I probably wont start doing this aspect of birding myself but I do find it fascinating. Stood on the front last 2 nights around 10ish Ive heard a few birds probably en-route to Audy Res including... - a Grey Heron - an Oystercatcher - quite a few Redwings using classic flight call !!!
I noticed a Tweet (on Twitter) from a Midlands birder Toby who posted one of his recordings asking for ideas as to the ID of the call. Its a very short, high pitched, whistle that I thought sounded a little bit reminiscent of Siskin or maybe even a Wader. Knot, Ringed Plover, and Dunlin have also been suggested by others. But a mate of mine suggested it sounded like part of a Redwing song.
So that prompts my question (simply because I dont know), if it turned out to be a Redwing using part of the song as its flight call, how likely are other birds to use an exert of their song as a flight call, at night? Just wondered.
Craig Higson said
Tue Mar 23 9:11 PM, 2021
I've also found the nocmig website nocmig.com/ really good too for tips.
Aside from the techy side of things - which is a steep learning curve - the whole experience so far has made me feel like a novice again. I'm not sure why but calls sound just a bit different. A recent Moorhen record sounded nothing like a Moorhen at first, despite having heard the call countless times over the years. I don't know whether its context or whether there is a distortion element or something else altogether. A Redwing still sounds like a Redwing though!
The other interesting thing is the number of other noises the recorder picks up. I never realised night time was so noisy!
Charles Farrell said
Mon Mar 22 2:20 PM, 2021
For tips of what to be listening out for, I usually rely on Twitter - either looking for the #nocmig hashtag - or just check out what @Alexander_Lees has been picking up in Derbyshire
After a few false starts with the Audiomoth - using the wrong type of microSD card (it likes the more expensive Sandisk Extreem cards though) and forgetting to switch it on correctly, I finally got some recordings last night. I've set mine to record between 7PM and 7AM and was pleased to see that I had fewer smaller files to process than I had from my TASCAM DR05. Then I realized why - I'd set a long sleep time between recordings! doh! Maybe I'll get the configuration correct by this evening.
Audacity does seem to work a lot better when there is plenty of free-space on your hard drive, in my experience.
I've been using a cheap £12 microphone for the last year with my dish and have been happy with what it has been able to pick up - however the mics on the hand-hand recorders are surprisingly good these days.
For some innovative and amusing 'heath-robinson' recording setups, you can't beat the Irish Wildlife Sounds website
http://www.irishwildlifesounds.com/2-equipment/
Does anyone have an old Wok they don't need? :)
Chris Knight said
Sun Mar 21 9:46 PM, 2021
Thanks both very much for the thread - I've been havering about getting kit to try nocmigging since hearing about scoters nearly a year ago (I've spent quite a while trying to figure out what might be a good wok for improvising a parabolic reflector, and whether I'd actually do better trying to get hold of an audiomoth; but I haven't actually bought anything).
However, prompted by you and that Simon Gillings talk, I decided last night to ignore kit worries and just plonk the USB microphone I have (provided by my employer for endless Zoom meetings!) on the windowsill outside what is now my office (sometime bedroom), download audacity and start recording.
The result was amazing. I'm going to hold off claiming common scoter (amongst other things!) until I've really got to grips with comparing spectrograms with xeno-canto and the like (though there was something that I'm very hopeful about at ~1150!), but there were calls clearly audible and visible and plenty of them. ~30 redwings across the night was a great start (I'm in Romiley and haven't encountered so many around here in the last few weeks).
I only started after 10pm and it turned out that a robin started up close by at ~0315 and that was about the end of it - soon joined by another and then an ever increasing dawn chorus making anything actually migrating well-nigh impossible to pick out visually (at least for me on my first attempt), then my hard drive got full and it all stopped working by ~5.15, though still more than enough to look through this afternoon!
There was also the small issue of freeing up enough space to get my laptop/hard drive working again, but that's all sorted and have figured out somewhere better to put the files. The forecast looks fine, so the microphone is back out on the windowsill tonight!
Charles Farrell said
Fri Mar 19 8:49 PM, 2021
I've been doing it on and off for a couple of years, but only got a dish last year during #Lockdown1
I was using a Zoom H1N initially then upgraded to a TASCAM DR05 . I invested in a dish and exteernal mic last year and have it mounted on a tripod in the garden. Dish and microphones came from Parabolic Microphone in Cheshire - which were the most economical that I could find.
https://parabolicmicrophone.co.uk/collections/all
While I've recorded lots of nice dawn chorus birds, Middleton doesn't seem to be exactly on any major migration routes. I didnt manage to get any Common Scoter last year and so far this year I've only managed to get Tawny Owl, Redwing, Skylark and Moorhen during nighttime hours.
-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Friday 19th of March 2021 10:11:01 PM
-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Friday 19th of March 2021 10:14:24 PM
Craig Higson said
Fri Mar 19 8:23 PM, 2021
I thought I'd start a thread on this as I have just (two nights now) started to have a go at this albeit with fairly basic equipment. Its quite addictive. My first night was a bit of a disaster as I had located my setup in the back garden and instead of birds I just picked up the neighbours pond trickling away all night. Last night I moved the set up to the other side of the house and managed Common Scoter, Fieldfare, Redwing, Oystercatcher, Mallard and Black-headed Gull. The Scoters were obviously the highlight, and I was amazed that I could actually hear the wingbeats as well so presumably they were quite low.
Its amazing how two people recording quite close together pick up different birds. My near neighbour and sometimes contributor to the forum has recorded stuff I haven't despite us being less than 100m apart.
