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Posts Tagged ‘Hrafn’

Ögur í Helgafellssveit 10. ágúst 2026

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 6.9.2026| Leave a Comment »

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I had already said that the summer of 2026 was probably the most difficult summer I have ever had to record birdsong or other wildlife activity. But when I dig into the results of the summer, it seems like I can find some interesting recordings.
Here is one from August 10, where the location of the microphones was not the most suitable for recording any „close-up details“. Mainly because the wind was supposed to change direction by 180° during the night. When this happens, it is likely that I will get a calm for a few minutes, even 1-3 hours. I therefore decided to place the microphones almost on top of a hill to capture the birdlife from all directions, which seemed unusually diverse and loud. At least compared to what I had experienced on my trips around the country earlier in the summer. The wildlife sounded like it was the end of May – June, which was a pleasant surprise.
On the left was a pond, or small lake, Skjaldarvatn, with a rich birdlife of loons and various duck species. On the right side was the sea, with a variety of birds of various species.
What is most surprising is how well it can be heard in various details even though the distance between the microphone and the birds was great. The sound was recorded at 48dB gain and then increased again by 20dB in post-processing, or up to -5dB from „normalised“. The experience at the recording location was almost complete silence. But since a good and sensitive microphone acts like a telescope for a visual experience, the microphone pulls together distant and faint sounds into one pretty clear two-dimensional sound image.
There are actually so many bird species there, that I have to admit that I do not know all the species without making special observations. If anyone thinks they know all the species, it would be appreciated if you could confirm this with the bird names in the comment below. It can be in any language.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low or mid level.
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(mp3 256kbps / 60Mb)

Recorder: Sound devices MixPre6
Mics: Lewitt LCT540s (IRT cross)
Pix: Samsung s26 ultra

Weather: Particularly cloudy, 0-3 m/sec, 7-12°C
Location: 65.048472, -22.789612

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July morning at Sultartangalón

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 22.7.2023| Leave a Comment »

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Early in July 2023 I spent one night at Sultártangalón lagoon recording in three locations.
In the morning when I was leaving, it was sunny, calm and very hot, in the Icelandic way. The sight over the mirror smooth lagoon made me stop the car and enjoy the view. The recorders were ready and connected in the car, so I quickly set them up by the reservoir and took a short walk while they were recording.
The result was this. Typical Icelandic highland silence. Nothing interesting as an audio recording, but what caught my attention was the background noise of waterfalls and streams across the lagoon. This noise changed the EQ slowly in a variable thermal upstream due to the influence of the sun radiation.
Several bird species can be heard in this recording. These include Raven, Golden Plover, Dunlin, White Wagtail, Meadow Pipit and Red Throated Loon.
This was recorded with MKH8020/8040 in a fur wind shield, which was not the best choice, because the silence was considerable. Audio was recorded on MP6 with 50dB gain and in post-processing the gain was increased by another 20dB so they reached -10dBu.The MKH microphones were therefore not the most suitable for this moment. It would have been better if I had recorded with the LCT540s in IRT, to better capture all the small details all around.
To cancel out the loss of certain frequencies due to the fur wind shield, I raised the mid frequency by +2dB.
This is a rather sensitive recording. So I wasn’t using RX de-noise. But instead since nothing in the recording reaches frequencies higher than 8Khz, I lowered the EQ above 10Khz by a few dB to reduce the self noise in the microphones.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid volume.
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  (mp3 256kbps/56Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre 6
Mics: Sennheiser MKH8020/8040 (Baffled AB)
Pix: Samsung S22

Location: 64.230420, -19.383488
Weather: Sunny, clear sky, calm, around 20°C

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Dawn at Kjallaksstaðavogur

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 22.8.2019| 2 Comments »

