Neighborhood Cold winter sounds January 31 2026

A soundscape of the atmosphere in a small town in Illinois on a very cold day. Temp was 16 degrees farenheit with a wind chill of zero degrees during this recording. Recording was done on the front steps of a house under an aluminum awning. Because of this you get the various sounds of birds jockeying for position on the steel struts underneath the aluminum overhang in order to get the best spot to roost for the cold night ahead.
Highlights include:

Starlings, Cardinals and House Finches from the beginning to the one minute mark
A common Grackle starts his harsh, wheezy call from #1:09---2:18
The sweet, subtle sound of a woodpecker banging away on a tree from # 2:32-----2:37
The northern wind through a thicket of dried grasses #3:01-----3:06
Wind chimes from #4:22-----4:38 then again off and on throughout the rest of the recording
Several beautiful, red-cheeked house finches call out #4:32----5:25

**Highlight House finches flying through and around the metal struts hold the aluminum awning
in place. You hear lots of small toenails scraping on painted metal, and a lot of wing flutters.
This close sound runs from #5:33-------7:17

This was recorded at 4PM on Saturday January 31 2026 using the following gear:

Recorder: Zoom F-3 recorder
Microphones: Two Sennheiser MKH 416s arranged in ORTF configuration

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