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Hornets

Llandegfedd Cricket Recordings

Early morning at Llandegfedd and it truly felt like spring again! Dawn Chorus was beautiful, albeit filled with mainly Robin's and Wrens but a surprised Chiffchaff also sang for a while which really made me feel good! 

Once the morning dew burnt off and my feet dried out, the Crickets weren't far behind on the chorus. Though, I didn't have it all that easy today as the water pump was on all day which made it really hard to get the 20000hz Roesel's Bush Cricket quite the way I wanted to. 

Lots of pictures today but also a small treat for you in the form a recordings! 
If you can hear them of course.. because I learned something new today, and that is, the Roesel's Bush Cricket produces frequencies well into the 20000hz range which most people cannot even hear. SO! For you, I've slowed some of the recordings down for you which brought even more coolness out of the recordings as you can actually hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs of the cricket.- Especially on the Long-winged Conehead. Enjoy

Todays outing was all about getting recordings of the iconic Roesel's Bush Cricket. Something I've been meaning to do for a while. I was slightly unlucky that the pumping station was on at Llandegfedd meaning my typical hotspot was painted with the washing sound of water in the background which made it extremely hard to get a clear recording of the crickets 20000 hz song. The Roesel's Bush Cricket is very hard to hear and not many people can actually hear them, even when I've put the headphones on them in the field they still can't hear the high electric sound. It is this reason that I've slowed the pitch down on these recordings. I particularly love the Long-winged Conehead pitched down as you can hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs rubbing each other in various different patterns. It goes to show just how complex these songs actually are and also how very different the hearing of a Cricket/Grasshopper, actually is. I hope you enjoy these recordings.

Hornets

For those who are perhaps new to my blog, around this time last year I found a Hornets nest on my local patch in South Sebastopol that happened to be inside an unused Bat Box. I've been keeping an eye on it this year in the hope that they would use it again and upon seeing a few flying around, it didn't look like they returned to that same box. Just as well really because the box wasn't that big so they didn't have much room to expand. I did however find the new nest today which is actually in the same tree that the Nuthatches nested in this year. That is good news for the Hornets because they probably have a lot more room in that trunk to expand the nest. I know people don't like them but I actually quite like seeing these large wasp like insects in flight... They fly like they are a mission and they rarely stray away from their duty, perhaps only to have a quick rest before getting straight back to business.

Hornets

For those who are perhaps new to my blog, around this time last year I found a Hornets nest on my local patch in South Sebastopol that happened to be inside an unused Bat Box. I've been keeping an eye on it this year in the hope that they would use it again and upon seeing a few flying around, it didn't look like they returned to that same box. Just as well really because the box wasn't that big so they didn't have much room to expand. I did however find the new nest today which is actually in the same tree that the Nuthatches nested in this year. That is good news for the Hornets because they probably have a lot more room in that trunk to expand the nest. I know people don't like them but I actually quite like seeing these large wasp like insects in flight... They fly like they are a mission and they rarely stray away from their duty, perhaps only to have a quick rest before getting straight back to business. 

Hornets August 27th