Sounds of Nature Project
This Project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage
SOUNDS OF NATURE – Constant Corncrake
The Field Club’s Sounds of Nature Project was inspired by a chance encounter in May 2019 between two Assynt Field Club members and Clive Davis who was holidaying in Assynt. Clive, who is a member of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society, was making sound recordings of birds, etc. in the area.
The mental health benefits of listening to bird song and other sounds of nature have been well reported. Our website is by necessity very visual, both with regards to images and words. The main aim of our project therefore is to make the site, and hence Assynt’s wildlife, more accessible and meaningful for those with a visual impairment.
More information about the project along with links to other recordings can be found on the website’s Sounds of Nature Project page
SOUNDS OF NATURE – Constant Corncrake (David Haines, June 2021)
Corncrake, Crex crex is very definitely a bird that is more often heard than seen. Sadly, in the UK at least, it is heard much less frequently than it used to be. This half-sized Grey Partridge bird is a Red listed species due to declines in breeding population and breeding range.
They do turn up sporadically in Assynt after migrating from their wintering grounds in eastern Africa. If you have one arrive near you there is no doubting its presence.
Murray Anderson who runs ‘Rustic Cabins’ at Achnacarnin contacted us on 16 June 2021. Via messenger he sent a video of his croft! Very nice, but why? We turned up the volume just as he was asking “is this a Corncrake calling?” 100% was the reply! A perfect subject for our ‘Sounds of Nature’ project.
It was too windy the next day and night to try and record the bird. Friday 18 June was calm and dry, perfect conditions, and they were set to continue through to Saturday. So, the sound recording equipment was set up on Murray’s croft at 8.15pm and collected at 6.30am on the Saturday.
Result
The total length of recording was 9h:29m. It was a success and we managed to record the bird calling on several occasions. That’s actually a vast understatement as it called on 56 separate occasions for a total of 4h:34m:24s! The longest single calling session started a few minutes before midnight and lasted until 2.30am. Non stop for slightly over two-and-a-half-hours, incredible stamina.
The five minute recording here is from that marathon session and has had no editing done, other than to cut it from the full session. You can also hear Snipe, Gallinago gallinago on several occasions during their aerial display. The throbbing sound is produced by air vibrating through spread outer tail-feathers and not a vocalisation.
Enjoy a much less common sound, and for the full ‘effect’ play this on a constant loop!
Photos are screenshots from trail-cam footage taken in June 2020 when Andy Summers recorded a Corncrake skulking on his croft at Clachtoll.
The two black wavy lines are the screen display of the first 27 seconds of the sound recording above.