Martyn Stewart wrote:
> I am coming to a fast conclusion that you have to get up earlier than
> ever now to get a half decent recording. Maybe I'm getting to long and
> old in the tooth, but as Bernie Krause said in his book (wild
> soundscapes) the noise pollution is getting bloody worse, I am almost at
> a pitch where I would love to record one of those bi-planes blowing up
> in the bloody sky.
I'm not sure it's necessarily earlier that does it. Around here all
roads seem to have semitruck traffic all night. Often they are quieter
during the day.
And then there are the diesel engine irrigation pumps, with no mufflers.
Our house is under a area designated for airplane practice. So, often
there will be someone up there doing stunt flying.
In this area it seems the rich buy every toy under
> the sun and they are all noisier than the last, I had an idiot in a
> helicopter this morning, 5:15am flying around the lake where I live, for
> a good hour before landing in his rear garden!!
Depending on the altitude he was at, he might could be turned into the
FAA. Worth checking with them, they will zap him if he was breaking the
rules.
> filtering out noise is a must for everyone now, its part of the package
> and our ever shrinking world is becoming a huge problem, not just for us
> as nature recordists, but for the very thing we record, habitat is being
> bought out at an alarming rate in the States and if we don't do anything
> quickly to stop it, we will all be pressing buttons in Zoos to hear
> sounds. Local Audubon societies are needed to buy up habitat and all the
> organizations that support this need our help.
Along with everything else, the supreme court decided it was not a
wetland unless a river flowed through it. Nearly all wetlands lost their
protection about a year ago. And there is a mad rush to fill them before
any new laws can be enacted. We are losing a major percentage of our
wetlands very quickly now.
There is simply not enough money to buy all the land. We need to change
the economics that encourages this rampant destruction.
As a ecologist, I tend to think long. In a mere blink of the eye there
will be no more oil to fuel it all. Going to get quiet again.
> Isn't it crazy that we as people give very little back to the
> environment but take as much of it away we can?
> There were no ATV's, Scrambling bikes 4x4's when I was growing up in the
> UK and the fields I used to walk were as quiet as a mouse, some parts of
> Scotland are still like this
What's more the no trespassing signs were few and far between too.
It's like the purpose of all this activity is to destroy as much as
possible.
Not hard to understand why no trespassing signs are so common now.
> Should we spend a little more time doing something to help this cause
> instead of talking about what a combination of mics respond to pressure?
> After all, what is the point of it if there isn't anything to record?
Probably the best thing we can do is encourage more folks to try nature
recording. Nothing else seems to get the lesson across as well.
A hour before dawn this last week I was recording pinewoods treefrog
rain calls. And off in the background the sound of gunfire started. Not
hunting, this had to be a bunch of folks out target practicing. It was
pitch black dark where I was, which was way out in the country.
Unbelievable, hundreds of rounds fired. There was no formal gun range in
the rural area.
Last week I also spent a couple hours out on a boardwalk in Grand Bay, a
beautiful large carolina bay full of cypress swamp. Looking for pig
frogs to photograph. Every few minutes another jet would pull up from
his practice run on the gunnery area in the bay near to the boardwalk.
Lots of nice stuff calling there, no chance of recording. The jets were
often only a few hundred feet up. Using afterburners to climb out. In
between the prop plane trainers would make their runs.
Walt
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