I was quite surprised when, with the (brief) rise in temperature, Common Spadefoot advertising calls were suddenly heard from the canals and ditches surrounding my cabin. However, the species prefers sandy soils (to burrow) and stagnant or slow-flowing water for spawning. So the adjacent environment is a perfect biotope.

Before the political situation in the federal state of Saxony changed so much that one has

to deny any connection to it, I felt kind of a certain connection to many areas around the

city of Leipzig.

As with any naturalist, my fieldrecording year was determined by the life cycle of nature.

The Red Deer Cervus elaphus rut is one of the classic motifs of wildlife sound recording and

was therefore part of my fixed annual schedule – recorded here in my favourite area, the

so-called Wildenhainer Bruch, north of Leipzig.

I went to a local common Northern Raven Corvus corax roost. Unexpectedly, it started raining

and it was also very windy. I was a little undecided whether I should perhaps abort the session,

but then decided to continue recording that rather rough setting.

In the end, I liked the combination of everything much more than a clear recording of these

fascinating birds.

Special guest: Tawny Owl and Greater White-fronted Goose.

Rendered to binaural from double mid-side stereo

Both are among the most exciting noise sources in nature and for this reason are iconic subjects in

Fieldrecording like the AB stereo format used here. Here we go.

During a raptor survey in a seemingly endless coniferous forest, I passed a gas measurement and

control station. In addition to the visual deplacency in the middle of the forest, I immediately

recognised the massive sound that the station produces. After work, it immediately became clear,

sound recordings would have to be made here.

I could not expect any exciting sounds from the monoculture forest on a night in early March,

so that the artificial sounds would be clearly audible. An interesting example that it does not

take much to dominate the soundscape of an entire landscape by a relatively small intervention.

2021 ended somewhat unexpectedly sound-wise. From the reeds along a small canal I heard sounds that sounded like the muffled mooing of a cow.

It turned out to be Nutrias Myocastor coypus.

Nutrias are rodents from South America, so they are considered an invasive species in Europe. The populations here are offspring of animals abandoned by fur hunters in the past. The species is now widespread, actually harmless, but quite unpopular with humans.

I heard these sounds consciously for the first time.

The recent history of the Eurasian Wolf Canis lupus in Central Europe, like almost everywhere

else in the world, is also a history of competition, suppression and finally persecution.

In superstition, they were portrayed as dangerous to humans directly, they were in fact seen

as competitors for food and were therefore killed throughout the area.

In addition to the desire to kill, hunters also see themselves in the role of those who have

to put nature in order and, with the end of the Eurasian Wolf in Central Europe also as the end

of the food chain. One argument in favour of hunting wild animals has been, at the latest

since the Eurasian Wolf's extinction, to have to take over its role in nature.

In 1904, the last wild local Eurasian Wolf was shot in Germany. Between 1945 and 1990

13 wolves were killed in the GDR ('East-Germany') and nine in the FRG ('West-Germany').

Since 1990, the Eurasian Wolf has been protected by the Nature Conservation Act in Germany,

but exploring Eurasian Wolves are continuously shot illegally.

Increasing exploration movements of Eastern European populations led in 2000, for the first

time since 1850, to the reproduction of a wild pair of Eurasian Wolves. Then the development

accelerated.

So, 20 years later a monitoring yielded the following results (source: Bundesamt für Naturschutz):

Packs 128, Pairs 35, single individuals 10

Between 2000 and the end of 2020, the following figures were given for kills:

roadkill 393, illegal intentional kills 51

Since the 'return' of the Eurasian Wolf to Germany, an unpleasant mixture of hunting-, agricultural-

and shepherd lobbies, together with the conservative to right-wing press, has been exerting

pressure on politicians to officially allow Eurasian Wolves to be shot and to place the management

of the population under the control of the hunting authority.

Since 2020, so-called 'problem wolves' can now officially be killed in Germany. These are

individuals that either repeatedly attack unprotected livestock herds or do not shy away from

humans and visit human settlements in search of food.

In the hope of a little bit of local or social media fame, people have in the past fed Eurasian Wolf

offspring and posted videos of them. Animals that are imprinted on humans often lose all

shyness and are thus more or less tame.

Despite all the antipathy towards livestock breeders, it must be said that in parts of this

community a slow rethinking is taking place and people are getting used to now necessary

protection measures, e.g. for sheep, and thus no longer support the call for a management

of the Eurasian Wolf population.

This audio recording comes from a wild pack of wolves in Brandenburg.

Thanks are due to all those who are committed to opposing the killing of wildlife and of

course to Сталкер TN!

Recording sound of a thunderstorm is not an easy thing to do if you value a sound that

is not colored by the reflections of a building or muffled a shelter. There are just too few

dry thunderstorms in the Northern Hemisphere, unfortunately.

Tonight there was a really exceptionally long and intense thunderstorm in Leipzig.

Since my apartment building is adjacent to a very spacious courtyard, there is a massive

reverberation there, which makes it acoustically very interesting, even if it is not

a thunderstorm in an open field.

Regular visitors to my blog will know that one of my favourite nature reserves is

a former military training area south of Berlin (see: Scorched Earth I)

After a massive fire some years back, new flora is now showing up and with it first

larger fauna. One species was always present even right after the big fire, is the

Eurasian Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus. This bird species prefers an open, dry

landscape with little ground vegetation and prefers to hunt insects in flight.

The overall behaviour of this species is remarkable, as it is highly specialised and

the mostly nocturnal encounters are always something special. Since the species

is not very shy, sometimes approach the observer very close one might even think

they are 'curious'.

www.singwarte.info

Strong winds have been persisting for weeks, making wildlife sound recording outdoors almost impossible at the moment. Fortunately, there are birds that breed in buildings, like barn swallows. In this case, even in an observation tower in a nature reserve.