View through the dry grasses atop craig dyfnant
I walked up the steep slope from the Claerwen reservoir on what was probably, at around 22°C, the warmest day of april. In the Claerwen valley below the wind was barely perceptible, but at the hilltop a stiff breeze whistled through the dry foliage of the dormant grasses; it gives the recording a sense of context and forms a backdrop for the song of a solitary Skylark. Here I have pieced together several sections recorded during the afternoon in which a lark was almost directly overhead.
Judging by the eroded peat formations, much of this flattish hilltop was once blanket bog. This appears to have dried out for the most part & Purple Moor Grass now dominates. But it seems to offer nesting sites for a few skylarks and an abundant food source in the form of autumn seeds & a variety of flying insects which can also be heard on this recording.
The Sklark has achieved an almost mythical status in the consciousness of these isles. The title references both George Meredith's poem & Ralph Vaughan-Williams' musical evocation of the Skylark in their works of the same name.
Recorded: 2019-04-19 1400...1700
Location: 52.2767, -3.6496
Download full recording:
16min, 29MB)
The short clip below will play back at half-speed, and so the pitch of the skylark song is shifted down by an octave. This enables you to hear how complex the song really is, and should also help if your high frequency hearing isn't too good.
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