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Posts Tagged ‘COVID-19’

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In recent years I have spent several nights in Skeiðarársandur to record the changes in the ecosystem.
Skeiðarársandur is a huge broad sandy wasteland along Iceland’s south-eastern coast, between the Vatnajökull icecap and the sea. It is a wonderful place to record deep natural silence in a huge open flat landscape.
For hundreds of years Skeiðarársandur has been a barren desert. but recently with shrinking glaciers and smaller glacial rivers, Birch, moss and other flora have occupied the northeast part of the sand. That means the soundscape on Skeiðarársandur will change in the future which will be interesting to record regularly in the coming years.
I have usually stayed at the same spot near a traditional sheep pen because structures like that are attractive for birds like Snow bunting, Northern wheatear and Rock ptarmigan.
I was very excited when I went to this spot on the 9th of June 2020. Because of COVID, there were almost no tourists in Iceland and therefore far less traffic.  So I was hoping for a beautifully quiet night there. I was not disappointed either. It was calm so the silence was deep. I could hear the Atlantic ocean surf among the coastline 20-30km away, which sounds slightly like low frequency rumble in the background of this recording. I could not see any bird but bird songs came from every direction, clearly far away. During the night the glacier rumbled several times in Skaftafell national park like a thunder in the distance. Once a ship engine noise was audible out of the coastline which sounds pretty spooky. It sounds more coming from the sky rather than from the coastline in the horizon, which was probably a reflection from different temperature layers in the atmosphere.
Anyway the ship engine is not audible in the following recording, but maybe in another blog.
The microphone rig was on the top of the sheep pen wall, not far away from the place which I think Northern wheatear has had a nest every year since I started to record this place. (Listen to recording since mid May 2016)
Luckily the Northern wheatear was not far away. This time the bird was not as angry about the hairy microphones as when I first brought the microphones in this place. The bird just sang for me for almost one hour and here comes part of it.

  (mp3 256kbps / 67,7Mb)

Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level, or in speakers at low level.
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Recorder: Sound devices MixPre6
Mics: Lewitt LCT540s (IRT Cross)
Pix: Canon EOS-R 

Weather:  Calm to 5m/sek, clear sky, 3 to 7°C
Location:  63.969925, -17.160018

 

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In mid April I was asked in a radio interview about field recordings, what was my favorite bird. My quick answer was „Starling“….or, I was not sure. But that was going to be clear a few days later.     
Starling is a new immigrant in Iceland. It was first seen 1940 in Hornafjörður, south east Iceland and in Reykjavik 1960. So today it is a very common bird in many urban places around Iceland, however, mainly in south west Iceland
His song is usually a loud high frequency tweet or rough ugly scream. But some starlings seem to have the ability to learn complex sounds and tweed them unbelievably well.   
Thanks to COVID-19, Reykjavik city gets very quiet with less traffic in April, which open a completely new and lovely natural soundscape in the city
So it gives me a great opportunity to record the bird life to the finest details in my garden in several days.
The following recording are selected moments of a 10 hours long recording which I made over night on the 25th to 26th of April in the garden  I use Audio Technica, AT4022 which I place with 50cm apart, on the ground, where I usually feed the birds during the winter moths. I use a simple foam as a windshield and hide them in brown nylon socks. 
I guess it is only one bird that imitates all the songs or sounds in this recording, which is totally outstanding. He imitates birds like ravens, seagulls, blackbird and redwing, which sounds even better than the original redwing song, golden plower, goose, duck, oystercatcher, great northern diver, common redpoll, snow bunting… and I am sure some other species too. You can also hear him imitate ambulance, rubber toy, dog and humans. 
If you recognize some other sounds, birds or animal species in this recording, please leave a comment below.
So one thing is for sure. I did not lie in the radio interview. starling is my favorite bird.
Please notice this recording have a wide dynamic range, so don´t play it loud. Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level, or in speakers at low level.
  

(mp3 256kbps / 65,2Mb)
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Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre6
Mics: Audio Techinca AT4022 AB50/boundary
Pix: Canon EOS30

Weather: Cludy, calm about 5°C 
The whole radioprogram with the interview – and only with me, Magnus Bergsson (sorry, only in Icelandic)

