SOUNDS LIKE: You're waking up while on holiday in a tropical rainforest, surrounded by exotic birds. Layers of sound are like vine tendrils curling through the jungle canopy: the birds are near, far, above and right next to you. Let them drown out whatever is giving you the sh*ts.
In reality, this place in Cape York isn't really visited by tourists. It's one of those spots that the locals from Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council in Far North Queensland know about.
CONTAINS: Mostly birbs. And a curious wallaroo later on.You'll hear green orioles, which sound like someone dropping PVC pipes, orange-footed scrubfowl which call out like an old lady (a posh one) getting a fright and even one of Australia's rarest birds, the palm cockatoo. Minimal flies and mozzies.
RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who wish they could travel to every corner of the globe, for when you need something a bit louder to drown out some neighbours, or your thoughts. For bird people (and those who wish they were bird people).
ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:
There is a 4WD track in western Cape York that leads from the highway towards a tidal river filled with crocs and sharks. Just as you're about to hit the high tide mark - that's where this recording is taken.
It is 'riparian forest' which is the fancy way of saying it's forest on a riverbank. In this part of the world, it means thick vegetation with vines growing throughout, the foliage providing shade from the blasting sun, but also keeping the humidity high.
There are rare (in Australia) Nypa Palms emerging from muddy water or even at the mangroves edge and let's face it, something that could bite you is never more than 30cm away.
This is one of those recordings where there's so much going on, I almost don't know where to start when explaining what I can hear.
00:00:00 A dawn chorus, though, if you listen very carefully there is a cross over of some nocturnal birds. The large-tailed nightjar sounds like a metal spring being repeatedly bounced. Boing boing boing boing. Hearing this sound may be dependent on the volume you're listening at! Always listen ONLY to your comfort level (or leave it on full blast when you go out for the neighbours to listen to).
00:01:45 A black butcherbird calls, the largest of Australia's butcherbirds. It sounds a little bit like a child pretending to shoot a laser gun, then, perhaps the sound you'd make going over a speed bum too fast!
00:01:50 Throughout this recording there is a hum, that comes and goes in long swathes. This isn't the hum of a distant generator or plant machinery. It is the activity, I think, of many hundreds of insects - perhaps crickets? They sound a little bit like the string section of an orchestra warming up or a distant gang of very angry bees.
00:02:00 This sound though, louder and closer to the microphone is a green oriole. Ironically, also called the Australasian yellow oriole. It has a fetching millennial pink beak and sounds like several large water droplets hitting a suspended metal bowl in a cave.
00:04:50 SO. MUCH. GOING. ON.
00:04:44 Oh my goodness that is the sound of one of the rarest birds in the world. Palm Cockatoos. High pitched, almost shrill, and entirely wonderful.
00:04:50 Mosquito. I promise there will not be too many throughout the recording, though, there was in real life. Mosquito sounds are sometimes intense around their target species (say… humans!) and because the recorder is out there, all alone, we don't get too many.
00:07:30 The wompoo fruit dove in the background, lower in tone than the other birds! What a little legend. Sounds a little bit like Austen Powers trying to get you onto a dance floor boom shaka-WOOOO baby.
00:08:35 I think that perhaps, the harsh grating is a spangled drongo (or perhaps a trumpet manucode). A trumpet manucode, a glossy black bird within the family we call 'birds of paradise'. Part of its call sounds like an ancient tree creaking or a blowfly stuck in a small tin can. The other park like a cartoon effect of children blasting off a trampoline into space!
00:09:02 Large-billed Gerygone, one of the group of small brown birds that can be difficult to tell apart. The Australian Bird Guide describes the bill as 'hefty' and the eyelids white with a call that is often 'loud and cheery'.
