Guanwu Forest, January 2024
Guanwu National Forest Recreation Area, Miaoli County, 13th Januray 2024
觀霧國家森林遊樂區, 苗栗縣, 2024年1月13日
This was my second visit to Guanwu Forest Recreation Area.
Although Guanwu is deep in the mountains, far from the city and relatively free from road noise, it is still not an ideal place for recording purely natural sounds. The biggest source of disturbance comes from the frequent aircraft overhead. Perhaps many flights arriving at or departing from Taoyuan International Airport pass through this airspace, and the sound of their engines often drowns out the calls of animals in the forest. It is a shame, as the aircraft make it difficult to fully capture the stillness of the forest.
Both of these recordings were made in the forest just after nightfall.
The animal calls in the first recording were probably made by birds, with frequencies roughly between 5 and 12 kHz. The second recording captures birds becoming alert at night in response to the sound of an aircraft engine overhead. I deliberately kept the aircraft noise in the recording, because it makes the impact of human-made noise on the tranquility of the forest all the more apparent.
📍 Location: 24.502277, 121.113535 Tai'an Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan
🌤 Weather: 7°C, Cloudy and Foggy, 90% Humidity
🌿 Ambient Sound: Birds, Aircraft Noise
🎤 Setup: Clippy EM272 (Baffled AB), Sony PCM-A10
觀霧, 2024年1月
這是我第二次來到觀霧森林遊樂區。
雖然觀霧位於深山之中，遠離都市，車輛噪音也相對較少，但這裡仍然不是一個適合純粹自然錄音的地方。最大的干擾來自頻繁經過的飛機。或許是桃園機場起降的航班經常通過這片空域，森林裡動物的叫聲時常被飛機引擎聲掩蓋，實在有些可惜，也讓這片森林原本的靜謐難以完整呈現。
這兩段錄音都是在天色剛暗下來的森林中錄製的。
第一段中的動物叫聲應該來自鳥類，聲音頻率大約落在 5–12 kHz 之間。第二段則錄下了夜間鳥類因飛機引擎聲而開始警戒的叫聲。我刻意保留了飛機經過時的噪音，因為這樣反而更能聽見人為聲音是如何介入森林，甚至打破原本的寧靜。