Robin awakening at dawn next to small brook. 4:45am, 10 June 2014, near Ithaca, New York. © Lang Elliott.
I am so excited! I just discovered another jewel … a recording of an American Robin awakening at dawn next to a small mountain brook. It only lasts five minutes, but it is so incredibly pleasing to my ear. Please don’t play it too loudly! It is made of fine silk and should be handled with care!
Listen also for the pleasing notes of a lone Wood Thrush in the background, along with the soft cooing of a Mourning Dove. Toward the end, other birds can be heard, especially the calls and songs of a Veery. I had to stop the recording due to the sudden arrival of a car on the dirt road where I was recording. Once it passed by, the robin flew off, and that was that! Five wonderful minutes is surely better than none … right?
Note that I’m still choosing tracks for my forthcoming “Tranquility” title, and I think this recording rates high on the chart. Let me know what you think. Should I include it?
This is my favorite bird song.
I never tire of them (unless one starts singing loudly nearby when I’m trying to record a different bird).
I don’t want to be redundant but YES to including this! So beautiful. I love dawnsong of our songbirds. The Robin singing in the evening is so lovely also–reminds me of my evenings at my parents home when young. Love your videos & audios!
I think my pic will be here! Fingers crossed
Sure enough … there you are!
If you are the Dick Schinkel I suspect you might be . . . were we on the same Texas Coast birding trip in 1983 (Tom Potter led)with Carpenters and L. Hudnutt??
By all means include it. The American Robin is my all-time favorite bird! As a child there was always a robin’s nest in the tree outside my window and they sang me to sleep at night and sang me awake in the morning. Even sixty plus years later the cheerful song of the robin is calming and uplifting.
Love this Lang! I just returned from snowy Wyoming and my grandchildren where we reported in seeing our first robin. The jackrabbits appeared from the snow the final day as did the magpies. I loved your bird poems for children too- perfect and needed for today’s nature starved children! and great idea! Lynn Faust
I just love those magpies and their raucous cries!
Lang, it is so interesting what you wrote about our ability to filter sounds when we’re in nature… sounds that are very obvious when we listen to a recording. On a recent morning, barely out of ice but following a rain in the night, I was recording woodcocks at dawn. When I looked at my spectrograms later, I saw the usual dark grey smear of traffic noise at the bottom of the graph, but something else struck me. There was a clear place above the traffic muck, and then a wider, light grey, band that was completely even and featureless,… Read more »
Diane: What species was the “million frogs”? Spring Peepers are just barely below the flight twittering of the Woodcock. Or were you hearing Wood Frogs cackling? I plan to go scouting for Woodcock over the next few days. While I already have great recordings and videos, I want to practice what I preach: get thyself out in nature! I will also be doing a few predawn excursions in search of a friendly Ruffed Grouse, in order to get more drumming footage, hopefully in slow motion. What fun it all is!
Sorry, Lang. I don’t know my frogs well. We have lots of spring peepers here, so that was probably it.
I’m really going to have to learn frog sounds. These particular frogs were not very close, and all their vocalizations blended together, but I’m sure a person who knows frogs would recognize them in an instant.
Lang, another gem. These clips are so lovely to play at any time of day and make working in an office, at a computer more spiritful. Thank you!
You’re welcome Chris!
Oh yes, include this on your tranquility collection! Thanks for the gift of this happiness. Bows to all, O morning robin, accompanying neighbors, and Lang, and guests. It reminds me of how I found Music of Nature some years ago, because I was reading Denise Levertov’s poem Claritas, about the All-Day bird, the white-throated sparrow and I wasn’t sure what the white-throated sparrow sounded like, but I could imagine it, just like in the poem, which ends: Sun light. Light light light light. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/102/4#!/20589327/1 And I found your site, Lang, and listened to the white-throated sparrow, which is so marvelous.… Read more »
Melody: Thanks the link to Claritas. That’s a lovely poem and one I was not familiar with. sun .. light .. light-light-light.
Another gem to include in the new collection! I find it peaceful yet quickening as I imagine the brand new sunrays, magenta tinted, blossoming the leaves and tree trunks. As for the name of the collection, I personally like ‘tranquil bird song’ a lot. ‘Silken bird song’ is a possibility too, that is certainly not over-used!…
Thanks for bringing us in touch with these beautiful aspects of the world we live in!
I wonder if the birds have any idea how much their songs means to some of us humans.
probably not, but what the heck?
I’ll be glad to do that, Lang.
Will these be available as a commercial product? They are exactly what visitors to my birdwatching.com website are asking for.
Yes, commercial products, but probably not for wholesale. Right now I’m selling digital downloads at musicofnature.com. People can order actual CDs from my Trepstar store, but they are made “one-demand” when someone places an order. In other words, I don’t stock any inventory.
p.s. Of course, I’d certainly appreciate any business you can send me via providing a link to musicofnature.com
Two more thumbs up here, and wishing I had several more thumbs to raise. Robin’s sweetly determined voice is one I love to hear any time, any season. Regardless my situation or circumstance, he restores me gently to peace and happiness, a smile softens my face, and I am so, so grateful for his being. A healing voice.
So beautiful!! Just right for patients in the hospital who are preparing for surgery to relax. Jackie
I agree Jackie. I would think that nature sounds, played softly, would work better than most any musical pieces.
