Now that I have decided on what place I am conveying, and that I am creating a sound study that uses field recordings of said place. I need to make some field recordings. So, on a slightly rainy afternoon, I went down to the reserve to take some recordings.   

I used Tascam X-6 portable recorder as my main piece of equipment. The X-6 has 2 in built microphones that record as a stereo pair. Recording field recordings in stereo can come in really handy as any sound that moves within the environment is picked up as part of the recording. This is especially useful when trying to make something immersive or avoiding making something that sounds to static. I also had with me a Rhode Shotgun microphone. This was helpful as it allowed me to take recordings much closer to the sound source, such as bodies of water or my footsteps on the wooden walkways.  

I started by recording as I walked around the reserve, trying to capture the sound of the space as opposed to anything in particular. There was a fair amount of wind that day, this was picked up a lot by the stereo microphones. Other sounds cut through the wind luckily, sounds such as birds, my own footsteps at times and plants moving in the wind. I reached a bird hide and decided to make some recordings from within the hide. Especially given that birds are a main focus of my piece. The hide offered shelter from the wind, not just for me but the microphones too. I made a range of recordings in the hide, often changing microphone set up and placement to add variation to my recordings. Within the hide is where I got the best of the bird recordings, down to both the lack of wind but also because of a pond surrounded by trees and bushes where there seemed to be lots of bird nests scattered throughout. After recording in the hide for a while, I took another walk around the reserve, this time using the shotgun microphone. I was able to get some great detailed sounds of water and plants rustling in the wind.