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Over the years, I have become increasingly fascinated by one of natures greatest engineers, European Beaver. As a field recorder, I am naturally to drawn to wetlands. These rich habitats are often full of interesting bird species and offer rich recording opportunities. Here in Sweden, particularly within large areas on natural forest, you can find wetland habitats that have been created by European Beaver and these are often incredibly biodiverse locations. Taking a deep dive into one of these Beaver wetlands was something I had wanted to do for some time. Over the course of early 2025, I finally decided to try and uncover some of the secrets these remarkable habitats might hold. Within Tyresta National Park, there was one particularly pristine example of such habitat. This is a mature, well established wetland that owes its existence entirely to these remarkable mammals. I set out to actively explore this location, using a combination of recording methods. The results were amazing. The audio was breathtaking. The journey was worth the effort. In this episode, the season finale, I will share the resulting audio with listeners. I have no doubt I will be returning to such habitats in the future. There is a lot to uncover at these sites, which are a testament to a remarkable mammal, it's effect on the landscape and the species that benefit from the tireless work these animals do. We can learn a lot from nature... In addition to the podcast episode, listeners may be interested in a written piece on my blog, detailing this particular 2024 project. You will find the link below.. https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-sounds-of-rewilding-field-recording.html Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

In the latter half of September 2025, I travelled north to the tiny island of Hällögern, in the northern part of Sweden. On this occasion I would spend two weeks on the island during the peak period of autumn migration. The trip was carefully planned and over the course of a fortnight I managed to to a great deal of active field recording, whilst out looking at birds in the field. My focus was on monitoring and recording passage migrants moving southwards along the coastline, as well as any interesting resident species that might be present on this tiny island. I had a magical time on the island and a great deal of success, with regard to field recording.  In this episode, I share some very high quality audio with listener's of the podcast, all secured in this wonderfully quiet location in Northern Sweden. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Along the coast of Västerbotten, each autumn, a vast migration of birds takes place each year. In 2025, by means of passive recording, I was able to monitor this migration by placing a recorder in cover for two months. During this period, a wide range of species moved through this area. On some mornings, the migration was heavy. There were times when migrant species were moving through cover. past my recorder at close range. This project gave me a unique insight into what was taking place at the island during the months of August and September. It is during these two months when passage is heaviest. Some of the resulting audio was remarkable and lifted the lid on bird movements through the area. In this episode, I share and discuss the audio with listeners. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Wild Bird Acoustics brings you two sound magazines in this episode. As Autumn now stretches out in front of us, I thought this might be a good time to include the second installment of passively recorded audio from my listening station at Hällögern in Västrbotten. Podcast listener's will now be very familiar with this location, but this will be the first time I will share audio from the late autumn period at this site. In 2024, due of the aqquisition on a new SM Mini recorder for this site, I was able to passively record for a significantly longer period of time, which allowed me to collect audio all the way into mid November. I will share the results of that passive deployment with listeners in this sound magazine. The second half of this episode concernes itself with field recording at Tyresta National Park in early May. Having recorded there extensively throughout early spring, it was wonderful to get out into the field and experience new sounds in the park in May, those of newly return summer migrants. It is during the late spring period that many breeding species return and reclaim breeding territories at this site and I was on hand to get some lovely audio as this began to happen in 2025. Join me as I share some wonderful audio of a wide range of species, as summer species began to flood back into Sweden. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

In this, the final installment of the Sandemar Files, I take you on an auditory tour of Sandemar Reserve, exploring the wonderful sounds of this reserve on May. In late spring, this reserve bursts into life, as summer migrants return in large numbers to establish breeding territories. The soundscape at this site through the spring is quite remarkable and it is at its most diverse in May, when a large number of species are present. This year was no exception and I employed a number of field recording techniques to secure some wonderful audio at this very special reserve. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

In this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, I will present two sound magazines for listener's to enjoy. The first of these deals with one on my favourite species here in Sweden, the European Green Woodpecker. This is a shy, rather retiring bird and they can be difficult to field record as a result. Over the course of 2025 I employed passive recorders with great success in order to get up close and personal with these wonderful birds. The result of this project was some wonderful intimate audio of the species and I have been able to put together a dedicated sound magazine on Green Woodpecker, as a direct result. In the latter half of the episode, I will transport listener's to the Västerbotten coastline in Northern Sweden. Over the course of two weeks there in late September I set myself the task of securing high quality audio of the various owl species present on the tiny island of Hällögern. This proved a rather special experience. A number of rather special moments were captured by my microphones and here I will relay the story of how things unfolded over a wonderful fortnight in a remarkable part of the world... Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

In this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, I take you on a tour of Tyresta National Park, sharing audio from a wide range of species. Given such an incredibly rich habitat, the opportunities for the active field recorder at this site are almost never ending. This pristine woodland habitat could easily occupy me for several years, such is it's scale and remarkably biodiversity. There is always more to discover at this incredible reserve. The more one lifts the lid, the more you begin to realize and wonder at. This park is a seemingly endless treasure trove of discovery and wonder and I have barely scratched the surface of this vast swathe of woodland habitat. Join me for a auditory tour and immerse yourself in the sounds on pristine Swedish woodland in early spring... Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

