明池森林的清晨 Dawn of Mingchi forest

2022年8月14日的凌晨於宜蘭明池的錄音

This is a recording from the early morning of August 14, 2022, at Mingchi in Yilan.

明池的海拔大約1000公尺多，夏季時是人們避暑的去處，因此並不容易找到安靜的錄音地點，依照自己之前幾次失敗的錄音經驗，常常回家後發現大多數的錄音都有人為的噪音，所以這次我選擇在大多數人在休息的夜間到凌晨這段時間。

大約凌晨03:15出發尋找錄音點，走著走著聽到一隻鳥在半夜裡叫，也顧不得地點並不理想便架起錄音器材，錄了沒幾秒後忽然聽到山羌的叫聲，而且距離不遠(暗自竊喜自己的好運)，山羌總共叫了將近3分鐘，雖然眼睛看不到，但以音量來看應該是慢慢遠離我所在的位置。

Mingchi is situated at an elevation of just over 1,000 meters. During the summer, it becomes a popular retreat for people looking to escape the heat, which makes it difficult to find a quiet spot for recording. Based on several past failed recording attempts, I often returned home only to find that most of the recordings were ruined by human-made noise. So this time, I chose to record during the night to early morning hours, when most people are resting.

I set out around 3:15 a.m. to look for a recording spot. While walking, I suddenly heard a bird calling in the middle of the night. Despite the location being less than ideal, I quickly set up my recording equipment. Just a few seconds into the recording, I unexpectedly heard the call of a Formosan muntjac nearby. (I secretly felt delighted by my luck.) The muntjac called for nearly three minutes. Although I couldn't see it, the decreasing volume of its calls suggested that it was gradually moving away from my position.

錄完山羌後，我繼續往高處走，雖然有開頭燈，但森林遮蔽了光線，加上我從來沒有在夜裡的森林行走的經驗，僅管走在步道上，視野只能勉強看到前方1公尺；在我覺得有點害怕繼續走下去時，就近找個平坦的地點先試錄了10分鐘後，覺得應該沒問題後便將錄音機留在原地，然後走回到步道入口處看看星空。   

5:10-5:20天色漸亮時，dawn chorus便開始了，起先是一隻白耳畫眉開始叫，不久後就是整群一起合唱；這是我第一次錄到dawn chorus，儘管已經聽過很多錄音師的錄音，親臨現場的震憾是難以用播放數位檔案來複製的。

After recording the muntjac, I continued heading uphill. Although I had a headlamp, the forest canopy blocked much of the light. Since I had never walked through a forest at night before, even though I was on a trail, I could barely see more than a meter ahead. When I started to feel a bit scared to go any farther, I looked for a flat spot nearby and did a 10-minute test recording. Feeling it would be okay, I decided to leave the recorder there and walked back to the trailhead to gaze at the stars.

Between 5:10 and 5:20 a.m., as the sky gradually brightened, the dawn chorus began. At first, a single White-eared Sibia (Heterophasia auricularis) started singing, and soon after, the whole group joined in. It was my first time recording a dawn chorus. Even though I had listened to many recordings by other field recordists, nothing compares to the powerful experience of being there in person—something digital files can’t fully capture.

從上面的錄音中你可以發現這段dawn chorus多數是白耳畫眉，遠處可以聽到蛙及山羌，只可惜我對於鳥類的知識尚無法辦認其他的鳴鳥(特別是有一隻婉轉優美的鳥鳴迴盪在山谷中)。錄音的7:30處可以聽到暮蟬開始叫，跟我在陽明山上聽到的聲音應是同一種。

大約6:30時只剩下零星的鳥鳴後我便將設備回收，這次吸取了之前失敗錄音的教訓，選擇在人類活動時間以外的時段才能錄到無干擾的自然聲音，只是明池仍然有飛機不時的噪音，整晚錄音中連續無干擾的片段其實不到20分鐘。

回家聽了所有這次明池的錄音，我發現背景中常駐著一種低頻的噪音被麥克風捕捉了下來，把音量增加時可以清楚聽到。這個噪音對我來說並不是很舒服，然而我在現場時並沒有注意到，所以我無法確定是自然的還是人為的。

From the recording above, you can hear that the majority of the dawn chorus consists of White-eared Sibias. In the distance, you can also hear frogs and a muntjac. Unfortunately, my current knowledge of birds isn't sufficient to identify the other songbirds—especially one with a melodious, flowing call that echoed beautifully through the valley.

Around the 7:30 mark in the recording, you can hear the first cicada of the day starting to call. It sounds like the same species I’ve heard on Yangmingshan.

By around 6:30 a.m., only a few scattered bird calls remained, so I retrieved my equipment. This time, learning from my previous failed recordings, I chose to record during hours when human activity was minimal, which allowed me to capture undisturbed natural sounds. However, there were still occasional airplane noises over Mingchi, and in the entire night’s worth of recording, there were actually less than 20 minutes of uninterrupted audio.

Listening back to all the recordings from Mingchi, I noticed that a persistent low-frequency noise was captured by the microphone. It becomes clearly audible when the volume is turned up. The sound is somewhat unpleasant to me, though I didn’t notice it at the time on site—so I can’t be sure whether it was natural or man-made.

錄音筆記
地點類型：海拔約1200公尺的溫帶闊葉混合林
天氣：夏季清晨時刻04:00-06:00，氣溫25度，多雲
錄音方式：Double Mid-Side，麥克風離地面約150公分、面向山谷

使用器材
錄音機：Sound Devices Mixpre-6 II
麥克風：Sennheiser 8040x2/30
錄音設定：Reaper後期將DMS解碼為2.0立體聲

Recording Notes
Location type: Elevation of approximately 1,200 meters. Temperate broadleaf mixed forest.
Weather: Early summer morning from 04:00 to 06:00. The temperature was 25°C, cloudy.
Recording method: Double Mid-Side (DMS) technique, with the microphone positioned about 150 cm above the ground and oriented toward the valley.

Equipment Used
Recorder: Sound Devices Mixpre-6 II
Microphone: Sennheiser MKH 8040x2/30
Recording Settings: Post-processing in Reaper with DMS decoded to stereo