Recording 4 - Parabolic Microphone
- 9:12pm
- Walked towards creek from LL
- At part across from hole started hearing running water, thought it was coming from under the ground so turned parabolic towards ground, but that made it quieter
- Realized it was just coming from the creek duh
- Mostly from black round outlets
- Went right side towards under the trees
- Just paused and pointed parabolic mic towards creek
- Also pointed towards trees for crickets / road
- Around 4 mins Michael found a plastic water bottle and started making really cool sounds
- Rubbed it against rocks
- Blew into it like wind
- Poured out water
Soooo, our plans for the rest of the hydrophone recordings got derailed a little. Michael and I were planning on doing two to three recordings each on the Marsh Trail and then going towards Fuller Hollow Creek by Newing to get some more moving water. I completed one, then Michael did two, and then about ⅔ of the way through my 2nd hydrophone recording, a beaver showed up! I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised since I had been standing on one of the beaver dams in the ditch, but it was still shocking and super cool. The beaver was pretty large, and just kept swimming around with a log about 3-4 feet long and maybe 6 inches in diameter. I was hoping the beaver’s swimming would cause some ripples in the water that would make interesting sounds on the hydrophone, but honestly I don’t think it did very much. The beaver settled in the corner about a minute later and started scraping away at the log. Surprisingly, the scraping sounds did come through on the hydrophone! I finished that recording and then immediately started another one in the same spot. When the second hydrophone recording finished, we decided to change plans and switch to the internal mic on the tascam to better capture the beaver sounds. We were super surprised that the beaver did not seem bothered by our lights and occasional noises, and stayed there for a long time. We ended up doing six 5ish minute stereo recordings in that one spot because the beaver was still there. Not only that, but FOUR MORE BEAVERS showed up! There were two more adult sized beavers for a while and one smaller baby beaver, and at some point a fifth one came too. They were all just crowded on the same log chewing away. Seeing and hearing five beavers at once was definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life.
