, chimps in the gallery forests of the Mafou core, and the dry savanna at night with hyenas and nightjars — a Sahelian-Guinean mix with almost nobody there.
Sacred-grove monkeys at Tafi Atome and Boabeng-FiemaMona monkeys' booming male calls and chattering troops moving through the sacred grove, the deep rolling roar of male white-thighed colobus at dawn at Boabeng-Fiema, and a village waking up underneath.
W National Park (Benin sector): the Mékrou river and Koudou fallsHippos in the Mékrou gorge below Koudou falls, the water itself, bee-eaters and pratincoles over the river, and elephants at the pools; nights of hyena and nightjars.
Waza: elephants, giraffes and the Sahelian floodplainElephants at the pools, crowned crane duets across the floodplain at dawn, a Sahelian chorus of doves, sandgrouse and larks, and hyena at night around Waza camp.
Oued Souss estuary — Audouin's gulls, flamingos and waders at Agadir's doorA gull-and-wader soundscape: Audouin's gulls' nasal calls, slender-billed and laughing gulls, flamingos honking, stilts and greenshank — over Agadir's surf and the N10 bridge traffic. Not a hushed site, but a very accessible one.
Spring raptor & stork passage over the Strait — Jbel MoussaMostly a visual event: kettles of hundreds of kites and storks spilling off the Spanish side and gaining height over Belyounech. Sound is the wind, bill-clattering storks on the ground, griffons' rasping wing-noise overhead and the reintroduced griffon colony's grunts on the cliffs.
Autumn seabird passage off Cap Rhir, north of AgadirA visual event: hundreds of Scopoli's shearwaters shearing past the lighthouse point, skuas chasing terns, and now and then the park's bald ibis flapping by at eye level. Surf on the rocks, wind, and fishermen on the ledges below.
Also going on in April
Hornøya and Gjesværstappan: Arctic seabird cliffsA guillemot wall at arm's length: massed growling and trumpeting, kittiwake screaming, puffin grunts, Brünnich's guillemots' lower calls; Arctic surf; at Gjesværstappan the gannet colony's grating and the constant wing-noise of puffins by the hundred thousand.
Manx shearwaters returning at nightHundreds of thousands of birds crashing in, with cackling, choking, hoarse calls from the air and burrows all around you.
Seabird citiesA wall of seabird calls: gannet grating, kittiwakes calling their name, guillemot growls, puffin burrow moans, sea and wind below.
Corncrakes calling on Tory, Inishbofin and the MulletThe rasping 'crex-crex' of corncrakes from iris beds and nettle patches, several males answering across the island, with snipe drumming, the Atlantic on the rocks and sheep — one of the last places in western Europe you can still hear a corncrake night.
Tree frog choruses of Zeeuws-VlaanderenA rattling, surprisingly loud 'kè-kè-kè-kè' chorus from hundreds of tree frogs around the old fortress moats and pools — audible across the polder — with marsh frogs and nightingales behind; the ramparts of Retranchement alone hold a few hundred.
Helgoland Lummenfelsen: guillemots, gannets and the 'Lummensprung'Germany's only seabird cliff: guillemot growls, kittiwake screaming, gannet colony grating, fulmar cackles; at the jump, chicks peeping and adults calling them down to the sea 40 m below.
Brenne, land of a thousand pondsWhiskered tern colonies chattering over the water-lily beds, purple herons, little bittern barks, black-necked grebe trills, and at night a tree frog chorus from every pond.
Sept-Îles: gannets on Rouzic, puffins and auksFrance's only gannet colony (about 14,000 pairs on Rouzic) as a wall of grating calls from the boat, puffins and kittiwakes on the sea, and the Atlantic swell against the granite.
Golden jackal choruses of DalmatiaThe rising, yelping, quavering group howl of a jackal family — three or four voices climbing over each other for half a minute — answered from the next olive grove and the next, with scops owls, nightjars and crickets underneath on summer nights and silence and sea on winter ones.
Scops owl nights on the Dalmatian islandsSeveral scops owls counter-singing across a village at different pitches, nightjar churring from the maquis, Cetti's warbler, cicada tail-off at dusk, cricket and bush-cricket floor, sea against the shore.
Shearwater colonies at night, Lastovo archipelagoScopoli's shearwaters wailing and cackling overhead and from burrows — the 'crying baby' chorus of Mediterranean islets; Yelkouan's higher nasal calls; waves on rock, cicadas fading at dusk.
Apennine beech-forest dawn chorusOld-growth beech forest chorus with woodpecker drumming, flycatcher songs, and resonant forest acoustics.
