Light shower in woods high in Teign Gorge

A quite brief light shower beside the Lower Deer Stalker's Path, high on the south side of the Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK, above Fingle Bridge.

To quote from my journal for 16 August 2020…

===============

It was a late decision (in the small hours of today) to do this outing, so I hadn't gone to bed early, and I had very little sleep, with a lot of 'overactive mind' then and an uncomfortable churning in the gut, and an irritable bladder (4 night pees), so was feeling very sleep-deprived.

Widespread thunderstorms were forecast for the area for today about lunchtime onwards, through the night and into tomorrow, but in the event I returned empty-handed. I did set R5 recording during the main light shower, but that was only pretty short, and I think it had just too much disturbance (e.g., including noises from my lightweight Goretex top when I moved, and various tummy-rumbles of mine while I was holding the umbrella over the recorder). I was going to discard that recording, but eventually salvaged some 15 minutes.

===============

Yes, my gut's squidgy gurglings were a wonder to behold while I was out that day, and I had to cut them all out of the completely non-thunderstorm that I did record, to make it sufficiently boring to post here! — And of course all the intense thunderstorms for the most part did happen, but of course as usual, anywhere where I wasn't in earshot of them. Nature recordists get to love Mother Nature and her little games (Grrrr!).

Capturing a good thunderstorm with a reasonable number of ground strikes, from a high up position in the Teign Gorge, is a particular 'holy grail' of mine. I want to capture lightning striking below me in the valley, with the ricocheting echoes and reverbs coming up from the valley slopes. Helicopters and low-flying jet aeroplanes often sound quite spectacular there, so my imagination informs me that lightning should sound pretty special there too.

A 13 January 2009 view of the recording site beside the Lower Deer Stalker's Path. The recorder was in the bottom-right corner of this view, facing down the slope, which would be obliquely to our right and away from us — but of course it was August then, so no significant dead leaves and lots of greenery.

Techie stuff:
The recorder was Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields. It was used on a lightweight Hama tripod.

Initial post-recording processing was to apply an EQ curve to compensate for muffling from the furry windshields.

Please remember to give this recording a rating — Thank you!