Western Soundscape Archive

I've just been listening to the sound of Artic ice cracking and the spring run off. The featured sound of the day is the Burrowing Owl and there's a great photo of the owl. I found these at the J. Willard Marriott Library on the University of Utah's website http://westernsoundscape.org/

The Western Soundscape Archive began in November of 2007 with volunteers, state and federal agencies and conservation groups contributing sound recordings representing approximately 80% of the West's bird species, 90% of the region's frog and toad species, and numerous mammals and reptiles. In September of 2007, the archive was the recipient of a three-year National Leadership Grant.

The project focuses on eleven contiguous western states as well as the Arctic National Wildlife refuge in Alaska. The site features three types of recordings: those of individual species, ambient soundscapes, and interviews. Individual species are often short recording commonly used for species identification. The ambient recordings or "soundscapes" can be an hour or more and feature all of an area's sonic components together in concert. Interviews with scientists and other experts are included and give an added context to the sounds.

After I had a little more knowledge of the site, I put in a search for ambient sounds of the Bear River Bird Refuge and was treated to 6 minutes of lovely bird sounds.

Susan