Fern Hill school visited Ruthven recently for a nature program that included an overnight stay. As part of this program, some of the students made audio recordings of birds around the Ruthven property. From these recordings, I’ve created a page on the blog that can be accessed by clicking here, or by clicking the link entitled “Fern Hill School Birdsong Recordings” that is now in the menu bar.
The recordings that were made were much longer than the short excerpts that are posted on this page. I’ve selected a good section from each recording. Some recordings are faint, and some are noisy with non-bird sounds (wind, voices, etc), but each one ended up having something interesting in it.
I’ve also included a link at the bottom of that page to xeno canto. For those who don’t know, xeno canto is a birdsong database with recordings submitted from people all over the world. It is an excellent place to go learn about birdsong, and to experience the variety that can exist within one species.
The software used to make the sonograms was Cornell University’s Raven Sound Analysis Software. Note that for those who may be interested in making and examining their own recordings, a free “lite” version of raven is available. This is a piece of software that is used regularly by researchers, and was used for some work that I’ve done at Dalhousie that is summarized in the poster accessed by clicking this link: Hermit Thrush Research poster by MacLeod, Roach, and Phillmore.
Enjoy!
Jeff MacLeod