Wildlife spectacles in March
What wild nature is doing in March along the East Atlantic Flyway, from Norway to Angola: 99 spectacles at their peak and 128 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. For exact listening times on a given day, open March in the interactive calendar.
At their peak in March: 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.
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.
Bitterns boomingThe deep boom (fundamental around 150 Hz, carrying over 3 km), plus water rail squeals, reed and sedge warblers, and marsh harriers.
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.
Cranes at Lac du DerTens of thousands of cranes bugling as they leave the lake at first light in wave after wave, then the evening return with the sky full of trumpeting skeins.
Wolf howling and Ural owls, Kočevski Rog nightsPack howls with high pup yips from rendezvous sites, carrying several km across karst dolines; Ural owl's deep barking 'wuh-wuh-wuho' and female's hoarse calls; Tengmalm's owl in late winter; red deer in the same windows from mid September.
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.
Cranes at Laguna de GallocantaUp to 100,000 cranes lifting off the salt lagoon at first light in a continuous trumpeting roar that lasts half an hour, then skeins bugling over the steppe villages.
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ural owls in the Wienerwald and Dürrenstein wildernessUral owl's deep barking 'wuh-wuh... wu-wuhuh' series, female's hoarse heron-like calls, tawny owl duets, pygmy owl piping in the Dürrenstein old growth; snow-quiet beech forest.
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.
Flamingo colonies & courtshipGoose-like gabbling of big flocks, and the synchronised 'marching' displays with a constant honking.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 March: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 March
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.
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.
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.
Wadden Sea autumn: geese, waders and whooper swans in the marshBarnacle goose yapping in flocks of tens of thousands over the Ballum marsh, brent geese growling on the flats, golden plover flocks whistling, whooper swan families bugling on the polders at night, curlew; the tide.
Whooper swans & barnacle geeseBugling whoopers and yapping barnacle flocks like a huge crowd; the whole Svalbard barnacle population is on one estuary.
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.
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.
Arctic geese on the Lower RhineWhite-fronted geese's high yelping in skeins of thousands, bean geese's deeper 'kayak', the roar of a roost lifting off the Rhine at first light, whooper swans on the Bislicher Altrhein; barges and the A57 underneath.
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.
Lower Oder Valley: whooper swans, geese and the flooded poldersWhooper swan bugling in chorus over the polder ice-edge, geese lifting at dawn by the thousand, smew and goldeneye wing-whistle, eagle yelps; in October, cranes; in May, corncrakes at night.
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.
Wintering cranes at ArjuzanxWaves of cranes dropping into the flooded roost after dark, a continuous rolling chorus that carries for kilometres over the pine plantations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wintering cranes in the Extremadura dehesaTens of thousands of cranes flying into the roosts at sunset in wave after wave, bugling in the acorn dehesa by day, with wintering lapwings, golden plovers and greylags.
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.
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.
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.
The Afi Mountain barn swallow roostA rising hiss of millions of wings and contact calls as the swallows swirl and drop into the grass on the mountain's western slopes, falcons stooping through the flock, and then the extraordinary, very quiet murmur of a settled roost after dark.
Lobéké bais: elephants, gorillas and grey parrots at the clearingsGrey parrot flocks whistling and screeching over Djangui, elephants splashing, rumbling and trumpeting in the mud of Petite Savane, gorilla chest-beats from the edge, forest hogs grunting, and the rainforest dawn behind it all.
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.
Obô forest dawn: São Tomé's endemic birds above Bom SucessoA dawn chorus made of species found nowhere else: the oriole's fluting, the thrush, the weavers' chatter, the giant sunbird's rattle from the canopy, speirops flocks; the croak of the dwarf olive ibis in the deep forest at Monte Carmo in the first light, and the scops owl's whistle after dark. Dripping forest, streams, no traffic.
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.
Black grouse leksBubbling 'rookooing' from displaying males, hissing 'tchu-wee' sneezes and flutter jumps; curlew and snipe often in the same soundscape.
Starling murmurationsThe whoosh of tens of thousands of wings turning together, then a huge chattering as they settle into the reeds or under a pier; the dawn explosion out of the roost is even louder.
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.
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.
Lauwersmeer in winter: barnacle geese, wigeon and sea eaglesBarnacle geese yapping in a continuous chorus on the polder and the roar of 10,000 lifting at once; greylags and white-fronts honking in the dawn flight; wigeon whistling in the dark; eagles' yelps; the Dark Sky Park is genuinely quiet at night.
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.