Scopoli's & Yelkouan shearwater coloniesScopoli's 'crying baby' wails from thousands of birds arriving over cliffs — one of the Mediterranean's strangest sounds.
Cory's shearwater colonies of the CanariesThe wailing, sobbing 'pardela' chorus from thousands of birds over sea cliffs — the sound behind the Canarian mermaid legends — with the Atlantic swell and Bulwer's petrels' soft barking.
Berlengas: Cory's shearwaters calling over the island at nightHundreds of Cory's shearwaters wailing and sobbing over the island in the dark — the Atlantic's strangest chorus — with the yellow-legged gull colony grumbling, shags croaking on the ledges and the swell in the sea caves. On the mainland, the same birds raft silently off Cabo Carvoeiro at dusk.
Zino's petrel calling over Pico do Arieiro at nightOne of Europe's rarest sounds: the long, mournful, tawny-owl-like moan of Zino's petrels circling the summit ridge in the dark, answered from the nesting ledges, with the occasional whimper and the quieter cackle of Manx shearwaters lower down — above a sea of cloud, in total silence otherwise.
Great white pelican colony at DjoudjA wall of pelican grunts and chick begging from a few thousand pairs packed onto low islets a boat-length away, wings slapping water as flotillas fish in formation, and darters and cormorants in the tamarisks.
Palearctic ducks and waders wintering at DjoudjGarganey and pintail flocks in the hundreds of thousands lifting off the Grand Lac in continuous waves, whistling ducks and spur-winged geese over the pirogue, flamingo chorus in the shallows and the wing-roar of a pelican colony taking off — one of the loudest waterbird soundscapes on the whole flyway.
Tiwai Island — eleven primates and the Moa river dawnOne of the densest primate soundscapes in Africa: Diana monkeys' explosive alarm calls, red colobus chatter, the roar of king colobus, chimps' pant-hoots across the river, hornbills whooshing overhead, and the Moa river's rapids underneath.
First-rains frog chorus of the Liberian forest zoneThe heaviest rains on the flyway coast produce some of its loudest amphibian nights — reed frogs, running frogs and tree frogs in every roadside pool and rice swamp, with thunder rolling in from the Atlantic.
Sapo National Park — pygmy hippo, elephants and the deepest forest in West AfricaPrimary Upper Guinea rainforest with nothing man-made within a day's walk: casqued hornbills, chimps, Diana monkeys, the whistles of duikers, elephants rumbling at night, tree hyrax, and the full insect and frog layer of a forest that has never been logged.
Habituated chimpanzees and the Taï forest dawnPant-hoot choruses and buttress drumming rolling through primary rainforest, the crashing and screaming of a Diana colobus troop, hornbills' wingbeats over the canopy, cicadas and, at night, tree hyrax and Demidoff's galago.
Rainy-season frog chorus at TaïDense stacked choruses of Hyperolius and Afrixalus over the pools, the hammering of Leptopelis and the metallic ticking of puddle frogs from the leaf litter, with katydids above them.
The Plateau fruit bats of Abidjan — a city-centre roost flying out to the Banco forestA shrieking, squabbling wall of sound from the big trees of the Plateau administrative district, wing-slaps and jostling, then the rush of the evening emergence over the avenues and the lagoon bridges. The return at first light is quieter and more musical — thousands of bats settling and arguing over branches above the empty Sunday streets.
First-rains frog chorus in the Upper Guinea forestLayered choruses of reed frogs and Afrixalus at 3–5 kHz over the clicking of Kassina and the low honks of Leptopelis, from every pool and swamp along the forest roads, with crickets and katydids filling the gaps.
Straw-coloured fruit bat roost at 37 Military Hospital, AccraA continuous shrieking, chattering wall of sound from the roost trees over the hospital and the 37 lorry station, wing-slaps and squabbling as bats jostle, then the rushing of the evening emergence over Liberation Road. Pied crows and a few raptors work the edges.
Upper Guinea rainforest dawn chorus — Kakum & AnkasaGreat blue turacos bubbling from the emergents, the far-carrying wailing of white-crested hornbills, yellow-casqued hornbills' whooshing wingbeats, chattering monkeys, cicadas switching on with the light and the screaming of tree hyrax at night.
Korup: drills, red colobus and the oldest rainforest dawn in AfricaDrill and mangabey troops crashing and grunting through the understorey, red colobus shrieks, chimpanzee pant-hoots at a distance, hornbills, the buzz of cicadas at first light and, from the Rengo camp, a night of tree hyrax and frogs over the Mana river.
