Last night I had a wonderful nature-recording experience. I was visiting an
old friend on his farm - by old I mean ninety years old, the farmer that is.
Col is deaf as a beetle but can still hear the nightly frog chorus at his
spring-fed dams. He had told me the night before that the frogs were
practising for the eistedfodd and that he'd like to try and record them.
Col has a basic el-cheapo cassette recorder and also a dictaphone cassette
recorder, both with inbuilt mics. The latter had flat batteries but will be
quite serviceable for another occasion, with new batteries. The el-cheapo
we had to do running repairs on, and we replaced the drive belt with a
rubber band, before setting off for the dam nearest the house. It was a
starlit night, no sounds but the orchestra of frogs, and in pressing the
"record" button it also seemed to be the cue for us both to listen intently
to the sounds.
It was quite a magical experience really. And the recordings we made were
useful too, and surprising good for such low-budget equipment. My next
convert to sound recording will be Col's 3 year old great-grandson who also
lives on the farm, and the same cassette recorder will be just great for him
to start on!
Vicki Powys
Australia
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