My kit at the moment is a Tascam DR05x with a dead cat windshield, powered by a powerbank and with a 64GB memory card. All in a plant pot with a clingfilm cover! This gives me around 11-12 hours recording.
Anyone else out there giving this newish side of the hobby a go? I know a number of Non-GM birders who are really keen on it and get some remarkable records.
I probably wont start doing this aspect of birding myself but I do find it fascinating.
Stood on the front last 2 nights around 10ish Ive heard a few birds probably en-route to Audy Res including...
- a Grey Heron
- an Oystercatcher
- quite a few Redwings using classic flight call !!!
I noticed a Tweet (on Twitter) from a Midlands birder Toby who posted one of his recordings asking for ideas as to the ID of the call. Its a very short, high pitched, whistle that I thought sounded a little bit reminiscent of Siskin or maybe even a Wader. Knot, Ringed Plover, and Dunlin have also been suggested by others. But a mate of mine suggested it sounded like part of a Redwing song.
So that prompts my question (simply because I dont know), if it turned out to be a Redwing using part of the song as its flight call, how likely are other birds to use an exert of their song as a flight call, at night? Just wondered.
Aside from the techy side of things - which is a steep learning curve - the whole experience so far has made me feel like a novice again. I'm not sure why but calls sound just a bit different. A recent Moorhen record sounded nothing like a Moorhen at first, despite having heard the call countless times over the years. I don't know whether its context or whether there is a distortion element or something else altogether. A Redwing still sounds like a Redwing though!
The other interesting thing is the number of other noises the recorder picks up. I never realised night time was so noisy!
After a few false starts with the Audiomoth - using the wrong type of microSD card (it likes the more expensive Sandisk Extreem cards though) and forgetting to switch it on correctly, I finally got some recordings last night. I've set mine to record between 7PM and 7AM and was pleased to see that I had fewer smaller files to process than I had from my TASCAM DR05. Then I realized why - I'd set a long sleep time between recordings! doh! Maybe I'll get the configuration correct by this evening.
Audacity does seem to work a lot better when there is plenty of free-space on your hard drive, in my experience.
I've been using a cheap £12 microphone for the last year with my dish and have been happy with what it has been able to pick up - however the mics on the hand-hand recorders are surprisingly good these days.
For some innovative and amusing 'heath-robinson' recording setups, you can't beat the Irish Wildlife Sounds website
http://www.irishwildlifesounds.com/2-equipment/
Does anyone have an old Wok they don't need? :)
Thanks both very much for the thread - I've been havering about getting kit to try nocmigging since hearing about scoters nearly a year ago (I've spent quite a while trying to figure out what might be a good wok for improvising a parabolic reflector, and whether I'd actually do better trying to get hold of an audiomoth; but I haven't actually bought anything).
However, prompted by you and that Simon Gillings talk, I decided last night to ignore kit worries and just plonk the USB microphone I have (provided by my employer for endless Zoom meetings!) on the windowsill outside what is now my office (sometime bedroom), download audacity and start recording.
The result was amazing. I'm going to hold off claiming common scoter (amongst other things!) until I've really got to grips with comparing spectrograms with xeno-canto and the like (though there was something that I'm very hopeful about at ~1150!), but there were calls clearly audible and visible and plenty of them. ~30 redwings across the night was a great start (I'm in Romiley and haven't encountered so many around here in the last few weeks).
I only started after 10pm and it turned out that a robin started up close by at ~0315 and that was about the end of it - soon joined by another and then an ever increasing dawn chorus making anything actually migrating well-nigh impossible to pick out visually (at least for me on my first attempt), then my hard drive got full and it all stopped working by ~5.15, though still more than enough to look through this afternoon!
There was also the small issue of freeing up enough space to get my laptop/hard drive working again, but that's all sorted and have figured out somewhere better to put the files. The forecast looks fine, so the microphone is back out on the windowsill tonight!
I was using a Zoom H1N initially then upgraded to a TASCAM DR05 . I invested in a dish and exteernal mic last year and have it mounted on a tripod in the garden. Dish and microphones came from Parabolic Microphone in Cheshire - which were the most economical that I could find. https://parabolicmicrophone.co.uk/collections/all
While I've recorded lots of nice dawn chorus birds, Middleton doesn't seem to be exactly on any major migration routes. I didnt manage to get any Common Scoter last year and so far this year I've only managed to get Tawny Owl, Redwing, Skylark and Moorhen during nighttime hours.
After Simon Gillings talk at the BTO Conference last year (also available on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYXC_TAhDo&t=4775s ), I've also invested in a Micromoth recorder, which only arrived from Germany yesterday. Am planning to record as much as possible over the coming weeks - hopefully we will have some dry nights! https://www.labmaker.org/products/audiomoth-v1-1-0
-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Friday 19th of March 2021 10:11:01 PM
-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Friday 19th of March 2021 10:14:24 PM
My first night was a bit of a disaster as I had located my setup in the back garden and instead of birds I just picked up the neighbours pond trickling away all night. Last night I moved the set up to the other side of the house and managed Common Scoter, Fieldfare, Redwing, Oystercatcher, Mallard and Black-headed Gull. The Scoters were obviously the highlight, and I was amazed that I could actually hear the wingbeats as well so presumably they were quite low.
Its amazing how two people recording quite close together pick up different birds. My near neighbour and sometimes contributor to the forum has recorded stuff I haven't despite us being less than 100m apart.
My kit at the moment is a Tascam DR05x with a dead cat windshield, powered by a powerbank and with a 64GB memory card. All in a plant pot with a clingfilm cover! This gives me around 11-12 hours recording.
Anyone else out there giving this newish side of the hobby a go? I know a number of Non-GM birders who are really keen on it and get some remarkable records.