Monte Alén: the Río Muni rainforest dawn, elephants and the goliath frog riversA Central African lowland chorus: hornbills whooshing overhead, the bubbling of greenbuls and the far pant-hoots of chimpanzees, mandrill grunts, elephant rumbles at the swamp edge. The goliath frog itself is nearly silent (no vocal sac) — its rivers are a night of other frogs and the roar of water over rock.
Príncipe after dark: the scops owl described in 2022, and the island's endemics at dawnA fast, insect-like 'tuu-tuu-tuu' at about one note a second, often as a duet with the female higher-pitched, from the old-growth forest of the uninhabited south — a sound nobody had named until 2022. Before dark, the island's grey parrots screaming to roost; at dawn, the thrush, the thrush-babbler, the speirops and the Príncipe sunbird in a forest with no roads.
Runde bird cliffs: puffins at LundeuraKittiwake colonies screaming from the cliffs, puffin growls at the burrows, gannet colony grating from Rundebranden, eagles yelping, surf below; storm petrels purring from stone walls after midnight.
Ertholmene: Denmark's only guillemot and razorbill colonyGuillemots' growling and razorbills' rattle from Græsholm's rocks 100 m across the sound, eider crooning, gull colonies, the Baltic; at night on Christiansø, migrants and the fortress silence.
Fire-bellied toads and green toads on the islandsFire-bellied toads' soft, bell-like 'oop... oop' in chorus from cattle ponds — from a distance like distant church bells; green toads' long trills; natterjacks ratcheting on the beach meadows; tree frog volleys on Lolland.
Common cranes buglingTrumpeting bugles carrying over 2 km, unison calls from pairs, and the low rolling contact calls of a roosting group in the reeds.
Corncrakes callingThe rasping 'crex-crex' from iris beds and meadows, with snipe, redshank and the sea behind.
Tyne kittiwakes — the urban colonyAbout 800 pairs of oceanic gulls calling 'kitti-wake' from the Tyne Bridge girders and the Baltic art gallery ledges, echoing between the bridges over the river and city traffic.
Greenland white-fronted geese on the Wexford SlobsThe high, laughing, musical yelps of thousands of white-fronts lifting off the harbour and dropping onto the fields; brent geese's low growl along the shore; whooper swan bugling; wigeon whistling; curlews over the sand flats.
Irish seabird cities: Cliffs of Moher, Great Saltee and the SkelligsThe roar of 20,000 guillemots on the Moher ledges with kittiwakes screaming 'kitti-wake' and fulmars cackling; the Atlantic 200 m below; on Little Skellig the deafening, continuous growl of a gannet city heard over the engine; choughs' ringing calls on the cliff top.
Banc d'Arguin terns & Arcachon brent geeseA grating Sandwich tern colony of thousands of pairs on a sandbank in the Atlantic swell; in winter, the rolling 'rronk' of brent flocks on the eelgrass beds.
Gull, tern and heron colonies of the Grande CariçaieA wall of black-headed gull screaming from the artificial islands, terns overhead, cormorant grunts, reed warbler and Savi's warbler from the largest reed-belt in Switzerland, bittern booming at dusk, tree frogs, beaver tail-slaps.
Mura floodplain dawn: orioles, bee-eaters, heronriesOriole fluting, cuckoo, nightingale, bee-eater 'prrup' flocks over the river, night heron croaks at dusk, stork bill-clattering from village nests, tree frogs from the oxbows.
Paklenica canyons: eagle owl, chamois and rock birdsEagle owl's deep 'oo-hu' bouncing between 400 m canyon walls, rock partridge cackling at dawn, alpine swift screams, blue rock thrush, chamois alarm whistles, the Velika Paklenica stream.
White stork village and floodplain summer, Lonjsko poljeBill-clattering duets from every rooftop, chick hissing and begging, spoonbill and heron colonies, marsh and pool frogs from the oxbows, corncrake and quail in the meadows at night, cattle bells and village life.
Golden jackal choruses on the KarstRising yelping group howls — faster and higher than wolves — answered by neighbouring families across the limestone plateau; the densest population in Italy.
Heron colonies ('garzaie')Croaking, gargling colony noise, night heron 'quok' calls at dusk, begging chicks.
Lesser kestrel colonies in the Sassi of MateraHundreds of chattering 'che-che-che' kestrels wheeling over the roofs of a UNESCO old town at dusk, with swifts, jackdaws and church bells.
Swift screaming parties over old townsScreaming packs racing between palazzi, the deeper trilling of alpine swifts from cliff-like towers, bells and evening passeggiata below.
Ebro Delta: Audouin's gulls, terns and flamingosAudouin's gull colony (historically over half the world population at Punta de la Banya) as a nasal, laughing wall of sound, tern colonies screaming over the salt pans, flamingos honking across the lagoons, and frogs in the rice fields at night.
