CONTAINS: A consistent insect chorus with a rufous owl calling intermittently throughout.
RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who like white noise, brown noise, pink noise. For people who want a consistent soundscape to help mask the sounds of the city, who want something almost mechanical or synthesised to help drown their thoughts.
ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES:
Subtle pulsations, and vibrations, with ticking, buzzing and swooshing that forms soft waves of white noise. It is the insect chorus in rainforest in Cape York, QLD.
This recording was taken in the area under the care of Mapoon Aboriginal Council, next to a tidal river with mangroves in a patch of forest that is dense with life.
There are crickets and katydids calling and probably a large range of other things that I'll never be able to identify.
00:01:20 An orange-footed scrubfowl is calling in the distance.
00:08:40 The clicks and snaps of movement. Also, of things falling from trees — perhaps discarded seeds by animals, leaves, or fruit.
00:15:00 A brush cuckoo calling.
00:15:50 The scream is a Tyto — either a Barn Owl or a Grass Owl. The calls are rather too similar to tell them apart.
00:24:00 The metal 'sproing' call of a large-tailed nightjar — a bird which looks like leaf litter, but sounds like an industrial accident.
00:33:45 The bounding thumps of a macropod.
00:46:30 Now, at first I thought… frogmouth? What is that. But then I roped in my friend Dr Jodi Rowley, who then had to call in a second opinion. AND… drum roll — it is Litoria infrafrenata the white-lipped tree frog. Jodi says it's sort of unusual to hear its calls grouped together like that.
00:53:30 An Eastern Koel calling. I wonder if they ever get any sleep. It seems that they turn up everywhere I record, no matter the time!
00:55:30 That is the call of a rufous owl — a large nocturnal owl who looks a little like it is wearing a stripy 'Where's Wally' top in cream and orange. It also has a much milder resting 'expression' that the powerful owl — this one looking as if it *slightly* concerned for your welfare but if you wake it up in the daytime, it's eyes will absolutely boggle at the audacity.
01:10:10 Yes, probably a cow. There are also feral horses and boars in the area.
01.10.40 I'm actually not sure what is making this keening sound.
01:13:20 Perhaps a fruit bat calling out. They could be responsible for some of the 'cracks' and 'tocks' of things hitting the leaf litter.
01:17:15 The large-tailed nightjar is back bouncing away.
01:21:40 the chirr of an owlet nightjar — another bird which looks a little bit like a piece of a branch.
01:22:00 Orange-footed scrubfowl.
01:32:45 The brush cuckoo calling with it's diagnostic series of descending whistles.
01:38:15 A shrike-thrush calls. I wonder whether it woke itself up from a dream.
01:41:06 I believe this is a brushtail possum!
01:48:50 The owlet nightjar is tiny but gives mighty little cries.
01:50:50 Now why insects do this — call. Stop. Start. Stop. Please someone point me towards why?
01:56:15 A wallaby with a smokers cough?
02:14:00 A seriously silly call from the orange-footed scrubfowl.
02:19:35 I think this little grunt may actually be a scrub turkey — they make funny little low pitched kazoo like calls, but it could also be a wompoo fruit dove being weird. Animals are not always predictable.
With thanks to Dr Elliot Leach and Gus Daly for putting up with a group chat where I send snippets of sound for them to identify.