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It is rear now a days to discover new places without traffic or engine nose. I found one in June 2019. It was at Fellströnd, in the northwest of Iceland. That means I have natural silence for more than a one hour. It is a south part of a peninsula which only have gravel roads and no shopping service so motorist are normally not driving there for pleasure.
Less human traffic means more biodiversity. It thrives better in places with less farming and fast driving cars. One roadkill can as well mean a death of the whole family. Car covered with smashed bugs means less food for birds… and so on. This is clearly visible and audible in those areas which have „industry“ farming and lots of fast driving traffic.
No traffic, or engine noise, means more natural silence and more transparent soundscape. Therefor it is very interesting to listen to this recordings. It is even possible to hear sheep footsteps far away and detect what bird species are in the area, even far away. In fact it is possible to analyze the situation of the biodiversity.
This is a high gain recording, recorded at +50dB. Gain was then increased in post about +25dB, normalized at -8dB and gently NR.
This is a part of 10 hour recording. This part was recorded between 7 and 8 in the morning at 21st of June.
Many bird species are audible in this recording. Black tailed Godwit, Common Redsank, Whimprel, Red necked Phalarope, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Common Ringed Plover, European Golden Plover, Dunlin, Raven, Redwing, Purple Sandpiper, Meadow Pipit, Geylag Goose, Whooper Swan, Red Throated Diver and Common Eider. I am almost sure I have not counted them all.
You can hear sheep footsteps which was though far away, also birds wing flaps as a low rumble noise.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low or medium level.

(Mp3 256Kbps / 48Mb)
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Recorder: Sonosax SX-R4+
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20 (AB40)
Pix: Canon EOS M50
Location: 65.169836, -22.404601
Weather: Calm, cloudy ca 13°C

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Starling traffic

Posted in Náttúra, tagged , , , , , , , , on 1.12.2012| 2 Comments »

Starling Starri

It has been my work passing weekends recording birds and other sounds in my garden. Sometimes I am just testing microphones, microphones’ setups, wind protections or batteries. Sometimes I am just hoping to get something unusual, car crash in the neighborhood, earthquake or just something nice and interesting.
This recordings could be many hours long. Then usually this recordings go through different audio software and spectrum analyzer. If nothing interesting is found then most of the files are deleted. Most of them are just traffic noises.
I am used to feed birds in my garden so they are an ideal sound source and the following recording is one of this feeding day in November.
After almost four hours recordings a very big group of Starlings visited my garden. They fly and walk around the microphones. A raven was not far away and frightened most of the starlings when he flew close by.
For many reasons this is a nice recording, but for one reason I was not satisfied with the result.
I will let the listeners to find out what it is and discuss it and response. I will give my answer before Xmas.

Umferð starra

Ég hef gert mikið af því undanfarnar helgar að taka upp umhverfishljóð úti í garði. Oft er ég að prófa hljóðnema, hljóðnemauppsetningar, vindhlífar eða rafhlöður. Oftar en ekki eru spörfuglar sem ég fóðra úti í garði viðfangsefnið þó ég láti mig alltaf dreyma um hið óvænta. Þessar upptökur geta verið margra klukkustunda langar og fátt annað á þeim en hávaðasöm bílaumferð. En áður en upptökunum er hent er þeim rennt í gegnum forrit sem sýna í fljótheitum hvort eitthvað áhugavert sé á þeim að finna. Ef svo er þá er það geymt.
Hér er á ferðinni eins slík upptaka. Eftir nærri fjögurra klukkustunda upptöku kom stór starrahópur í fóðrið sem lagt hafði verið fyrir þá.
Þarna spígspora og flögra fuglarnir umhverfis hljóðnemana, en stór hópur þeirra er uppi í trjánum. Hrafn er í hverfinu og fær hund til að gelta og hræðir síðan fuglana þegar hann flýgur of nærri.
Þetta er að mörgu leyti lífleg og skemmtileg upptaka. En það var eitt atriði sem varð til þess að ég var nærri búinn að henda þessari upptöku.
Ég ætla ekki að segja hvað það er, en ætla að lát hlustendum eftir að dæma upptökuna og segja frá því hvað hafi hugsanlega misfarist og fá þá til að rita ummæli hér fyrir neðan. Ég mun svo segja hvað mér finnst fyrir jól.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 23,3Mb)

Recorder: Sound Devices 744
Mics: Sennheiser MKH30/40 (MS setup)
Pix: Canon 30D (see more pictures)

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