Iberian wolf howling, Sierra de la CulebraPack choruses with pups' yips across the heather-and-pine sierra, roe deer barks, and the deep quiet of one of the emptiest corners of Spain.
Islas Cíes & Ons seabird coloniesOne of the world's largest yellow-legged gull colonies in full cry on the cliff tops, shags grunting on the ledges, and at night the recently established Cory's shearwaters and storm petrels over the Atlantic side.
Gongon — Cape Verde petrels calling at night over the Fogo caldera and the Santo Antão plateauxSteeply descending moans, one to two seconds long, a third ending in a rising squeak, wing-whistles with Doppler shifts and occasional claps as birds beat along the caldera walls 500 m above you. Up to 20 calls a minute at the best São Nicolau pinnacles. Not loud — but one of the rarest night sounds in the Atlantic, with crickets, distant dogs and the volcano's silence under it.
Raso and Branco — Cape Verde shearwater islets and the Raso larkA Macaronesian petrel night in the tropics: thousands of Cape Verde shearwaters wailing and cackling as they come in off the sea, the rush of wings down the canyons close overhead, geckos chirping into the small hours, tropicbird screams by day. No people, no engines, no lights.
Dindéfélo — savanna chimpanzees pant-hooting under the Fouta Djallon escarpmentThe northern-most chimpanzee chorus in Africa: pant-hoots climbing to screams from the gallery forest under the escarpment, buttress drumming echoing off the cliff, baboons barking in reply, then the waterfall and a hornbill dawn. The village wakes with cockerels, mortars and the mosque — walk 20 minutes out and it is gone.
Saloum Delta — tern roosts, mangrove herons and wintering wadersThousands of terns and waders on the sandbars of the Saloum mouth, the click and hiss of mangrove at low tide (mudskippers, fiddler crabs, snapping shrimp with a hydrophone), goliath heron's bark, and pied kingfishers everywhere.
Abuko gallery forest — dawn chorus and monkeysRed colobus barks and crashing through the canopy, turacos' rolling calls, the hornbill pairs, and a full gallery-forest dawn 15 minutes from the coast hotels — the easiest West African forest chorus to reach.
Nightjars and owls of the coastal woodland — Brufut and KotuThe long-tailed nightjar's engine-like churr from every clearing, standard-winged nightjar's insect-like trill as males circle with their pennants, the deep grunts of Verreaux's eagle-owl in the big trees and white-faced scops owl's bubbling call.
Tanji beach and the Bijol Islands — terns, gulls and the fish-landing roostA gull-and-tern roost of thousands screaming over the fish-landing beach as pirogues come in, the market crowd, the smokehouses, and across the water the Bijol colonies — The Gambia's only breeding seabirds.
Tendaba — Bao Bolong mangrove creeks and Kiang West savannaFish eagles duetting across the Gambia river, the mangrove's clicks and splashes at low water, kingfishers and bee-eaters in the creeks, and Pel's fishing owl's deep hoot from the camp at night.
Bijagós intertidal flats — the flyway's second great wader wintering groundWhimbrel and godwit flocks calling over enormous intertidal flats with no engine noise for kilometres, tern roosts on the sandbanks, mangrove crackle at low tide, and the islands' own forest and village sounds behind.
Cacheu mangroves — West Africa's largest continuous mangrove blockThe full mangrove soundscape — fiddler crabs, mudskippers, snapping shrimp under water, herons and kingfishers above — in channels wide enough that no village sound reaches, with crowned cranes on the rice edges.
Mount Nimba — chimpanzees of Bossou and the Nimba highlandsStone-on-stone nut cracking and pant-hoots from the Bossou hills — the most-studied wild chimpanzees in West Africa — and above them the grassland-and-cloud-forest soundscape of Nimba: montane birds, wind in the ridge grass, and the tiny viviparous toad's calls in the wet season.
Ziama massif — forest elephants and the Guinean rainforest dawnA full Upper Guinea rainforest dawn — casqued hornbills' wingbeats and whooping, Diana monkeys, chimps, the great blue turaco — and at night the crash and rumble of forest elephants in one of their last Guinean refuges.
Île Alcatraz — the only brown booby colony between Cabo Verde and São ToméA tropical booby rock: the braying and whistling of thousands of brown boobies, the grating roar of a royal tern colony, wings everywhere, guano and fish — a sound that exists nowhere else on the West African mainland coast. Only the sea and your own outboard compete.