You tweaked my expectations when you said ‘”its made with silk, handle with care.” Your robin’s song fills my heart and the tiny space left, is filled by the mourning dove off in the distance. This recording definitely should be included.
a good question about the title. “tranquil” gets used a lot. i like “gentle” which you do not see as much on various CD’s (none of which are as good as yours). another word might be “soothing” or “serene” or “peaceful”. i think that it would nice to have another word that connotes the elegance of these or the purity–something like that. “elegant serenity” or “peaceful elegance”. ok i’ll stop==i like words too much 🙂
Compared to all the noise in this world I would call this very tranquil. I like that word and I love robins! Thank you for sharing this.
My favorite sound in the world is the Robin’s dawn song. Definitely include it! It’s WONderful!
Perfectly clean soundtracks of nature do not tell the truth about it. Nor do they save the beauty from the “noise.” These robins, thrushes and doves do hear man made noises, and they live accordingly. It is the part of THEIR lives. One may even argue sound of airplane is ugly. Would it really be ugly here, too? I’ve have collected nearly all your CDs. I never stop listening to them, I know them by heart. Please, publish the “unedited” soundtracks too. Break the silence. Show the background “noise” these creatures live in. Your sounds will be studied in thousands… Read more »
I do save all the raw recordings, of course, but it’s not commercially viable to publish recordings with airplanes and automobiles and the like. Only a very few people would be interested. I guess I’m not a purist in this sense, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I generally don’t even press the record button if things don’t sound right to me. When publishing for relaxation and healing, which is perhaps my main goal with regard to soundscapes, the rumble and chatter of humankind has no place … at least that’s my take on the matter. Note that I’m not… Read more »
Yes, definitely include! Love this!
As I am breathing my last breath please play this for me as I pass. Heavenly
I will do that Bill, but more likely I’ll be already gone!
Definitely soothing, yet awakening, too. Nothing sleepy about a robin singing at dawn!
Eliza: You’re right. It’s a tranquil celebration of dawn, and of awakening. Not exactly sleepy-time, but not rousing or cacophonous. I may call my forthcoming title “gentle bird song”, or else “tranquil bird song.” Which do you like the best?
‘Gentle’ is my preference, although both are apt descriptors. 🙂
“Easy day bird songs” … comes to mind while enjoying Robin’s vibrant vocal love again. I listen to him often, so thank you for this wonder.
You have my vote!
In six words: beautiful birdsongs, the sound of relaxation.
Absolutely Lang, include your tranquility mix.
Yes! And I’m looking forward to gathering more gentle nature recordings this coming season. I intend to make it a top priority.
Lang: I found you by accident and am delighted. Please continue your website.
There wasnt any way for me to hear Robin Awakening. Go to a hospital that can trwat your throat cancer, successfully. 16 yrs. ago I was cured with stage 4 small cell carcinoma of right fallopian tube, uterine and cervical cancer.
I am already signed up.
Pamela: You can’t listen to the recording? Why not?
As for my throat cancer, I did jump through the hoops, with an operation followed by radiation. I seem to now be free of cancer, but I’m only gradually recovering from the damage to my throat done by the radiation.
Hard to picture a track that could be more Tranquil.
Many thanks.
Love this. Just beautiful.
Once again, I am so happy I found you and thanks for what you do.
I am an artist, I use real flowers and many different kinds of botanicals in my work, and I often create birds, but I have yet to do a robin.
My web site is brand new and a work in progress.
Thank you
Lang, this is just heavenly– it reminds me of the wonderful days when one could awaken to birdsong on Morning Pro Musica via Robert J. Lurtsema in Boston. Thank you for your fabulous recordings and photography!
I remember that program. The nature ambiences were extremely popular and I’m surprised that nobody is doing that these days on NPR. Of course, you need great recordings to pull it off … and I guess I’ve got them (with more to come!). Maybe I should consider doing a radio gig, partly as a way to advertise my online store, which I’ll soon be expanding.
Just lovely…could have been recorded in so many places on the planet. Your recordings bring back memories of those carefree days of our youth…back home in Snake Acres (Missouri). Thank you, Lang.
Cindy: Yes, I wholeheartedly agree … robinsong evokes memories of youth, of those carefree days when all was well and good (or nearly so?).
Exquisite! Please do include.
I do believe this recording is getting a resounding thumbs-up!
No one proclaims dawn like a Robin! Although they are common, Robins and their songs are to be cherished. This is beautiful, Lang!
every time i hear one of your recordings i think “oh this is the best yet!”. then i hear another best 🙂 This is really exquisite, every note just right–the water, the thrush, the robin, and the occasional cameo of other birds. Definitely would include on your tranquility mix. And if you feel you don’t have enough, i would loop some. I could listen to this more than once, although 5 minutes of it is really a gift. so many nature recordings are so busy- I love birds, but the wrong mix can be shrill if done wrong, or if… Read more »
Agreed … I wish it weren’t so difficult to get recordings like this. It is actually quite a challenge, what with all the interruptions and the tendency for birds to get too close and too loud.
May we always live in a world where the Robins sing at dawn!
Lovely.
yes, may we!
Definitely! Very relaxing. I wish I was there.
I sure hope I can drum up an hour’s worth of this caliber of recording. You’d think it would be easy to get really relaxing material, but it’s actually quite a challenge. Most recordings either get goofed up by birds coming too close to the mic, or else by airplanes and cars and dogs and roosters and countless other undesired sounds.
I record lots of birds and completely understand whà t you mean!
Very hard sometimes to à void background noises! PS I love recording Robin calls and songs and listening to the individual
Vocals of each and how different and unique each can be. That track should be on that Tranquility soundtrack!
Definitely include in the Tranquility soundtrack. The brook murmuring is a perfect accompaniment to the Robin song.