In this episode we return to Sandemar Reserve to listen to the wonderful sounds of the site in late spring, a time when this reserve is bursting with life. In this episode we explore the sounds of the flooded coastal meadow at this incredible location and listen to some remarkable recordings of various bird species. Here on these wet grasslands, several species of wader return to breed each year and in 2025 I recorded some incredible audio by means of passive recording. Join me as I share this intimate audio, often at incredible close quarters, in order to gain a glimpse into the secret world of breeding wader species. During the course of the month, some remarkable sequences of audio were recorded, offering a window into the incredible scenes that take place in this habitat under cover of darkness, as well as revealing remarkable early morning drama due to the presence of predatory bird species at the reserve. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Lying 700km east of New Zealand, in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, lie the Chatham Islands. This far flung location is one of the finest locations in the world for breeding seasbirds. Sadly, many of them are now critically endangered. I could not pass up the opportunity of talking to Dave Boyle, on of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust team. Over the past decade or so, Dave has been working tirelessly with Seabirds on these islands and has made serious efforts to field record many of them. He was king enough to come on to the podcast and share some quite remarkable recordings of a wide range of seabird species. Many of these recording are of very high quality and some of them may contain calls that are previously unrecorded. Over the course of two episodes, Dave takes us into the hidden world of breeding seabirds in the Pacific Ocean, shares his expansice knowledge of these species and talks about the work being carried out with regard to one of the world rarest seabird species, the Chatham Island Taiko. This long interview was broken down into two episodes, due to the long running time and large number of field recordings.  Headphones Recommended! https://www.taiko.org.nz/ Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Lying 700km east of New Zealand, in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, lie the Chatham Islands. This far flung location is one of the finest locations in the world for breeding seasbirds. Sadly, many of them are now critically endangered. I could not pass up the opportunity of talking to Dave Boyle, on of the Chatham Island Taiko Trust team. Over the past decade or so, Dave has been working tirelessly with Seabirds on these islands and has made serious efforts to field record many of them. He was king enough to come on to the podcast and share some quite remarkable recordings of a wide range of seabird species. Many of these recording are of very high quality and some of them may contain calls that are previously unrecorded. Over the course of two episodes, Dave takes us into the hidden world of breeding seabirds in the Pacific Ocean, shares his expansice knowledge of these species and talks about the work being carried out with regard to one of the world rarest seabird species, the Chatham Island Taiko. This long interview was broken down into two episodes, due to the long running time and large number of field recordings.  Headphones Recommended! https://www.taiko.org.nz/ Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Tucked away, deep inside the ancient woodlands that make up Tyresta National Park, lies one of many small wetlands, hidden in the interior of this vast forest reserve. This small marsh is called Nedre Kärret and lies in a natural ampitheatre, surrounded by high outcrops of rock and pristine spruce forest. Having honed in on this micro habitat, I decided to attempt to uncover the birds present day and night, using a combination of active and passive recording techniques. The wetland is in constant flux, with European Beaver the architects of this hidden world, creating breeding habitat for a multitude of bird species by way of their ceaseless activities. In this episode I will lift the curtain an this magical little wetland and invite you, the listener, to join me.... Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Late summer is a fantastic time to be in the far north of Sweden. In July 2024 I spent a month on the tiny island of Hällögern, field recording the many breeding species present on the island. This proved to be an overwhelming success. Because I had such a generous amount of time available to me, I was able to observe the birds carefully at the location, often managing to get my microphones into optimal positions. The result was a large amount of extremely high quality audio, which I will be sharing with listeners in this episode. This episode will transport you to the coast of Västerbotten in summer and allow full immersion into this wonderful part of the world.. Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Sandemar Reserve, located just southeast of Stockholm City, is a wonderful place to record birds. My favourite month at this site is undoubtedly May, when the spring floodgates are opened and migrant bird species return in the large numbers. It is at this time of year that waves of summer migrants arrive on the coastline of Sweden. This is an exciting time to be in the field. Throughout the entire month, I devoted myself to this this remarkable site, arriving at dawn to actively record returning migrant species. In addition to the large amount of time spent actively recording at the site, I also made great efforts to carefully place automated recorders in several areas, in the  hope of uncovering audio of some of the more secretive species at this site.  The result was a treasure trove of delightful results, audio of a wide range of species, in a number of different habitats. Join me at Wild Bird Acoustics as I share the audio with listeners... Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

Sweden is world famous for its stunning vista of remote freshwater lakes, lined with coniferous forest. Happily, this scene is still very much a reality in the modern day. At Tyresta National Park, a stones throw from Stockholm City, lie a number of freshwater lakes and in the spring of 2024, I was drawn to them once again. Having undertaken a major field recording project at the park, I wanted to uncover the secrets of the lakes within the park. I was very much focused on field recording of one of Sweden's most iconic sounds, the breeding display of Black-throated Diver. This endeavour proved not to be as simple as I had anticipated, but there were some wonderful moments along the way, as I tried to get to grips with my target species. Did I succeed in the end? Join me in this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics in order to find out... Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/

March in Sweden is a period when resident species begin to become active after a long winter here in Sweden and woodland habitats begin to ring with the sounds of singing birds once again. In 2025 I visited Tyresta National Park throughout the early Spring period in order to record these resident species, before the return of summer migrants. I was interested in recording the soundscape within woodland before it became saturated with the song of a wider range of species. In effect, the sound of woodland in early spring is rather pure and it is an excellent time to obtain high quality recording of several special species, such as Black Woodpecker and Red Crossbill. I found a wonderful soundscape to record within the park, as I traversed this massive tract of woodland in search of birds. The results of this intensive sound recording project were quite wonderful and surpassed my own expectations. In this episode, I share recordings from that early spring period, just before most migrants return to Sweden.  Leave a comment here.... Support the show Subscibe to Wild Bird Acoustics here; https://wildbirdacoustics.buzzsprout.com Lots more audio related material here at my long running website; https://blogbirder.blogspot.com/