Jingualiao Creek, Pinglin, New Taipei City, July 2022
Jingualiao Creek, Pinglin District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, July 19, 2022
Jingualiao Creek is located in Pinglin District, New Taipei City. According to information from the Water Resources Agency, the creek was named for the abundance of pumpkins once grown in the area—known as jin-gua(金瓜) in Taiwanese.
I specifically took a day off and traveled by public transportation to the Jingualiao Creek Fish and Fern Trail. Only three tourists boarded the community bus at Pinglin Junior High School stop, and the driver seemed to be in a great mood, chatting casually with the passengers.
It was a hot morning. As soon as I got off at the entrance to the Fish and Fern Trail, the sound of cicadas roared in my ears. I’ve always felt that summer is missing something without cicada calls, so standing there, it felt as if summer itself was fully present.
The trail isn’t very long, and I soon found a spot to record. There isn’t much traffic on weekdays, and just as I thought I might capture some good material, a bee appeared out of nowhere and landed on my microphone’s windscreen.
I don’t know whether it was attracted by electromagnetic waves from the microphone or by the fur of windscreen, but not wanting to be stung, I hurriedly recorded for a moment, packed up my gear, and moved to another location.
This recording was made on a rocky bank beside the stream. Even with the sound of rushing water so prominent, the cicadas still filled the soundscape, while the calls of birds became subtle accents instead.
2022年7月坪林金瓜寮溪
金瓜寮溪位於新北市坪林，我查了水利署的資料，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，我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，很快我就找到一處錄音地點，平日的車輛並不多，正在我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。
不知道牠是不是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收拾東西轉移陣地。
這段錄音是我在溪流旁的石岸邊上錄的，即便水聲很大，蟬鳴聲仍然充滿在聲景之中，反倒是鳥兒的鳴叫聲成了點綴。