Streambox on the hill

We were delighted to welcome the sound-camp team (with thanks to the Mark Leonard Trust) to the tree nursery, as part of the Reveil project and to further expand our understanding of Bryn Arw - this time through sound. One of our fab volunteers, Rowan, has written a beautiful post about the day:

We started the day bright and early with the sound of the dawn chorus and breakfast at our community nursery in Bettws: mistlethrush, songthrush, chiffchaff, chaffinch, nuthatch, stonechat, goldfinch, goldcrest, the day’s first soundscape. At 9:30 with their songs settling down we moved our focus from ecology to acoustic ecology, as we’d been offered a day’s workshop with Mort and Grant of Soundcamp, a sound-based arts cooperative, to take part in their project Reveil, following the dawn chorus around the earth for 24+1 hours over the 6th and 7th of May.

After an introduction to the project and its artistic aims we set to work building our own Streamboxes, devices for picking up sound and live-streaming it worldwide. The poly-tunnel was abuzz with the sounds of questions, explanations, circuit-boards, cables, microphones, and of course, the kettle.

With our kit up and running we set off up Bryn Arw, where Stump planted a hundred and thirty-five thousand native broadleaf trees in the winter of ’20-’21. After a picnic on the ridge and much stimulating conversation we split up into groups to take the devices to their new homes, one amongst the bracken and one in a newly planted area, hoping to monitor the difference in soundscape as our trees mature.

With our work done we settled down to listen in, and really listen. A willow-warbler’s duet with the drip of a stream, the drone of an aircraft, a sheep’s bleat, a startled blackbird, the three forty-three Transport for Wales service to Pembroke Dock. Each demands attention but nothing intrudes. The bumble-bee’s solo takes nothing from the boy-racer’s growl, each unaware of their part in the symphony.

These sounds can be heard at https://locus.creacast.com:9443/stream_042.mp3 and https://locus.creacast.com:9443/stream_053.mp3 , bracken and newly-planted trees respectively.

by Rowan Harris