Afon Hafren, close to its confluence with Afon Hore.
Whenever I visit the Hafren forest, I'm always drawn to this location by the particular soundscape. Here, 4km from its source in the Pumlumon hills, the river Severn/ Afon Hafren has reached a width of about 3m and cut a shallow channel down to the rock. I set my microphones on the Eastern bank, about 3m from the water's surface, where I found the best blend of the direct babbling sound of the river, its reflection from the tall spruce immediately behind and the evening birdsong.
I had only just pressed record when a Cuckoo flew by and called briefly from a nearby tree. He soon disappeared off into the woodland, but his calls can be heard in the distance several times over the course of this recording. Other birdsong includes Chaffinch, Wren, Wood Pigeon, & Blackbird, but many calls are difficult to identify, being buried by the sound of the river itself. I find river soundscapes quite mesmerising, as the sound from what would appear to be a constant flow of water is constantly changing & it is easy to lose track of time as one is drawn into its intricate details.
I'm hoping to post more recordings of the Hafren, as this is part of an ongoing project.
Recorded: 2021-06-14 @ 1950LT
Location: 52.471495, -3.700091
Download full length recording:
20min, 58MB, .ogg format
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.