Forest drizzle with backdrop of Spring Peepers plus various bird sounds. 6 am, 2 May 2016, Finger Lakes National Forest near Trumansburg, New York. © Lang Elliott.
Although it rained all night, I rose early and drove through light fog to a forested area in hopes of hearing my first Wood Thrush of the year. No luck! In fact, there was next-to-nothing going on, except for the misty rain and drip from trees. I was disappointed, but decided to take a brief walk in the woods. And that is when the magic happened.
I took a deep breath, relaxed and listened, truly listened … trying my best to practice what I preach. And soon I was mesmerized by the pops and snaps of the water droplets, falling from the trees and splashing upon the oak and maple leaves that blanketed the ground. Next I noticed the Spring Peepers chorusing from a distant woodland pond. How delightful! So I set up my soundscape microphone and hit record, pleased that I allowed myself to touch upon the miracle at hand.
Within seconds, I became aware of the soft notes of a lone Black-capped Chickadee, whistling its delicate fee-bee-eee from high in the trees. After about a minute, a female Wood Duck called from the distant pond, her repeated squeals sounding rather musical to my ears. Next, an American Robin gave two whinny calls and then broke into its cheery dawn-song … a real treat and luckily not so close as to break my calm. After that, there was a long interlude of drip, peepers, and chickadee, punctuated by the down-slurred alarm whistles from a Red-winged Blackbird. Finally, near the end, I was pleased to hear the hawk-like calls of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, followed by a few drums.
I am quite happy with my morning’s catch, already a treasured “forest drizzle” soundscape. It will go into my collection of meditative recordings … soundscapes that beg one to surrender to the totality of dimensional sound. Altogether I got about fifteen minutes of usable material, before a jet roared overhead and a car zoomed by on the gravel road.
Shaken from my dream by the sounds of machines, I decided to pack up and go home. And soon I too was roaring down the gravel road, disturbing countless other gentle beings quietly meditating in the forest with water droplets falling lightly upon their saintly heads.
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Lovely!
Beautiful !
Just wonderful!! So happy to have found you !
: >)
I love this, especially because the microphone rain sounds I have set up for live feed into my house is being covered over by a lawn mower also in the rain , so I just put this on instead. Is there anyway that I could get it to repeat? That way I could listen to it for hours. Then I would donate more than I already have when I purchased your other soundtracks.
Susanne: It is set to repeat and works on my computer. Are you sure it’s not looping on yours?
p.s. I’m also considering lengthening my posted soundscape recordings to 8-10 minutes, as opposed to around 5 minutes, as they are now.
Great, it does on my computer, not my iPad. Thanks, lovely!
Wonderful and I stayed dry. Thanks for adding this….
At 6 am I was listening to news of the presidential contenders. You recording makes that sound like so much noise. Enjoyed.
Political discourse is generally super noisy, overly-raucous, dissonant, and not at all pleasing to the ear. At least that is my opinion.
Kind of a P.S., seeing your note down below to try more along this line … I wonder if drizzle slipping down from conifer needles, onto softer substrate beneath, would sound perhaps even more ethereal, whispery? Perhaps a “piney wood” will call to you!
I actually thought of that. I know a pine woods spot where there’s a Hermit Thrush most years. I’ll have to check it out. Imagine the sound of light rain falling on soft pine needles, with ethereal thrush notes fluting gently upon one’s mind. Oh my, I can’t wait to experience that (plus capture it, of course, for everyone’s enjoyment).
that sounds lovely
Delicious, good for us on so many levels. Lullaby for grown-ups who need to defrazzle to sleep. This is very, very, nice. Thanks, Lang (as always)!
You’re welcome Sharon!
We have had drought conditions for four years. Broken in 2016 so now when it rains I go out on my porch and enjoy every drop, even did my own recording on my phone! I love your recording. I want to get up into the forested hills nearby and find my own spot. Thank you for sharing. I am enjoying your thrush CD recordings. How can I get the Mp3 version so I can have more flexibility in listening? I would like to have it on my phone so I can listen via Bluetooth speakers.
