Bird sound recording (1-day, The Nunnery, Thetford)

Level

Improver

Presenter

Simon Gillings, Mark Lewis, Nick Moran

Date

Saturday, March 23, 2019 - 09:00 to 17:00

Places

Fully booked

Discover how easy it is to record bird sounds, and what this can reveal

This 1-day workshop covers how to record bird sounds, then process and analyse the results. Recording nocturnal flight calls ('nocmig') is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and we'll provide guidance about how to get started with this fascinating activity. We will also show you how to effectively record bird sounds in the field, with relatively inexpensive equipment, and how this can help with identification.

During this workshop you can expect the following:

• Guidance about how to record bird sounds, and encouragement to try it
• Advice on equipment – what you need, how to set it up and use it
• Practical sessions on using Audacity to produce spectrograms and analyse recordings
• Examples showing the value of recordings and spectrograms for bird identification
• A flavour of what sound recording can reveal about nocturnal bird migration.

Although we will discuss the identification of some infrequently-heard (but often recorded!) nocturnal calls and show how sound recordings can help with identification, we will not cover the basics of identifying birds by their songs and calls.

This 1-day workshop costs £30. The price includes teaching, workshop materials, and refreshments during the day. Please bring a packed lunch.

Online booking is available for this event but if you have any queries about booking a place, please email Anne.Cotton [at] bto.org or ring 01786 458021.