Lake Constance winter: 100,000+ waterbirds in the UnterseeMassed diving-duck rafts (wing-whistle on take-off), coot squabbles, whooper swan choruses, bean geese, gull roosts; the Untersee is shallow and calm, so sound carries across the water from the Swiss shore.
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.
Baie de l'Aiguillon: wader roosts and winter geeseThe roar of 20,000 dunlin and plover lifting off the mud as the tide covers it, godwit and curlew flocks calling as they cross the dyke, wigeon whistling by the thousand on winter mornings, greylags at dawn and, in December, cranes bugling in to roost over the marsh.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eagle owl winter callingDeep 'oo-hu' territorial hoots from cliffs, sometimes in male–female duet, echoing off rock.
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.
Spring passage on small islandsIsland scrub full of freshly arrived, singing migrants after 'falls', with night flight calls overhead.
Winter wetlands: geese, ducks & cranesGoose flights at dawn, whistling wigeon rafts, cranes bugling as they pass north in late winter.
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.
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.
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.
Wintering waders and ducks on Merja ZergaA continuous layer of wader contact calls over the lagoon, whole flocks lifting in a rush of wings when a marsh harrier crosses, flamingo honking from the shallows, and the bark of grey herons. Boatmen's pirogues are still mostly rowed or poled inside the lagoon.
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.
Diawling floodplain — pelicans, flamingos and Palearctic ducksPelican flotillas grunting, garganey and pintail flocks whirring off the flooded basins, flamingo chorus, and the low background of the Diama dam and the Senegal river.
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.
Kousmar — the world's largest lesser kestrel and scissor-tailed kite roostTens of thousands of small falcons and kites settling into a few hectares of acacias with a continuous chittering and the rush of wings, then a night of restless calling; the Saloum's mangroves and the town's calls to prayer behind.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hadejia-Nguru wetlands: Sahelian floodplain waterfowlWhistling-duck choruses overhead at dusk, the massed wing-noise of garganey and pintail flushing off a pool, ruff flocks, ibis and herons in the flooded acacia and the Sahel wind in typha and doum palms.
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.
Okomu: the white-throated monkey's forest and a 43-metre tree house at dawnA lowland forest dawn from above the canopy: hornbills whooshing past at eye level, the chatter and 'pyow' alarm of white-throated and putty-nosed monkeys, mangabey whoops, grey parrots screaming to the fig trees, cicadas rising with the light; at night from the stilt chalets, tree hyrax, owls and, with luck, the crash of elephants in the swamp forest.
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.
Kilum-Ijim: Bannerman's turaco and the Mount Oku forestThe deep, hoarse 'kow-kow-kow' of Bannerman's turaco rolling across the last big montane forest of the Bamenda highlands, wattle-eyes and apalises in the understorey, and cattle and church bells from the villages below.
Mount Cameroon: francolin and speirops on the volcano's slopesThe rasping, far-carrying crow of the Mount Cameroon francolin from the forest edge at dawn, speirops flocks chattering through the canopy, montane greenbuls and sunbirds — the only place on earth for two of these — with the wind on the open slopes above.
Mount Kupe and the Bakossi mountains: montane forest songThe loud, ringing whistles of the Mount Kupe bushshrike — one of Africa's rarest birds — from the mid-altitude forest, babbler flocks, montane greenbuls and, at the rockfowl rocks, the near-silent presence of the birds themselves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wintering waterbirds on the lakes: Fanel, Klingnau, Untersee, LémanDiving-duck rafts and wing-whistle, whooper swans in the Ermatinger Becken, bean geese at Klingnau, pintail whistles, coot squabbles, gull roost lift-off; church bells across the lake.
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.
Wintering waterfowl on the Drava reservoirsThousands of gulls lifting off the roost at dawn, goldeneye wing-whistle, whooper swans on cold-wave years, greylag flocks; the Ptuj dam and the town road behind.
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.
Tagus estuary in winter: flamingos, avocets and 100,000 waterbirdsFlamingo flocks honking as they move between the estuary and the Lezíria rice fields, avocet and godwit roosts chattering on the salinas at high tide, teal whistling on the lagoons and the great winter silence of the open marsh broken by hunters' shots outside the reserve.
Marchica lagoon, the Moulouya mouth and the Mohammed V reservoir — the Mediterranean east in winterFlamingo honking across a lagoon the size of a city, wigeon whistling, shelduck, the bugling of common cranes at the Mohammed V shore at dusk, and in spring a booming bittern and avocet colony clamour at the Moulouya mouth. Nador's traffic and the fishermen's outboards are the backdrop; the Moulouya is quieter.
