Field Recording Favorites

A Murder

Image courtesy of The Connecticut Department of Wildlife Protection Copywrite 1999

Audio courtesy of Gausig
http://www.uwm.edu/~type/420_Field_Audio/FieldRecordingSamples/CrowRoostGausig.mp3
When I found this track it struck me as a very intimate picture of crows’ social lives. It is rare that one will be close enough to a murder of crows to hear as many and as varied avian voices. It to me is reminiscent of a cocktail party in which a number of the guests have had a few drinks and are on the verge of getting out of hand. The chaotic chorus often lopes as one or the other bird establishes his point the loudest, but never is there more than a moment’s pause in the rhythmic, occasionally chant-like, cackling of these creatures. The picture above suggests the way I first envisioned the scene played out in the clip. Although later, as I repeated the track over and over, it became a symphony of horned echoes that reverberating in my daydreaming mind. The sound seems most aptly described as ripples, a la Fantasia, pulsating and gyrating as each crow gradually adjusts the volume, pace, and timbre of his intonation. To add to the overt cacophony one will find the sound of the birds’ short flights from branch to branch as they vie for position in this indecipherable conversation.

posted by Rob D. @ 2:03 AM