These woodpeckers have a "not in Seattle" quality to them. They make a back yard sound like a jungle. I wish I could get closer, but they pretty choose only the highest spots -- generally the tops of cedar trees -- around to call from.

I hate Red-winged Blackbirds. I mean, I like their calls -- bright beautiful, easy to record, not very afraid of humans with large furry microphones getting too close. But they're ASSHOLES. Whenever I'm out trying to record something else, the final recording is FILLED with Red-winged Blackbirds. It's like they see wildlife recording as some sort of a competition for who can get on the most recordings. Half of my recordings go like this: "Oh look, a pretty humminbi-- CHIRRUP-BURRRRRRRRRR! LOOK AT ME I'M A GoDDAMNED BLACKBIRD!!!"

Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia, Song, parabolic recording, clean-processed for clarity, natural pace and rhythym maintained, family: New World Sparrows

Some birds seem to have an endless array of verses and lyrics to throw into their songs. This is one of those birds.

Recorded in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Washington, United States

image credit: "892 - SONG SPARROW (9-06) attu, ak (6)" by Sloalan is marked with CC0 1.0

Recorded from my rooftop in Seattle's Fremont Neighborhood. Parties full of whooping-and-hollering folk are on every apartment building in the area. One nearby had some extra fireworks.

SoundDevices 702

m/s: Sennheiser MKH8060 + MKH30

light limiting so I didn't fry my ears

Pulled as an example from a personal collection of high-frequency interference recordings made with a Radioshack Telephone mic (I love those little buggers!) via a Sound Devices 702 and Barcus Barry pre-amp.

The original was recorded at 192kHz / 24bit. This example is the source original for https://soundcloud.com/soundeziner/48khz_tone_lamp.

The source was a goose-neck lamp at my bedside.

Play this for your dog.

Pulled as an example from a personal collection of high-frequency interference recordings made with a Radioshack Telephone mic (I love those little buggers!) via a Sound Devices 702 and Barcus Barry pre-amp.

The original was recorded at 192kHz / 24bit. This example was pitched down 4 octaves before being sample rate converted to 48k/16bit. The source was a goose-neck lamp at my bedside.

Check out the original non-varispeed version at https://soundcloud.com/soundeziner/48khz-interference

The high wavering tone you hear was originally between 46kHz and 62kHz. Your dog would love it.

TRAIN - diesal - freight - pass-by left to right at med-hi speed - urban beach location - Carkeek Park in Seattle - great squeaks squeals rattles thunka-thunka and more

Marsh Wren - Cistothorus palustris - recorded at Marymoor Park in Redmond, WA 2013-05-02

Takes culled and cleaned from 5 minutes recording. It's the same bird, going crazy, but sometimes he turned his back to me...

I love Marsh Wrens. Their songs are clankerous, noisy and and constantly varying. I could listen to them for hours. At 1/2-speed they sound like frightened children from hell and car alarms.

Image Credit:

"Marsh wren at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge" by USFWS Mountain Prairie is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/?ref=openverse.