There’s also a dove cooing softly in the background
Yes, you’re right … a Mourning Dove cooing. Good ears! Perhaps I should add it to the list.
i just posted this to my FB page, suggesting, as i always do, that people subscribe to your blog. you should have a FB share button here if it’s not too hard to do.
There’s already a Facebook share button at the top of the comment section, plus in a bar that appears to the upper left on desktop or laptops. Perhaps people aren’t seeing it because I’ve made the social sharing bars brown, rather than using default colors. Should I make them more colorful?
ah i see it now. i missed it–it may just be me. but might help to make them more colorful. i just would like to see your work shared as much as possible. the eye is drawn to that paypal button and then the bar under , for me, just didn’t register. maybe even putting it below the “leave a comment” bar if possible. you might want to ask others–wouldn’t want you to go to trouble if it’s just me that didn’t notice.
OK, I’ll bring back the colors. The brown is nice design-wise, but blends in with everything else and thus may not be noticed. Let’s face it, I want as much sharing as possible, so colors it will be!
Done! Colors are now back, at least for the time being.
it does seem more noticeable to me anyway.
Absolutely lovely. definitely would be wonderful in the soothing collection. your sounds are just so natural–can’t say enough about how much i appreciate them. just about all of the stuff out there is processed so much it has a metallic or synthetic sound to it, but yours sounds like the real thing.
Thank you billie … I guess my recordings are the “real thing,” at last insofar as a wonderful soundscape microphone can convey. I have made it my life’s work to capture the sublime in nature’s soundscapes, as a form of ministry to those who take the time to listen, including myself. I find these experiences in the field very healing, and I’m hoping my listeners also enjoy that effect.
I certainly do!
Beautiful! Soothing and refreshing Spring morning!
Thank you, Lang, for sharing this beauty with us. You have inspired me to go out in the rain today for a “listening” walk in my local park.
Great … let me know what happens!
It is raining here, and birds are at the feeder but it is too cold to leave the window open. This is a perfect soundtrack to my windows – thank you for all you do.
Oh, Lang, you are a generous soul! This is the kind of sound that is rare for me to encounter on my own, but it creates, for me, one big relaxing sigh, then the realization that I am breathing with the earth. So beautiful! Thank you!
welcome … welcome … welcome!
I just love it. I can pretend I am inside my forest sanctuary. Peaceful and calm, it is music to read or nap or relax with. If I ever end up in a nursing home, I hope that they play this recording on rainy days…or at least I am able to listen to it on an iPod. Close to heaven!
Very close to heaven, I do believe! I’m totally hooked on it myself, playing it over and over here in my studio. Can’t get any work done!
would be such a wonderful idea for nursing homes, hospitals, etc.
It took my third listening to hear the Wood Duck! Lovely and so calming.
Listening to this soundscape is an exercise in subtleties. I am playing it over-and-over and realizing I need to get lots more recordings such as this one. Luckily, we’ll be having lots of precipitation in the coming week, so I’ll be working hard to get more drizzle-scapes, maybe even one that celebrates the arrival of the Wood Thrushes.
This one is super enjoyable and rich Lang. I feel so lucky to get hear and read your posts as they appear 🙂
Yes, this is a good one. Too bad I didn’t get a longer recording, but I had to head off to meet my mechanic (my car broke down and might have to be replaced).
condolences on the car–that is always such a big deal to face. as many of us as are looking forward to your new collections, maybe we can help with some of the payment 🙂
I’m still gathering new material, plus I need to launch my new store website (a complete re-design of the site). All this is delaying my plans to publish new titles. I am also considering the possibility of crowdfunding new titles, though I need to build my mailing list before that will be feasible. Ultimately, if I could get a thousand people willing to donate ten dollars to produce a new title (= an hour or more of sound), then I could virtually give titles away for free to all who are interested … thereby spreading the pristine sounds of nature… Read more »
Popcorn forest!
Jeff: how did you figure it out? … it REALLY IS a meditation on popcorn and the dream of going to movies!