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Bjarni Jónsson ( 21. október 1881 – 19. nóvember 1965) fæddist í Mýrarholti sem var býli við Bakkastíg í Vesturbæ Reykjavíkur og voru foreldrar hans hjónin Jón Oddsson tómthúsmaður og Ólöf Hafliðadóttir. Eiginkona Bjarna var Áslaug Ágústsdóttir og eignuðust þau þrjú börn, Ágúst, Ólöfu og Önnu.
Bjarni lauk stúdentsprófi frá Lærða skólanum árið 1902 og lauk embættisprófi í guðfræði árið 1907 frá Kaupmannahafnarháskóla. Samhliða námi kenndi Bjarni við Stýrimannaskólann í Reykjavík og Kvennaskólann í Reykjavík. Haustið 1907 varð hann skólastjóri Barnaskólans á Ísafirði. Hann varð prestur við Dómkirkjuna í Reykjavík árið 1910, var prófastur í Kjarlarnesprófastsdæmi 1932-1938 og dómprófastur í Reykjavíkurprófastsdæmi frá 1945-1951. Hann varð vígslubiskup í Skálholtsbiskupsdæmi forna frá 1937 og til æviloka. Starfsferill Bjarna var langur og hann var starfandi prestur og vígslubiskup í rúmlega hálfa öld. Hann varð heiðursdoktor í guðfræði við Háskóla Íslands árið 1941 og hlaut ýmsar orður og heiðursmerki m.a. stórkross Hinnar íslensku fálkaorðu og hina dönsku Dannebrogsorðu. Bjarni var heiðursfélagi í fjölda félaga og árið 1961 varð hann heiðursborgari Reykjavíkurborgar en Bjarni þótti með þekktari borgurum Reykjavíkur og vakti athygli vegfarenda þegar hann gekk hempuklæddur milli Dómkirkjunnar og heimilis síns að Lækjargötu 12b.
Árið 1952 gafst íslenskum kjósendum í fyrsta sinn færi á því að kjósa sér forseta en fyrsti forseti Íslands, Sveinn Björnsson var þingkjörinn árið 1944 og endurkjörinn án atkvæðagreiðslu 1945 og 1949. Þrír frambjóðendur gáfu kost á sér Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, Bjarni Jónsson og Gísli Sveinsson forseti sameinaðs þings. Kosningarnar voru afar pólitískar og naut Bjarni stuðnings framsóknar- og sjálfstæðisfólks en vinstra fólk, einkum alþýðuflokksfólk studdi Ásgeir. Bjarni naut stuðnings Morgunblaðsins, málgagns Sjálfstæðisflokksins og á kjördag hvatti blaðið til þess í forsíðufrétt sinni að kjósendur myndu sameinast um Bjarna og sagði að „allir þjóðhollir Íslendingar kjósa séra Bjarna Jónsson.“ Niðurstaða kosninganna varð sú að Ásgeir Ásgeirsson var kjörinn forseti með 48,3% atkvæða en Bjarni hlaut 45,5,%. Þriðji frambjóðandinn Gísli Sveinsson hlaut 6,2% atkvæða (Wikipedia).
Það gæti talist vel við hæfi að sr. Bjarni sjái nú um predikun á netinu í Páskaviku og miðjum COVID-19 faraldri því hann var prestur í Dómkirkjuni á dögum spönsku veikinnar 1918.
Hér er á ferðini nokkuð dularfull upptaka með Bjarna því ekki er vitað hvaða ár hún var tekin upp eða af hvaða tilefni.
Upptökuna gerði Hörður Þormar, efnafæðingur frá Laufási í Eyjafirði, á segulbandstæki einhvern tíma á árunum 1955-1965.
Árið 2012 færði ég allt hans gamla spólusafn yfir á stafrænt form og gaf hann leyfi til að gera þessa upptökuna aðgengilega ef einhver gæti gefið nánari upplýsingar um hana. Það er nokkuð augljóst að tekið er upp úr LW útvarpi því heyra má öðru hverju smelli sem gætu allt eins stafað af sólvindum.
Það er ljóst að Ríkisútvarpið hefur átt og á kanski enn þessa upptöku. Það sem hins vegar er ekki ljóst, er hvenær þetta hefur verið tekið og útvapað sem varð til þess að Hörður hljóðritaði þessa predikun. Sjálfur man hann það ekki. Bjarni hætti prestskap 1951 en þá átti Hörður ekki spólutæki. Það kann hinsvegar að vera að Ríkisútvarpið hafi útvarpað þessari predikun þegar Bjarni var gerður að heiðursborgara Reykjavíkur 1961.
Ef einhver getur gefið nánari upplýsingar um þetta hljóðrit þá væri það vel þegið.
Upptakan er í tveimur hlutum því hún var á tveimur spólum.

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This is an old recording which was recorded on reel to reel recorder somewhere between the years 1955-1965 from a LW radio in Iceland. It is a church sermon with pastor Bjarni Jónsson (1881-1965). He was old style priest and well known cathedral bishop in Reykjavik from early to mid last century. This recording was found on a two reels in my parents friend´s storage. There was also other old personal recordings which I helped him to digitize in 2012.
What makes this recording interesting now when Covid-19 spreads all over the world is the fact Bjarni Jónsson was a pastor of the Reykjavik Cathedral when the Spanish flu crossed into Iceland in 1918 as well all over the Western world.
It is most likely this could be the only recording with this pastor from the last century which is almost forgotten now in modern days

(mp3 192kbps / 48.3Mb)
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Recorder: Sound devices 744 24bit/44khz
Reel player: Revox B77

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