Love Songs of Frogs, Boobook Owls and Koalas in a Valley Forest of Eucalypti Trees

This is an excerpt from a recording made between midnight and first light in Montacute Conservation Park, Adelaide Hills, South Australia.
This beautiful Conservation Park is nestled within the Adelaide Hills, only 17.5 kilometres from the centre of the city located on the plain beneath the hills. Comprising several creeks and valleys forested with tall eucalyptus trees, the Conservation Park is home and haven to a remarkable variety of species of birds (including emus) and mammals. However, its proximity to the city, not to mention the fact that jets and light planes regularly fly over it, makes it highly permeable to mechanical anthropogenic noise. I was extremely fortunate to obtain this recording, between the hours of midnight and dawn, with minimal anthropogenic noise, in 2019. I am doubtful whether I would be so fortunate now, three years later. Here is a very simple little equation, which I believe that all nature field recordists would surely accept: ‘As the drive for profit relentlessly increases, so does the consequence of human noise.’