Saharan lagoons — Khnifiss and Dakhla Bay in winterFlamingo honking in the hundreds across a lagoon with no other sound at all, wader flocks lifting, the rattle of royal and Caspian terns, and on Dakhla Bay the blow of a humpback dolphin close to shore.
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.
White-headed ducks and marbled teal wintering on Lac Sidi BoughabaCoots, moorhens and purple swamphens whooping and grunting from the reeds at dusk, the growl of little grebes, marbled teal's thin whistles, and the only reliable Moroccan chorus of white-headed duck display rattles in late winter. Marsh owl wing-beats and barks over the northern reeds after dark.
Baie du Lévrier — 37,000 gulls, terns and waders in Nouadhibou's bayA big gull and tern roost — royal and Caspian tern screams, slender-billed and Audouin's gulls, knot and godwit flocks — beside one of West Africa's busiest fishing ports; the iron-ore train and the harbour are the backdrop, the Baie de l'Étoile north of town is the quiet, dolphin-haunted end.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Waterbirds of Lake Nokoué and GanviéBlack terns and whiskered terns calling over the fish-parks, egrets and herons settling at dusk, jacanas on the lily beds and the paddle-and-pole sounds of a stilt town of 30,000 people.
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.
Douala-Edéa and Lake Ossa: manatees, mangroves and the Sanaga mouthGrey parrot roost flights whistling over the mangroves at dusk, egrets and herons settling, the Sanaga estuary's terns, and at Lake Ossa the soft blows of manatees surfacing in the dark.
Bioko's southern beaches: leatherbacks, green turtles and the Caldera primatesBlack-sand surf, then the scrape and sigh of a leatherback digging a few metres away. At dawn the forest behind Moaba is one of the richest primate choruses in Africa: drill grunts and crowing, the chatter of red-eared monkeys, colobus roars, hornbills and the Bioko race of the grey parrot. Waterfalls drop straight onto the beach between the nesting bays.
Mangroves of the Congo mouth: manatees, turtle beaches and the only marine park in the DRCA mangrove dawn: the drip and click of the Rhizophora at low water, kingfishers, herons, fish eagles, the blow of a manatee surfacing in a side channel (a short, sharp exhalation, easy to miss), hippos grunting in the back creeks; at night on the beach, surf and a nesting ridley's scraping — and the Congo's current audible against the sandbanks at Banana.
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.
Raptor migration: Strait of MessinaMostly visual — kettles of raptors — but also bee-eater flocks overhead, and swifts and hirundines passing.
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.
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.
Sea turtle nesting on Liberia's beachesA leatherback's long sighing breaths and flippers throwing sand on an empty Atlantic beach with surf and, behind, the forest's night — a sighting spectacle first, but the breathing of a two-metre animal beside you is a sound to keep.
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.
Sea turtles on the Togo coastA sighting more than a sound: the heavy breathing and sand-scraping of a nesting female against the surf, and the patrol team's low talk.
Sea turtles nesting at Grand-Popo and OuidahA sight more than a sound, but with a close mic: sand thrown by a leatherback's flippers, the deep exhalations of a nesting female, and the Bight of Benin surf behind.
Turtle nights on São Tomé — Praia Jalé, Praia Inhame and Morro PeixeSurf on a black-sand beach, the scrape and thrown sand of a green turtle digging, her breathing, and the forest behind the beach: São Tomé scops owl, frogs, the squeak of fruit bats in the coconut palms. Quiet beaches without engine noise — the south is the end of the road.
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.
Olive ridley nesting on the Angolan coast — the Atlantic's largest populationA sighting with a close-mic moment: the scraping and heavy breathing of a nesting ridley — a small turtle, a quick nest — against the Atlantic surf, and the Kitabanga patrol's low voices.
Fin and humpback whales from the south-coast headlandsFrom the cliffs: surf, gulls, choughs and the wind; on the calmest days a distant blow can be heard. The whales are a visual event; underwater sound needs a boat and a hydrophone.
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.
Houbara bustard display on the Canary steppesSilent theatre: a male running in circles with neck plumes thrown over his head like a white ball, visible for a kilometre at dawn. The soundscape is the trade wind, lesser short-toed larks, stone-curlews and coursers at first light — the plains are otherwise among the quietest places in Spain.
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.
March, country by country
United Kingdom · Germany · France · Italy · Spain · Morocco · Senegal · The Gambia · Guinea · Sierra Leone · Liberia · Côte d'Ivoire · Ghana · Togo · Benin · Nigeria · Cameroon