00:11.24 potential broad-billed flycatcher calling here with a buzzing sort of call. Now, judging by the name you'd almost expect something like a boat-bill (yes, that is a bird) but to be honest, I reckon I'd have trouble picking the broad-billed from a bill line- up. It is, maybe, shaped a little thicker through the middle than other flycatchers like the Taj Mahal instead of an A-frame house, but you'd have to see it from underneath to be able to tell at all! It gleans insects (picks them off vegetation or other surfaces) and also sallies (sits on a branch then launches out to swoop around and catch an insect while airborne, then returning to the perch).
00:12:00 There are so many smaller parrot fly-byes in this recording! Could be lorikeets, red-cheeked parrots there are so many sorts and most of them scream as they fly!
00:12:50 This is a shrike-thrush either a grey or a Little. In fact, it's probably two calling back and forward.
00:13:32 this makes me think little shrike thrush.
00:14:15 a dove or pigeon, but which one?!
00:15:03 Bar-shouldered dove AND torresian imperial pigeon, (please correct me I'm out of my depth!)
00:15:45 A torresian imperial pigeon.
00:20:20 Sounds slightly like someone trying to break out of a box. I know that great bowerbirds make sounds similar to this.
00:21:10 There is a high-pitched clipping chirp here probably an insect calling loudly on the left side of the microphones. It's paced a little like a resting heart beat monitor.
00:24:45 fan-tailed cuckoo? But see, there is an amazing kingfisher in QLD called the yellow-billed kingfisher, and it also makes a descending trill and sometimes a long drawn out one like the sound that follows.
00:25:45 Black butcherbird making series of four notes, as if scanning four items at the supermarket in record time.
00:34:15 Welcome to the show Mr / Mrs orange footed scrubfowl.
00:35:05 Yes, they sound like a cartoon rooster getting strangled.
00:35:50 Could that be a Northern Fantail? There are so many noises going on that my brain is finding it hard to hold onto any one sound!
00:36:40 Just drawing your attention to the thrumming of the insect chorus.
00:38:55 You can hear the orange footed scrub fowl in the leaf litter, scratching around. They're part of the megapode family- that means 'big feet'.
00:43:25 I think the wompoo fruit-dove is making that noise actually? The one that sounds like it's breaking out of a cardboard box. It's sort of the start of a call that *should* end with a 'boom shaka-wooooo'
00:44:40 The scrubfowl is really going for those grubs!
00:47:08 The torresian imperial-pigeon is a large white and black pigeon, and its 'cool-woooooo' call is commonly heard throughout the towns of the north of Australia. They often sit up like big blobs of whiteout at the top of trees.
00:51:55 The scrubfowls are such characters just screaming like anything in the middle of the bush.
00:53:32 This could be a varied triller, a bird which looks as if it should be in the northern hemisphere (to my eye). Perhaps if a mud lark and a shining bronze cuckoo had a love child, it would be this bird.
01:00:20 I love the fact that a bird (I assume the scrubfowl) just stomps past.
01:01:01 The large-tailed nightjar is boinging again.
01:05:20 A rare moment of insect chorus having a chance to be heard among the birds.
01:06:50 In the distance brolgas are calling they sound like jazz a trumpet.
01:15:55 I tend to think that that is two macropods? Just a gut feeling I think, based on the rhythm and style of movements.
01:16:35 You can hear the air running over those parrot wings as they go past.
01:17:04 this is the black butcherbird back again.
01:20:50 I think that's the yellow-billed kingfisher! I wish I could've seen it.
01:21:10 Characteristic macropod thump. Agile wallabies and antilopine wallaroos both exist in this area.
01:28:10 The mammals bring the flies. I swear.
A million thankyou's to Dr Ross Dwyer for on the ground technical support in Cape York (I am sorry about the flat tyre), and also Dr Elliot Leach, Gus Daly and Dr Christina Zdenek for their invaluable expertise in identifying some of the sounds in this recording. All mistakes are my own.
Recording: Dr Ann Jones.
Mastering: Isabella Tropiano
Executive Producer, Audio for ABC Science: Petria Ladgrove.
