. . . seeing and hearing, that’s what StillWalks is all about.
As I walked through the woods on Sunday on my way towards Upper Lliw Reservoir, it was quite clear that the birds were perfectly happy with the rain. Although they were hard to spot, they were very easy to hear.
Can anybody identify the birds or the fungi?
Tree Growths
Tree Growth
Here are two more from the StillWalks production “Winter Lakeside Walk” – watch the walk and relax to the sights and sounds of a walk round Llyn Llech Owain.
Surface Tension
Llyn Llech Owain
Caught these two Blackbirds fighting yesterday evening – the female won! You gotta hear it to believe it – the sound is more important than the image.
. . . or you can play it in SoundCloud
The female won!
I questioned the accuracy of my studio clock yesterday morning because it said it was 9.30 AM but it felt and looked more like 7.30 to judge by the lack of light.
Today, however, we have had light again 🙂 After so much darkness and rain it was a huge relief and good for the soul. I wasn’t the only one enjoying the evening light and this Song Thrush was out to prove it as well – recorded on the new RODE iPhone app (not on their new iPhone mic though, that will have to wait a little while).
Click below to hear the Song Thrush I recorded this evening.
Evening Sun
Evening Clouds
Evening Sun on the River Loughor
Misty Walk is a new stillWalk which was actually produced at the end of last winter. There are several more StillWalks in the pipeline but it has proved difficult this last year to complete the post production on these. This is largely because of the project work I have been doing – see Projects.
I have uploaded two versions of the Misty Walk to the Winter Walks page. Both are high quality but one is in HD (720p) and the other is small scale at 480 x 270 pixels. (see also below).
StillWalks should be viewed, if possible in full screen mode and these videos will show the difference between the two versions. The HD button is in the top right of the first video and the full screen button is on the bottom right of each video.
It was supposed to be a dry, sunny day for this production but it turned out otherwise! This misty walk is on Ryer’s down on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales and was very enjoyable and atmospheric (small scale). Walk locationDon’t worry, no plot spoilers here 🙂 Just a great StillWalk at it’s full length (5:32 mins) rather than the short clips you get on the website.
Autumn Lakeside Walk is now up on Vimeo. In fact, you’ll find others there as well including those from the Josef Herman Art Foundation residency project.
OK, it’s not entirely free – i.e. it’s only in standard definition and whilst it looks great, the StillWalks videos look fantastic in Full HD. If you want an HD version you’ll have to go to the website and pay all of £2.99 to download it or any of the growing collection . . . and of course you’ll have the advantage of not having to wait for the online version to buffer. You can even transfer them to your mobile device and watch them any time you like – anytime, anywhere.
from Autumn Lakeside Walk, Gnoll Park, Neath.
Just one more thing – StillWalks will be at the National Botanic Garden of Wales Christmas Gift Fair on 10th and 11th November with DVD Collections 1 and 2 plus printed images from selected StillWalks, (framed and unframed) as well as gift vouchers and cards.
Birdsong ID – Following my walk to the top of Graig Fawr last week I met up with Martin Humphries (ex RSPB), Ed Tucker (Bio Diversity Ranger) and others for another birdsong ID walk. This time the walk was down the Cwm Dulais valley next door to Cefn Drum in South Wales. There were an amazing number of birds up there but I don’t think I am getting much better with my identification skills.
Peacocks among the chickens – One bird I can identify from its call is the Peacock and we were surprised to come across these as we passed by Chuckle Chicken Poultry. We didn’t see them, so no photo I’m afraid, but the sound is proof enough.
If you are viewing this in an email, click here to listen on the blog or here to go to SoundCloud.
Dulais River, Cefn Drum
Anya
Birdsong ID in action
Dulais River and Foxgloves
Old post coming to life!
It was fun to get up at 5.30 AM last Sunday for Dawn Chorus Day to go and join the Friends of Coedbach Park and Helen Grey from Swansea Nature Conservation Team. Helen organised the event and arranged for Martin Humphries to lead us on a walk and help with birdsong identification. A great time was had by all and I was able to record much of what was going on with the birds in the ancient oak woods.
Sound Clips and Spectral Images – A set of these sound clips can be found below (remember to click through to the blog if you are reading this in an email) along with a couple of the spectral displays from the clips.
Tree Creeper Spectral
Tree Creeper
Black Cap Spectral
If you are interested in viewing the other spectral display images, you can see them in this StillWalks Flickr Set.
A set of photos from this park event can also be seen on the StillWalks Flickr page.
Bluebells at Coedbach
Oak Woods in Coedbach Park
