Show Notes
This was recorded on a cold and sunny morning beside Medicine Lake in Modoc National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. I made this recording at the same time the previous episode was recording, about 250 meters away.
I used the binaural recording technique for this, in which a microphone is worn on each ear in order to capture sound as closely as possible to the way we naturally hear. I strongly recommend using headphones for the best listening experience.
The air was absolutely still and the sunshine was pleasantly warm on the otherwise cold morning. I put on my binaural microphones and sat on the sandy shore at the very edge of the lake. The sunlight caused its frozen surface to expand, causing cracks and producing an abundance of otherworldly sounds.
I find it very difficult to sit silently while wearing binaural microphones, as they pick up the sound of the slightest movements, breathing, and even stomach rumbles. Breathing silently is not as easy as it sounds, especially when not acclimated to the elevation the lake sits at, which is about 6,800 feet or 2,070 meters. Though I tried hard, you may hear a faint breath here and there. This was as long as I could go before I had to shift my sitting position, clear my throat, and take a few normal breaths. That said, I thought this recording was worth sharing. I hope you like it!
More from Sound By Nature
This was recorded on a cloudy night in early autumn in a stand of Quaking Aspen near the South Fork of Emerson Creek in the South Warner Wilderness, Modoc National Forest, Modoc County, California. The night was cool, and gentle breezes rustled the leaves of the Aspens throughout the night. Listen for the sound of a lone elk bugling just past the one minute mark.
This was recorded on a calm summer night beside Sugar Creek in the Sugar Creek Research Natural Area, which is located within the Russian Wilderness, Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. The creek flows down the east side of the Salmon Mountains, a subrange of the Klamath Mountains, in far northern California. The creek was low for this time of year, owing to a meager snowpack that had already melted entirely. The Sugar Creek Research Natural Area is a unique and special place. According to the U.S. Forest Service it was created "primarily to preserve the richest known assemblage of conifers in the world", in an area that has "essentially remained unchanged by humans since before the European colonization of California". You can learn more about it here- https://research.fs.usda.gov/psw/rnas/locations/sugar-creek
This was recorded on a cold, cloudy, and breezy summer morning in the Salmon Mountains near the Music Creek Trailhead in Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California.
This was recorded on a clear spring night under a full moon beside Summit Meadow Lake in Marble Mountains Wilderness, Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. I recorded this tree ears style, in which a mic is placed on either side of the trunk of a tree, in this case a Red Fir. Though I recorded all night, this part of the recording is from the wee hours of the night when the frog chorus was starting to die down.
This was recorded on a cold and breezy spring morning near an unnamed pond on the east side of the Trinity Divide in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. The recording starts a little after 4 a.m., and a little before the birds began their dawn chorus.