As part of the Soundscape Baselines Project, we are recording seven Baraboo Hills forests continuously – 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Here are a selection of 30-minute recording clips to immerse yourself in.
Spring morning in the Hemlock Draw Upland Oak Woodland
This site has been managed by a dedicated crew of land stewards at The Nature Conservancy for over a decade. Although nearly a century of fire-exclusion had transformed this site, shading out rare plant species and reducing species diversity, this oak woodland now provides a glimpse of what much of the southern Wisconsin landscape looked like before European settlement.
One characteristic of woodlands is their open tree canopies, which allow sunlight to reach the forest floor and support thriving groundlayer plant and insect communities. Another feature is the natural patchiness of the understories, with areas of dense shrubs regrowing following low-intensity fires.
In these recording you will hear a diversity of migrating and nesting bird species – Tennessee Warblers, Eastern Towhees, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Wild Turkeys, Blue-winged Warblers, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.
Read more about how we study the influence of oak woodland management on bird abundance, insectivorous bird communities, and soundscapes.
Baxter’s Hollow Mesic Forest
In the hills above the Otter Creek Stream Gorge in Baxter’s Hollow Preserve, this recording site is located in a towering Red Oak and Sugar Maple forest. The dense understory of Sugar Maples provides nesting habitat for a pair of Hooded Warblers, while large dead White Ash trees are frequently visited by Pileated Woodpeckers.
Although the total number of birds in this recording is less than what we might observe in an oak woodland, these interior forest species have a high conservation value. Because the Baraboo Hills make up one of the few remaining large forest patches in southern Wisconsin, this area provides critical nesting habitat for these species.
This early June recording captures a variety of interior forest species – Ovenbirds, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Scarlet Tanagers, a Hooded Warbler (alternate song), a Pileated Woodpecker, and many others.
May Dawn Chorus at Happy Hill Woodland
The northern section of Baxter’s Hollow Preserve features a large quartzite blufftop where another one of The Nature Conservancy’s oak woodland management areas is located. Deep in an interior forest preserve, this site has especially high bird diversity, and in this recording, you’ll hear open woodland species alongside interior forest species.
Listen for American Redstarts (the most abundant bird in this site! We have banded over 140 since 2021), Yellow-throated Vireos, Eastern Wood-Pewees, Indigo Buntings, Eastern Towhees, and Scarlet Tanagers.
Spring Morning in Pine Hollow
One of the stream gorges tucked into the South Range of the Baraboo Hills, Pine Hollow supports a northern relict habitat that has persisted in southern Wisconsin because of the cool microclimate in a steep sandstone gorge. In this recording, you’ll hear species typical of northern coniferous forests – like Red Squirrels and Blue Jays – as well as rare species like Winter Wrens. Listen carefully to hear the creek in the background, and the Louisiana Waterthrush males singing to establish their territories there.
Winter Evening in Pine Hollow
Temperate soundscapes are highly seasonal and winter is the counter-balance to the high complexity and fullness of spring soundscapes. Listen in to the dusk quiet on a snowy evening in the hollow close to the winter solstice. Although it’s mostly silent, listen for the chip notes of winter resident birds, like Black-capped Chickadees, heading for their roosting sites.
Dawn Chorus in Pine Glen
Another forested ravine in the South Range, Pine Glen is a steep quartzite gorge with a fast-moving stream flowing from Spirit Lake State Park and into Maa Wákąčąk and the Sauk Prairie. Our recording site is on one of the hillsides, surrounded by emergent White Pines that extend above the rest of the tree canopy, and a dense understory of Witch-hazel and Mapleleaf Viburnum.
In this recording, you’ll hear the creek at the bottom of the ravine, and the flutelike song of the Veery, a thrush species associated with dense mesic forest habitat. Listen closely for the sharp two-note call of the Acadian Flycatcher, as well as other forest species: Eastern Wood-Pewee, Pileated Woodpecker, Least Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Thrush, and Red-eyed Vireo.
Spring Morning at Lost Lake
Located in the eastern part of the Baraboo Range, Lost Lake is a small glacial pond within a maple-oak forest. This pond was surrounded by Black Ash trees, which recently died as a result of Emerald Ash Borer, and the soundscape reflects this more open habitat conditions.
Listen for forest birds, including: Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Red-eyed Vireo, Pileated Woodpecker. You’ll also notice birds more associated with forest edges or shrubby habitat, including: Indigo Bunting, Song Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, and Gray Catbird.