Gola Rainforest — picathartes, hornbills and the forest chorusThe Upper Guinea forest at full volume — hornbills, chimps, the bubbling of yellow-bearded greenbul, guineafowl clucking on the trail — and the near-silent arrival of picathartes to their mud nests under a boulder, with only wing-noise and soft croaks.
Loma Mountains: chimpanzees, rockfowl and the climb to BintumaniThe Upper Guinea forest below Bintumani at dawn: chimpanzee choruses carrying across the valleys, colobus roars, hornbills, greenbuls and the fluting of the forest robins; the streams at Camp 1; on the high ridge, wind, francolins and the calls of swifts around the summit rocks. Rockfowl are silent and found by their mud nests on the rock faces — a visual, not a sound.
Straw-coloured fruit bats over FreetownThe squabbling, squeaking chorus of a straw-coloured fruit bat roost and the wing-rush of the dusk emergence over a city — one of the great urban wildlife sounds of West Africa, if the colony can be found.
Gola Forest National Park (Liberia) — hornbills, picathartes and pygmy hippo countryHornbill wingbeats like distant trains, the whooping of yellow-casqued hornbills, chimps and colobus, and the near-silence of a picathartes colony arriving under a boulder at dusk.
Comoé: elephants, hippos and the savanna-forest mosaicHippos bellowing on the Comoé at dusk, elephants at the river pools, lions are not to be expected but spotted hyena whoop; the ground hornbill's booming duet at dawn and the harmattan wind in the gallery forest.
Elephants at the Mole waterholesElephants splashing, rumbling and trumpeting at the waterhole, baboon alarm barks off the escarpment, hyena whoops after dark, and a savanna dawn of helmeted guineafowl, hornbills and doves.
Fruit bat colony on the cliffs of Wli FallsA high, ceaseless chattering from many thousands of bats hanging on the cliff face beside the upper cascade, then the rush of wings as the colony peels off at dusk over the pool, all against the falls.
Tern roosts and Palearctic waders on the Keta and Songor lagoonsThe rasping, screaming mass of a tern roost settling at dusk, spotted redshank 'chu-it' and godwit chatter across the pans, and whistling ducks passing overhead at night.
Wechiau: hippos on the Black Volta at duskThe Black Volta's hippo pools: the stacked laughing grunt of a bull answered down the river, blows and splashes as the pod surfaces, then at dusk the heavy walk of hippos leaving the water to graze a few hundred metres from the Talawona camp. Egyptian plovers piping on the sandbars, fish eagles, carmine bee-eaters in the dry-season colonies on the banks.
Hippos on the Mono riverHippo laughing-grunts and blows from the river pools at dusk, carrying up the gallery forest, with nightjars and the fishing villages beyond.
Lama forest and Lokoli swamp: red-bellied monkeys and the last forest chorus of the Dahomey GapGreat blue turacos and yellow-casqued hornbills in a 2,000 ha island of semi-deciduous forest surrounded by farmland — the fullest forest chorus in Benin — with red-bellied monkeys' soft calls in the understorey and, at Lokoli, a swamp forest of frogs, kingfishers and dripping trees from a dugout.
Gashaka Gumti: chimpanzees and the Kwano forestPant-hoot choruses and drumming from the Kwano forest — the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee's main study population — putty-nosed monkeys' pyow calls, hornbills over the Gamgam river and a night of tree hyrax and nightjars.
Obudu Plateau and Becheve: montane forest song of the Cameroon highlandsA cool, high-altitude chorus at 1,600 m — montane greenbuls, robin-chats and babblers from the forest patches, weavers on the edges — with cattle bells on the grassland and, on clear mornings, almost nothing else.
Omo Forest: forest elephants and a lowland-forest dawnA lowland rainforest dawn an hour and a half from Lagos — hornbills, turacos, chattering mangabeys — and at night the breaking branches, rumbles and occasional trumpet of elephants moving past the camp.
Nouabalé-Ndoki: gorillas and elephants at Mbeli BaiA silverback's chest-beats and a family's contented feeding grunts in the open, from a platform 20 m above one of the Congo Basin's most-watched clearings; elephants splashing at night, sitatunga barking, parrots at dawn, and a rainforest with no engine within a day's walk.
Varanger in winter: Steller's and king eidersLong-tailed duck yodelling from rafts of hundreds, king and Steller's eider crooning at close range in the harbours, the crunch of sea ice on the shore, wind; fish-plant conveyors and the odd trawler.
Harbour porpoises in the Little BeltPorpoises are silent to the ear (their clicks are at 130 kHz) — a hydrophone with a wideband recorder gets the click trains; audibly, the sharp puff of a surfacing blow a few metres off the rocks at Røjle Klint, and the Old Little Belt Bridge traffic.
