I still can’t seem to bring myself to leave gear behind for a night, probably because the province has people everywhere at any time of the day or night. Also, I am not in a position like some professionals to just write off some gear due to animals or vandalism. This comes out of my own pocket, and nobody is filling it for this.
So the next best thing is to stay there, close enough to the gear to be visible to others, but not so much by the wildlife I am targeting.
The other day, that seemed to pay off. I found a spot close to the swampy area that empties out in the ocean. I thought that at 5:30 in the morning, there would be nobody there, but dog-walkers were plentiful on the beach. On the other side, not so much. So that’s where I set up my gear. While I mostly do photography, it’s always an interesting comparison with field recording. With a camera, you select the best viewpoint, the right composition and CLICK. All done. What’s not in the frame does not exist.
For sound, that’s quite different. I wanted to record the birds on the shore when they woke up, with as few as possible of extraneous sounds.
With the waves pounding away on the beach behind the dunes, there is a little bit of that in this recording. Otherwise, you can hear plenty of birds, but the main one is the bird pictured above.
Here is what their breakfast discussions sounded like:
All in all, not bad, until one grumpy dog owner came along. He was cursing and yelling at his dog in French, thinking I wouldn’t understand that. When he had passed, some 50m away, he let the dog loose again. The Golden Retriever came back to me with his tail wagging, just to say hello. Then the “unthinkable” happened: the dog went straight into the water. Birds gone, dog muddy and owner beside himself in rage.
I decided it was time to pack up and leave…
Until next time…