Jingualiao Creek at Pinglin, July 2022
Jingualiao Creek, Pinglin District, New Taipei City, 19th July 2022
金瓜寮溪, 坪林區, 新北市, 2022年7月19日
Jingualiao Creek is located in Pinglin, New Taipei City. According to Taiwan's Water Resources Agency, the creek takes its name from the pumpkins once widely grown in the area—jin-gua being the Taiwanese word for pumpkin.
I took a day off and traveled to the Jingualiao Creek Fish Fern Trail by public transportation. On the community shuttle departing from Pinglin Junior High School, there were only three passengers. The driver seemed to be in good spirits and chatted cheerfully with us along the way.
It was a hot summer morning. The moment I stepped off the bus at the trailhead, I was greeted by a deafening chorus of cicadas. To me, summer feels incomplete without their voices, and standing there, I felt completely immersed in the season.
The trail itself is relatively short, and it didn't take long to find a suitable place to record. There was very little traffic on a weekday, and just as I began to think I had found an ideal location, a bee landed on the furry windscreen covering my microphone.
Whether it was attracted by the microphone's electromagnetic field or simply by the texture of the windscreen, I have no idea. Either way, I wasn't interested in finding out the hard way, so I made only a brief recording before moving down to the creek.
This recording was made from a rocky bank beside the stream. Although the sound of flowing water dominates the foreground, the chorus of cicadas fills the background throughout the recording. Birdsong, by comparison, is surprisingly subtle.
📍 Location: 24.895661, 121.673892 Pinglin District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
🌤 Weather: 35°C, Sunny, 85% Humidity
🌿 Ambient Sound: Birds, Cicadas, Flow Water
🎤 Setup: Sennheiser MKH8040/30 (DMS), Sound Devices Mixpre-6II
坪林金瓜寮溪, 2022年7月
金瓜寮溪位於新北市坪林，依據水利署網站上的資料，據說是因過去這裡盛產南瓜(台語叫金瓜)而得名。
我特別請了個假，乘坐大眾運輸前往金瓜寮溪魚厥步道，在坪林國中坐上社區巴士的遊客只有3人，司機似乎心情很好，和乘客聊起天來。
這是一個天氣炎熱的上午，在魚蕨步道入口處一下車，蟬鳴聲便轟轟不絕於耳，我總覺得夏天如果沒有蟬鳴聲就似乎少了一味，所以在這裡彷彿聽到了濃濃的夏意。
步道長度並不長，很快就找到一處錄音地點，平日的車輛並不多，正在覺得應該可以錄到不錯的內容時，不知哪來的蜜蜂停在了麥克風的防風罩上。
不知牠是否被麥克風的電磁波或是防風罩的毛所吸引，總之我不想被蜜蜂攻擊就匆匆錄了一下便移動到溪邊。
這段錄音是我在溪流旁的石岸邊上錄的，即便水聲很大，蟬鳴聲仍然充滿在背景之中，反倒是鳥兒的鳴叫聲並不明顯。