Skagen: Europe's biggest spring raptor passageRaptors are quiet: the recording is the Grenen dawn — the two seas meeting, diver and scoter flocks calling offshore, tree pipits and yellow wagtails overhead by the thousand, nightjar and cuckoo in the plantations; kites mewing over Flagbakken.
Bat emergence & autumn swarmingMostly ultrasonic: echolocation and feeding buzzes, social calls. Noctule social calls and some horseshoe calls are partly audible.
Common frog & toad spawningSoft purring of frog aggregations and the high 'quark' release calls of toads — best close-up or with a hydrophone.
Light-bellied brent geese arriving in Dublin BayThe soft, rolling 'rrronk' chorus of brent flocks on the lagoon and the salt marsh, godwits and knot calling at the roost, curlews over the mudflats — all against the hum of Dublin port, the DART and the city.
Biesbosch beavers at duskA beaver's tail slap, gnawing on willow, the push of its wake in a still creek; reed warblers and cuckoos at dusk in May; the murmur of thousands of geese and ducks settling on the open water at night; ospreys calling in spring.
Elbe beavers at dusk, MittelelbeTail-slaps, gnawing on willow at water level, kits whining inside the lodge, splashy feeding; with a hydrophone the gnawing and the underwater entries are excellent; oriole, nightingale and marsh frogs at the same hour.
Baie de Somme: harbour seals & wader roostsSeal pups bawling and adults grunting from the sandbanks at 300 m, oystercatcher and curlew roosts, and spoonbills clattering in the Marquenterre heronry.
Iroise: grey seals of Molène and Sein dolphinsSeal moans and pup calls from the reef islets, a resident bottlenose pod around Sein and Molène, and the Iroise swell — France's most oceanic soundscape.
Alpine ibex, chamois and marmotsIbex horn-clashes in the December rut, hoof-clatter on rock, chamois alarm hisses, marmot whistles echoing, chough flocks, water pipit; the wind.
Beavers by boat at dusk, Donau-AuenTail-slaps, gnawing on willow, kits whining in the lodge, surface swims and dives; frogs and night herons; the Danube.
Brown bears from forest hides, KočevskoBears are mostly quiet: heavy footfalls in beech litter, sniffing, huffing and jaw-popping when nervous, cubs squalling, mating-season moans; the surrounding evening chorus (wood warbler, Ural owl at dusk, red deer) is the real soundscape.
Bottlenose dolphins of the Kvarnerić, LošinjWith a hydrophone: whistles, echolocation click trains and burst-pulse squawks; above water, blows and tail-slaps; unfortunately also every outboard within 10 km.
Brown bears and wolves, Gorski kotar and VelebitBear footfalls, huffs and jaw-popping close to a hide; wolf packs howling across karst dolines in late summer; dormice and Ural owls at night; the Lika plateau is one of the quietest places in southern Europe.
Orcas hunting bluefin tuna in the StraitWith a hydrophone: orca calls and echolocation, pilot whale whistles, and the tuna-boat engines they hunt around. Above water: blows, and the shouts from the fishing boats.
Barbary macaque troops in the Middle Atlas cedar forestBarks, screams and the soft 'ooh' contact grunts of a troop moving through 30 m Atlas cedars, chest-thumping squabbles in the mating season, with Levaillant's woodpecker, firecrest and nuthatch in the canopy and wind in the cedars.
Sidi Moussa–Oualidia lagoons — 10,000 waders, flamingos and the salt-pan roostsAvocet and stilt yelping over the salt pans, godwit and dunlin flocks whirring up at each marsh harrier, flamingo honking from the lagoon, slender-billed gulls — against surf on the dune bar and the oyster farms' outboards.
Atlantic humpback dolphins of the Saloum delta — the species' last strongholdThrough a hydrophone: whistles and click-trains of a species almost never recorded (the surveys deploy SoundTraps and F-PODs to build its first sound library). Above water: blows, the slap of a fluke, pied kingfishers, and the mangrove's own chorus of herons and fiddler crabs at low water.
Red-billed tropicbird colony, Îles de la MadeleineTropicbirds' rasping, ratcheting display screams as pairs circle the basalt cliffs of Sarpan island a few metres overhead, surf in the sea caves, and Dakar's hum across 4 km of water.
Somone lagoon — pelicans, flamingos and the sandbank roost on the Petite CôtePelican wings and bill-clapping as the flock lands, tern and gull roost clamour, flamingo honks, spoonbills and herons in the mangrove, osprey whistles — small-scale next to the Saloum but the closest proper lagoon roost to the Saly resorts, and quiet at dawn before the jet-skis.
