Thalassa - sea-shore soundscapes

TRACKLIST (Click for notes)

1 Surf rhythms 1 .......................... 3'00"

2 The dunes in spring ..................... 5'20"

3 Rockswell ................................ 3'06"

4 Sea-bird .................................. 5'58"

5 Harbour swell ........................... 2'50"

6 Village harbour in summer ........... 14'28"

7 Singing sands ........................... 3'18"

8 On the rocks in winter ................. 6'16"

9 Surf screen & brent geese ............. 2'56"

10 Late-winter mudflats .................. 9'00"

11 Highland wader choruses ........... 13'14"

12 Surf rhythms 2 ........................ 4'45"

TRACK NOTES

1 Surf rhythms 1 .................... 3'00"

Early on a July morning the steady rhythmic push and pull of the waves breaking over a sandy beach at high tide.

2 The dunes in spring ............... 5'20"

Scenes recorded in sand dunes in spring. On Tiree arctic terns pass to and fro over the dunes, travelling between their nesting colony and the sea to fish (with skylarks and black-headed gulls). On the north-east coast a party of linnets is prospecting the dune scrub and courting, with the males dangling their songs from prominent branches (and a mallard calls in flight).

3 Rock swell ........................... 3'06"

Among the rocks on a jagged coastline where the whin meets the sea. Even on a fairly calm day there's a rhythmic throb to the tide, giving deep thumping noises as the water surges into hollows in the rock.

4 Sea-bird .............................. 5'58"

Many sea-bird species are colonial breeders and crowd together on the best ledges of traditional nesting cliffs and outcrops. They're generally raucous places, but they have their more intimate moments. Scenes from two sites, with kittywake, herring gull, guillemot, and starling at the first and several kittywake pairs with young nesting close together at the second.

5 Harbour swell ....................... 2'50"

Just after dawn in the village harbour. A party of eider ducks are courting at the harbour mouth - the crooning calls are from the males. A goldfinch arrives on the harbour wall.

6 Village harbour in summer ... 14'28"

An August sunday morning in the east-facing harbour of a North Sea fishing village with the first heat of the sun sinking in. A boat has just set off to take some anglers out for the day, leaving the harbour to the assorted herring, great black-backed and black-headed gulls lined up on the harbour walls, mewing and wailing. At one point some herring gulls begin harrying a female eider with young - I can't see whether they're after the young or some food she's found. Starlings and house sparrows are singing from the TV aerials, with swallows and house martins singing and calling in flight and the odd gang of jackdaws zipping by, calling (with collared dove and linnet). The harbour walls, smokehouse and cottages make a natural amphitheatre for the assembled throng. Later a gentle swell laps at a patch of sand and rocks outside the harbour walls about high tide. Sandwich terns call occasionally off-shore and the house martins are flitting above the edge of the sea in the sunshine; a great black-backed gull gives a deep 'kaow' as it passes.

7 Singing sands .......................3'18"

The sound of the surf breaking on some skerries almost half a mile away, mingled with the soft moans and whimpers of seals, drifts across this north-east bay, sometime after midnight. Could distant seal sounds have given rise to the legends of singing sands around our shores ?

8 On the rocks in winter ........... 6'16"

Two scenes from a late winter morning. Even with a light off-shore breeze, there's a steady swell on these Northumbrian carr rocks providing a constant background to the birds of the rocks. In the first sequence purple sandpipers and turnstones are working over the bladderwrack and the tide's debris, conversing softly (they are within a few metres of the mics), with an occasional brief dispute. A redshank calls uneasily several times. In the second sequence, where there's a low outcrop above the rocks, some fulmar pairs and rock pipits are courting in the early sun.

9 Surf screen & brent geese ..... 2'56"

A cold mid-winter morning with a horizon surf roar from a sand bar a mile away over the mudflats. A troupe of brent geese, with some shelduck, are marching and feeding on the ooze. When a flock of shelduck fly past, a few moments later there's a rush of wings as the feeding shelduck all take off leaving the brents.

10 Late-winter mud ................ 9'00"

Scenes from the edge of mudflats and saltmarsh of an estuary on the north-east coast. Several curlew are moving about calling; there are shelduck, wigeon and teal feeding in groups calling (each species' males with their own distinctive nasal whistles) and displaying occasionally. Redshank call and sing as they move around between feeding stations, oystercatchers call occasionally and several grey plover call in the distance; various species of gull are moving about and beginning to gather down by the water's edge. Later there's a panic as a hunting peregrine flushes all the birds on one creek; and, as a small flock of greylag geese pass over, some of a feeding flock of whooper swans take to the air calling.

11 Highland wader choruses .... 13'14"

Scenes from early May as the evening moves into dusk and darkness by a sea-loch on the north coast of Scotland. The trilling and croaking songs at the start are from dunlin; ringed plover call and sing occasionally and the rising and falling tittering songs are from common sandpiper. A cuckoo sings from across the loch and at one point a twite calls several times from nearby. Greenshank and dunlin sing and call intermittently all through and a redshank sings on a wild songflight at the end. The greenshank, redshank and dunlin breeding on the local moorland regularly come down to the loch to feed and are joined by other waders stopping off on their journey north. Common sandpipers breed around the shores. And when the tide and weather are amenable, the birds get vocal - even in the darkness. Nightfall on a mild spring evening can be really magic.

12 Surf rhythms 2 ................... 4'45"

A sequence of three surf recordings. At the end a pair of mute swans fly overhead with their whistling wingbeats ringing out.