Birdsong Recording near Kabli Bird Station – Early May

[inspire]

Hi all,
I’m planning another early morning birdsong recording session – this time near the Kabli Bird Station in Häädemeeste, Kabli. It’s a beautiful spot right by the coast, known for its bird migration studies.

I'll be bringing my trusty Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder, and fingers crossed the birds will be active and cooperative! The plan is to record from around 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM, just before sunrise. We'll see how it goes!

The session is scheduled for the first weekend of May (night of May 3rd into the early hours of May 4th).

Here’s a bit more about the location:
https://visitestonia.com/en/kabli-bird-centre-1

[Mungo]

Good luck. Hopefully no planes or other motorized vehicles around. What microphones are you going to use and what kind of wind protection?

[inspire]

I visited this exact location on May 4th, 2024, while hiking the first stage of the Ikla–Oandu RMK trail, so I’m quite familiar with the area!
I’ll attach a couple of photos from last year. I also have a bird recording from that trip made on my phone – nothing fancy, just something for personal reference using the Voice Memos app on iPhone.
This time, I’ll be using a Schoeps MiniCMIT GR with a Rycote Windshield Kit MiniCMIT, and I also plan to try a stereo setup with 2x DPA 6060-OC-U-B34 mics, paired with DPA AIR1 Black S windshields.
Since the recording session will take place during the night, there’s usually no traffic in the area, and hopefully the wind stays calm too – although being right by the sea, that’s never guaranteed.
I’ll be testing this setup out in the countryside this weekend. If anything interesting happens to wander into the mics’ range, I’ll be sure to share it here!

 

 

 

[Olle Sjostrom]

Sorry for hijacking, if anyone else is a fan of birdsong, I can recommend listening to a radio show called Dawn Chorus from RTE - https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/generic/2024/0410/1442810-the-dawn-chorus-2024/

or the Swedish version Fågelsångsnatten where I worked one night; we paddled the whole night through. It’s a live 8 hour broadcast
https://www.sverigesradio.se/grupp/33920
Amazing job!

 

 

I was using a mixpre 10, DPA4017s in a stereo setup (just a rough ORTF style thing). The show host wore lavs on their foreheads. 
 

Hope you have a great session!

[inspire]

@Olle, thanks for your post – I listened to it and found it really interesting. I was actually quite surprised by how well it was recorded, knowing how challenging wind can be. I assume you had relatively calm conditions that night? I could hear the sound of the sea in the background.

I didn’t understand much of the spoken part, but Swedish always has such a pleasant sound to it, so no worries there.

What’s also fascinating is the timing – almost exactly the same time of year as last time, and it sounds like you’ve done this multiple times, more or less annually? That’s really nice. Spring is such an active time for birds, and I could hear both familiar and unfamiliar calls in the mix.

My own recording day is getting closer too. I did a quick test with one DPA 6060 last weekend – I’ll attach a photo, but won’t post any recordings from it here.

 

My planned nature recording setup:

Center: 1x Schoeps MiniCMIT, pointed straight ahead, center-panned.
Sides: 2x DPA 6060 (omnis), spaced ~17–20 cm apart at ~110° angle, hard-panned L/R.
Although the DPAs are omnis, they’ll be angled similar to an ORTF layout to take advantage of their high-frequency directionality, especially for birdsong.
Recording will take place near the coast at sunrise, aiming for calm wind conditions. Mic height will be around 1.5–2.5 m, depending on the terrain and bird activity. All mics will have wind protection.
Goal: focused center (MiniCMIT) with a natural stereo ambience (DPAs). First time trying this — curious how well it works for birdlife.

[inspire]

I’m here and testing 😃

 

 

 

 

[inspire]

 

 

[inspire]

I've completed my recording session, and right away I have to say: no two years are alike. This year turned out to be completely different from the last one. Whether it’s due to the much colder weather or something else, bird activity during my session was surprisingly low.

I recorded exactly during the time I had planned, and by 5:00 AM I was packing up my tripods and microphones. What I mostly captured was the sound of the sea – definitely not what I came for!

I tested two locations. The first was right by the shoreline – the same spot where I experienced very lively bird activity exactly a year ago. This time? Not a single bird during the whole recording window. So, lots of waves, and that’s about it.

The second location was farther inland. Interestingly, even there the sea was still faintly audible. And unexpectedly, a noticeable wind picked up at that spot. It didn’t interfere with the recordings technically, but it was distracting nonetheless.

I did get lucky with the weather though – apparently, it had poured heavily the night before. Had it rained like that during my session, I wouldn’t have gone out at all.

One fun part was experimenting with rotating the shotgun mic a full 360° by the shore and testing different heights. It was fascinating to hear how, when angled toward the ground, the sound of the waves almost disappeared entirely. Probably to be expected, but still a nice surprise.

All in all, I recorded for about two and a half hours. My two large batteries dropped only 10%, which I think is a pretty good result. I arrived at 2:30 AM – definitely too early, as there was zero bird activity at that point.

I’ll share some material a bit later, once I’ve gone through it and removed the less useful bits. Altogether I ended up with a couple of files, but there’s very little in terms of actual usable bird sound.