Kartong — wetland pools, Allahein river mouth and turtle beachCrakes and pygmy geese in the sand-mine pools, a wader roost at the Allahein mouth, and on rainy-season nights the beach with the surf and, if you are lucky, a nesting green turtle's breathing.
Tanbi wetlands and the Bund Road lagoons — Banjul's wader, gull and egret roostsA roost at the city's edge: the squabble of two or three hundred grey-headed gulls on the sand island, royal tern screams, whimbrel and godwit calls off the mud, and at dusk the wing-rush and grunting of thousands of cattle egrets dropping into the Cape Creek mangroves — all under Banjul's traffic, the ferry horn and the Friday mosque.
Cufada lagoons — wintering ducks and the heron roostWhistling ducks and garganey over the largest freshwater lagoons in the country, fish eagles, and a mixed heron and egret roost that fills the lakeside trees at dusk.
Fouta Djallon — savanna chimpanzees and the Bafing highlandsChimp calls echoing off sandstone canyon walls in a savanna-woodland mosaic, baboon troops on the cliffs, hippos on the Bafing, and canyons full of waterfall noise after the rains — with the Fulani villages' cattle and calls to prayer.
Tristão islands and the Rio Nunez estuary — waders, terns and mangroveWader and tern roosts on mangrove-fringed sandbanks at the southern end of the Bijagós system, with the mangrove's own crackle and the villages' fishing pirogues.
Sherbro and the Turtle Islands — terns, waders and turtle beachesTern and wader roosts on white sandbanks between eight Sherbro-speaking fishing islands, surf, and the villages' evening singing; dolphins in the channels.
Sierra Leone River estuary and Yawri Bay — wintering waders on Freetown's doorstepWader and tern roosts on the mudflats of one of West Africa's biggest estuaries, with mangrove crackle, pelicans and the constant boat traffic of Freetown's harbour.
East Nimba Nature Reserve — the Liberian side of Mount NimbaBat emergences from the disused iron-mine adits below the Nimba ridge (a full-spectrum recorder finds far more than the ear), chimps and hornbills in the remnant forest, and the wind on the grassland summit.
Lake Piso — wintering waders, terns and the mangrove lagoonTern and wader roosts on the bar where the lagoon meets the Atlantic, mangrove creek sound in the northern arms, surf on Robertsport's beaches and, at night, fruit bats and frogs from the forested shore.
Marshall and Mesurado wetlands — Monrovia's mangrove roostsThousands of egrets and herons settling into mangrove roosts on the edge of the capital, waders on the Marshall bar, mangrove crackle, and from the Farmington river islands the pant-hoots of the rescued chimpanzee colonies at dusk.
Azagny: manatees, Palearctic waders and the lagoon canalA quiet lagoon soundscape: whimbrel and greenshank calls across the flats, herons and darters from the mangroves, kingfishers along the canal and, if you are lucky, the soft blow of a manatee surfacing at dusk.
Banco forest dawn chorus inside AbidjanA relict rainforest chorus — greenbuls, cuckoos, hornbills and monkeys — with the Abidjan motorway as a constant low bed. Useful as a first morning in the country and as a way of understanding what the forest belt sounded like.
Îles Ehotilé: fruit bats, waterbirds and mangrove lagoonFruit bats chattering on the roost islands and rushing out over the water at dusk, egret colonies bickering as they settle, terns and whimbrel over the flats, and dugout paddles in a mangrove-lined lagoon.
Baboons, bat caves and savanna dawn at Shai HillsBaboon barks echoing off the inselbergs, stone partridge and helmeted guineafowl at first light, and the squeaks and wing-flutter of bats streaming from the Sayu caves at dusk.
Fazao-Malfakassa: elephants, colobus and ground hornbills in the hillsThe deep booming duet of ground hornbills across dry woodland, the rolling roar of ursine colobus from gallery forest, baboons on the escarpment and — with luck and patience — elephants at a pool at night.
Forest dawn and butterflies around KpaliméThe fullest forest chorus in Togo — hornbills, cuckoos and greenbuls in the Klouto hills — with village cocks, cocoa farmers and the occasional motorbike.
Palearctic waders and terns on Lake Togo and the Aného lagoonsTerns screaming over the sandbars at Aného where the lagoon meets the sea, whimbrel and greenshank from the flats, egrets settling in the mangroves at Togoville, and the pirogues of the fishing villages.
Bouche du Roy: mangroves, manatees and the Mono estuaryA mangrove soundscape: kingfishers and herons, mudskippers popping at low water, whimbrel and terns on the sand at the river mouth, and, rarely, the blow of a manatee in a still channel.
