During Icelandic independence day, 17. of June 2012, I was in
Önundarfjörður
fjord in the Westfjords, the north west peninsula of Iceland. This
fjord lies deep between steep mountains with high cliffs. After midnight
I entered an Arctic tern colony to record their sounds. The recording
conditions was as good as it gets. The weather was calm, dry but cloudy,
and the temperature was about 7 °C. Almost no traffic was in the fjord
so most of the background noise was only coming from falling water in
the mountains and sea waves at the shore.
This Arctic tern colony is big and has been there for decades, even
centuries. This bird is very territorial and aggressive protecting the
colony and many other bird more passive species feel safe to nest among
the Arctic tern. So this recording includes sounds from many other bird
spaces such as Whimbrel, Black-headed Gull, Black-tailed Godwit, Common
Redshank, Oystercatcher, and Golden Plover… and many more
The recording contains also human and sheep voices from a nearby farm.
Swans, Red-throat Diver, and common Eider at the shore side and a some
sound from a Gull colony high in the cliffs all around the fjord.
During the recording the Arctic Terns attack many times the furry
microphones. Sometimes you may hear their excrement fall to the ground
around the microphones, but at this time they never hit or peck the
Blimps.
The duration of the recording was almost 80 minutes. Following recording
contains the last 36 minutes so my disturbing visit is not much
audible. This is just a nice ordinary summer night in the north west of
Iceland.
Download mp3 file (192kbps / 50,7Mb)
Recorder: Sound devices 744t
Mics: Rode NT1a
Pics: Canon D30
