Quiet cold autumn woods MIXPRE3 BP4025 NOVEMBER 28 2023

I recorded this late Autumn soundscape in the almost leaf-less forest of Illinois. How wonderful and colorful our Autumn was, but, way too short. Now the trees are mostly bare - both of leaves and birds. The few leaves that still stubbornly cling like to make a harsh rattle when the wind blows them. The birds that are left are mostly the woodpeckers and chickadees and cardinals and nuthatches. These birds are experts at finding the hidden, hibernating and drowsy insects in the many cracks and crevices of the bark of trees.
This day was very sunny with a perfect blue sky, but, unusually cold for this time of year. 38 degrees as I set up my gear and I felt the cold!
Calendar still says autumn, but this day said "winter"...winter that I've captured on a small digital card to be saved forever.

Honestly though, despite the cold, I truly enjoy this time of year when the woods are quieter where you can almost hear the trees and shrubs sinking into a winter sleep. During the summer when I am in the woods, sometimes the loudness is almost too much. But not on this day. A cold, quiet day with nothing but the remaining colorful woodpeckers tolerating me as I have fun being a kid again wading ankle deep through the fallen leaves.

Recording at the southern part of Illinois in the Shawnee National forest on Tuesday November 28, 2023.
Equipment: Sound Devices MixPre 3 generation ii and microphone was the Audio Technica BP4025 Stereo microphone. To give you an example of how quiet the woods were on this day, my MixPre is very capable of adding up to 78 db of gain---which I rarely do. And my microphone has a good , solid hot output, but despite all of that, I had to crank my gain to 72 to get a decent signal of the woods settling down for a winter's rest.
Hope you enjoy this recording.