Amurum Forest and the Jos Plateau: rock-fig dawn and wet-season songA plateau soundscape at 1,200 m: rock firefinches and indigobirds among the boulders, sunbirds in the gallery forest, cisticolas over the grassland, with Jos's mosques and traffic far below on still mornings.
Akanda and the Mondah bay flats: Gabon's wader wintering ground on Libreville's doorstepThe massed calls of stints and sandpipers lifting off the flats as the tide comes in, whimbrel and godwit over the mangroves, tern colonies shrieking on the sandbank; behind it the drip and click of the mangrove at low water and mangabeys crashing in the Rhizophora.
Loango: forest elephants, buffalo and hippos on the ocean beachSurf behind everything. Elephants are near-silent on sand, but the rumbles and the crack of branches at the forest edge carry at dawn; hippo grunts from the lagoons at dusk; red river hog groups snuffling through the leaf litter; the chatter of river-martin flocks over the water in August–October and chimpanzee pant-hoots from the forest behind Akaka in the wet season.
Flamingos and Palearctic waders on the Mussulo lagoonFlamingo flocks honking and murmuring on the shallows of the inner lagoon, whimbrel and grey plover across the flats at low tide, terns over the channel and, on the city side, Luanda's traffic and the port.
Seals at Hvide Sande and on the Wadden Sea sandbanksHarbour seals are quiet — snorts, splashes, pups bleating on a haul-out; grey seal bulls moaning and roaring in winter; with a hydrophone, seal vocalisations and the tide; oystercatchers and the surf.
Griffon vultures on the sea cliffs of CresHissing and grunting at the ledges, the wind-rip of 2.7 m wings passing low over a boat, chick begging; shags and yellow-legged gulls beneath, cicadas and scops owl in the maquis behind.
Mediterranean monk seal colony, Cap BlancThe world's largest monk seal colony (around 300 animals) in a few sea caves and cliff-foot beaches: barks, snorts and pup bleats over surf — but mostly heard from above, at a distance, on the viewing platforms.
Technopole — Dakar's urban wetland roostWader and stilt calls over rain-fed lakes ringed by the Pikine suburbs; more a sighting spectacle, but the heron roost at dusk is loud.
Hooded vultures of the Kombo coast — Africa's densest population at the fish beaches and abattoirsMostly silent birds in enormous numbers: the hiss and thin squealing at a carcass or fish-gut pile, the clatter of 200 pairs of wings lifting at once when a dog runs through, the thud of landings in the kapok roost at dusk. The real soundscape is the fish beach itself — pirogue crews, drying racks, gulls, kites and the vultures' shuffle. A phenomenon that no longer exists anywhere else in the species' range.
Bobiri forest: four hundred butterfly species on a May morningMostly a visual spectacle: clouds of blues and swallowtails on the wet road, charaxes crashing into fermenting fruit. But the forest at dawn from the guesthouse veranda — hornbills, greenbuls, the whistles of the forest robin, cicadas at first light — is a genuine Upper Guinea chorus 30 km from Kumasi.
Lekki Conservation Centre: mona monkeys and swamp-forest birds in LagosMona monkeys' calls and crashes in the swamp forest, weavers and kingfishers along the boardwalk, and the Lekki–Epe expressway as a constant bed. A place to test rigs and get a first Nigerian forest recording, not a wilderness.
Leatherback nesting from Pongara to Mayumba — Gabon's turtle coastA leatherback digging is a slow, heavy scrape and the hiss of thrown sand, with deep sighing breaths — audible from 20 m on a still night between sets of surf. Otherwise the night is surf, the odd nightjar and, at Pongara, hippos and elephants in the forest behind the beach.
Brazzaville: the Congo river and the Djoué at dawnNot a spectacle but a way in: the Congo river's rapids below the city, kingfishers and herons at the Djoué mouth, weaver colonies in the riverside trees, and the two capitals' noise across the water.
Bearded vultures and golden eagles of the EngadinSilence and wind — the recording is of the alpine air, chough flocks, marmots and the occasional whoosh of a 2.8 m wingspan overhead; the visual spectacle is the point.
The Sado's resident bottlenose dolphinsA visual spectacle above water — blows and the slap of a breach — but a hydrophone over the side of the ferry or a kayak in the channel catches the clicks and whistles of a small, closely studied pod; the estuary is otherwise ferry engines, the Setúbal docks and the Atlantic swell at the bar.
April, country by country
Norway · Sweden · Denmark · United Kingdom · Germany · France · Switzerland · Austria · Slovenia · Croatia · Italy · Spain · Morocco · Mauritania