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Jackdaw in The Funnel, Gwennap Head, near Land's End

Overall rating (4 ratings)
Philip_Goddard

June 5th, 2023

Follow
Soundscapes > Nature
Penzance, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom
Cornish coast - Land's End peninsula (Penwith)

A real weird one, this! We eavesdrop into a gaping hole known as The Funnel, which is where the roof of a sea cave has collapsed, and hear a young jackdaw in there, and eventually briefly a flurry of others in there, suggesting mother come to attend to her brood. This is in the impressive granite rock formations at Gwennap Head, not far from Land's End, Penwith, Cornwall, UK.

If we listen attentively we hear echoed distant sounds coming up from the cave entrance (rocky shore), including climbers on a nearby sheer cliff buttress, and a rather low-pitched 'singing' buoy a little way out at sea. Meanwhile a bumblebee comes fussing around in the foreground, enjoying the small flowers precariously perched on the edge of the sheer wall of the hole.

I made this recording on 14 June 2014, and was really struck by the atmosphere of this soundscape, with the acoustics of that cave, despite the apparent monotony of the one jackdaw keeping on repeating the same call in there. Most of the sea sound we hear is actually reflected up from the cave entrance down below. I still love it — it has style!

Advisory

This really comes to life, and reveals masses of further detail, when listened to with high-grade headphones rather than speakers.

This recording taking place
This recording in progress. The odd bumblebees sure liked those thrift flowers in the foreground!

The Funnel
A somewhat more contextual view of The Funnel — photo taken 5 October 2007.

Techie stuff

The recorder was Sony PCM-M10, with Røde DeadKitten furry windshield. It was placed on a Zipshot Mini tripod, which I regard as more 'midi' than 'mini'.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield — and then more recently stereo widening / sharpening-up using the VST plugin A1 Stereo Control (160% widening).

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

This recording can be used free of charge, provided that it's not part of a materially profit-making project, and it is properly and clearly attributed. The attribution must give my name (Philip Goddard) and link to https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/689680/

Sound illegal or offensive? Flag it!
Atlantic
bird
birds
cave
chasm
cliff
coast
coast-path
collapsed-cave-roof
Cornwall
England
field-recording
granite
Gwennap-head
hole
jackdaw
national-trail
natural-soundscape
nature
ocean
Penwith
Porthgwarra
reverberant
sea
singing-buoy
South-West-Coast-Path
The-Funnel
UK
waves

Type

Flac (.flac)

Duration

34:24.409

File size

177.8 MB

Sample rate

44100.0 Hz

Bit depth

16 bit

Channels

Stereo

Comments
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J
Johann61

1 year, 11 months ago

Hallo Philip,
gefällt mir sehr gut.
Liebe Grüsse
Johann

  1. 31 downloads
  2. 1 comment
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