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Lang Elliott
Binaural Soundscapes | Podcasts | Videos | Birds | Mammals | Amphibians | Reptiles | Insects | Ramblings | Miscellaneous
Nearly every day yields something valuable, but only if I get myself out there and immerse myself in the glory of the wilds. I never know what I’m going to find, even when I have a goal in mind. And more often than not, my ultimate “catch” is not at all what I had expected …
This morning’s video catch: A Red-bellied Woodpecker giving its vibrant querrr calls, along with tapping at a potential nest site. I was very lucky to get this footage, after a frustrating morning trying to locate a Ruffed Grouse drumming log, with no success …
O frabjous day! The Brown Thrashers have arrived, nearly ten days earlier than last year. What a joyful surprise on this calm and sunny morning in upstate New York. A truly welcome sign that spring is blossoming according to plan, and that Old Man Winter has lost his grip and is quickly fading away …
Spring came and then left, or so it seemed. Last weekend the temperatures dropped into the high teens and on Saturday we had snow flurries all morning. Thinking it might be our last snowfall of the season, I braved the cold and attempted to get some video footage of birds at the nearby Cornell Plantations Arboretum … I’m surprised at how fruitful my adventure was!
Have you ever heard a Snapping Turtle sing? No? Well, then listen to this recording … you’re not going to believe your ears!
In searching through my collection, I uncovered this pleasing dawn chorus that I recorded at Land Between the Lakes , Kentucky, way back in 1995. It is a fairly busy chorus, featuring two Wood Thrushes singing back-and-forth. In the background, one can hear a Whip-poor-will, along with a din of bird song (a Cardinal being fairly prominent). Filling-in the low end are distant Barred Owls and a lone Mourning Dove …
Winter has returned in spades! There’s perhaps five inches of snow on the ground and last night the temperature dropped to 10F. It feels like mid-January, and it’s hard to believe that it was in the high 60s no more than a week ago. So I spent the morning in my studio, huddled in front of my computer, editing bird videos I gathered during warmer weather the week before …
I’ve just received a new toy … a fairly high-end camcorder that shoots in ultra high definition (4K) and is loaded with bells-and-whistles that will help me get splendid cinematic footage. Just for fun, I hauled it out to our frog pond last night and looked for some test subjects …
Bluebirds are at it again, courting in preparation for their nesting season. I’ve been hearing them sing for about two weeks, so I went this morning, hoping to videotape one in full song. I was not successful, but I did manage to capture something very special… mating feedingbehavior!
I rose early this morning and drove to a nearby natural area in hopes of getting videos of a Northern Mockingbird. Luck was with me. Shortly after arriving, I found a cooperative singing male and managed to snag some fairly nice footage, with decent sound to boot!
Our Eastern Phoebe showed up about a week ago. This morning he was singing like crazy, so I shot some video. Have you ever noticed that the male has two different song patterns? …
This morning I visited Willow Pond, a favorite spot of mine in the nearby Finger Lakes National Forest. It was cool and foggy. There was not much activity … a few male Red-winged Blackbirds setting up territories, a Song Sparrow or two singing from shrubbery, a few woodpeckers drumming in the distance …
What kind of voice does the American Beaver have? Would you ever guess that the young make expressive moans from within the den, especially in the autumn of the year? This is my all-time favorite beaver recording! Listen with an open heart and you will fall totally in love with these little guys …
Having posted recordings of the groundhog and raccoon, several of my readers inquired about the porcupine. So here’s a recording of porcupine squeals that I made in the Adirondack Mountains way back in 1988, at the very beginning of my nature recording career …
Just having published a blog post featuring a groundhog fight, I’ve decided to post a raccoon fight for comparison. This is an old recording, from September of 1990, yet it is still my best example of fighting or scuffling within a family group …
