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Re: Woodpeckers, Planes and Trains

Subject: Re: Woodpeckers, Planes and Trains
From: "John Hartog" hartogj
Date: Fri Apr 3, 2009 5:21 pm ((PDT))
Hi Tom,

The topic has been discussed in the past, and if we were to dig through the 
archives we would find a variety of opinions. Living here in Portland, Oregon, 
I know the importance of promoting wildlife habitat conservation within urban 
settings - and I think audio recording can be useful toward this goal. But as 
far as genre goes, what are the people who web search "nature sounds" looking 
for? Mostly stuff without human noise I would think.

Is every recording that includes sounds of wildlife a nature sound recording? 
Every nature sound recording is about human and nature relationships. Even with 
a recording of the most pristine natural setting, without any obvious 
anthropogenic intrusionsa, there is still the recordist and the listeners. 

I am not sure how you could know the bird considers his surroundings very 
natural. Maybe it was just the best spot it could find given circumstances. Is 
the species in decline or is it thriving with the built environment. Some 
species, like crows, thrive in urban settings. But would a recording of crows 
scavenging McDonald's wrappers in a parking lot be considered a nature sound 
recording? I would have to hear the recording to know.  If it was clear the 
subject was crows and not the dumpster or the busy intersection. Then sure I 
could except that. 

With your recording, the nature sound subject got lost on me with the long 
duration of passing train, that's all.





--- In  "tk7859" <> wrote:
>
> --- In  "John Hartog" <hartogj_1999@> wrote:
> > Hi Tom,
> > I like your recording, and thanks for sharing it with the group. 
> > Anthropogenic sounds might not spoil the recording, but they can affect its 
> > classification as a nature sound recording. Your recording has several 
> > shared subjects - birds, trains, people... Just because trees with wild 
> > birds are there, does that make the surroundings natural? 
> 
> Hi John
> 
> Thanks for your comment.
> 
> One of my reasons for posting, and airing, the recording was to obtain views 
> on the acceptablity/need to record sounds of wildlife in their real life 
> situations.  Maybe if we don't bother to do this we will eventually  regret 
> lost opportunities.
> 
> Of course, its also very much easier to find these situations/places rather 
> than pristine wilderness - particularly in my neck of the woods.
> 
> I very much admire the results obtained by those with the skill and 
> persistance to record in more challenging, but rarer, habitats; something I 
> aspire to. 
> 
> I suppose a question is does the recording tell us anything about the ability 
> of the bird to fit in with its suroundings?  No doubt the woodpecker in the 
> recording consders his surroundings very natural.
> 
> Possibly it has alrady been covered in previous posts, but what does classify 
> as a nature sound recording?
> 
> Cheers
> TomR
>








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