Peace on Cranbrook Down, with spring flies / bees and birds (2)

An immersive peaceful soundscape, different from the previous recording of this title uploaded here (https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/808033/ ). Whereas that previous recording was placed about 2½ metres from the base of the stunted hawthorn, this time the recorder was much closer to the little tree, being on top of the little hill-fort ridge and half-pointing up into the tree's miniature canopy. However, the flowers were on the turn now, and I didn't see anything visiting, so was expecting a rather useless recording. What made this recording stand out particularly was the fine performances from one or two stonechats, but also skylarks sang at times. In addition, we hear calls of a little flock of linnets, and on one occasion the odd song fragment from them. Other birds heard distantly and briefly are meadow pipit and tree pipit.

As for our insect friends, in fact the recorder still picked up for much of the time a quiet background hum from flies and bees, as well as passing ones, but I have to assume that much of that was just from the insects all around rather than on the blossom. Also there is at least one short section just when the wind is finally starting to get up, when a grasshopper (Common Green Grasshopper) is rather distantly 'singing' — though I can hear it only in the half-speed version of this recording, being in my 80s.

Again it was a perfect day, warm with unbroken sunshine, though the latter did get some thin cloud patches weakening it later, and the breeze got up for about the last half-hour, so the tree got noisy, giving additional interest. The primary stonechat kept returning to the tip of a thin branch of the little tree, dismayingly close above the recorder, and indeed although it sounds fine in the recording at normal speed, the half-speed version needed focused dynamic EQ to tame the the song to make it bearable.

I made the recording over 1h 23', finishing at around 1.05p.m. BST on 23 May 2025, beside the inner perimeter track of Cranbrook Castle (an ancient hill fort), on top of Cranbrook Down, high above (south of) Fingle Bridge (Teign Gorge, Drewsteignton, Devon, UK). The exact recording spot was beside the east limb of the track, on top of the hill-fort ridge. Its exact positioning had it 'facing' the tree closely but sideways-on, as I wanted to capture any birdsong on the east as well as west side of the ridge.

Advisory
This was a very quiet soundscape, and I've amplified it a fair bit to be a worthwhile experience in a more normal listening place. At the beginning you should be able to (just) hear the background hum of flies. Feel free to experiment to adjust up or down to suit your own listening conditions. High-grade headphones are recommended for best listening.

This recording running. We're looking roughly north, towards Exmoor (just lost in distant haze).

The recorder situation. Note how it's sideways-on to the tree, facing fairly steeply upwards.

Techie stuff:

Recorder was a Sony PCM-D100, with two nested custom Windcut furry windshields. It was placed on an Aoka carbon-fibre mini tripod (low, to minimize wind exposure). I had the mics set at my default wide-angle setting — 120°.

Post-recording processing was to apply EQ in Audacity to correct for the muffling effect of the windshield, and I used TDR Nova GE VST plugin to drastically reduce low bass in the microphone wind noise, so that what remains of that is generally pleasant to the ear and just a nice bit of the 'landscape'.

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