Quiet shoreline at sunset

Full Episode description

No music. No voices. Just the sound of a quiet ocean inlet in the early evening, recorded by the ABC’s Dr Ann Jones. This shoreline is home to many wallabies; will they make any sound?

This was recorded over the summer of 2021/22 as I was spending time on Phillip Island / Millowl in Victoria, filming for ‘Meet the Penguins’ on ABC TV. I put the recorder out at Rhyll Inlet as the sun is setting. It’s been a hot day and the cicadas are calling. Rhyll Inlet is a mixture of saltmarsh, mudflats, mangroves and some scrubby bits too. Slightly uphill, away from the water, there are grassy areas where wallabies abound. This is where the recording is taken. 

Listening notes from Ann Jones:

00:00:39 Lower toned repeating call given in a short burst is the white-eared honeyeater. This bird is striking. It’s somewhere between green and yellow, with a black face and a blob of white right behind its eye.

00:02:20 This is still that same honeyeater.

00:02:35 Eastern rosellas – gorgeous birds and I can just imagine their tails fanning and shaking as they speak with each other.

00:03:40 The kookaburras are joining the chorus – announcing to one and all how strong they are as a family, and how well defended their territory is.

00:06:08 MAGPIES! This chorus gets better and better.

00:07:38 The gorgeous clear flute-like quality gives this away as a grey shrike thrush. Followed closely by a masked lapwing. Phillip Island is a hot spot for masked lapwings, which like to rest on the ground. So, the fox-free island means they have good numbers.

00:09:02 The red wattlebird sounds as if it’s the shutter mechanism on a giant, broken camera.

00:10:50 The first incursion of a cape barren goose into the recording.

00:18:12 This is a wallaby moving, they sometimes thump down with surprising force.

00:18:40 …and there it goes.

00:21:45 The GST is really giving a fantastic performance.

00:22:06 It wouldn’t surprise me if this is a swamp wallaby snapping a stick to eat. They’re voracious.

00:25:40 The masked lapwing (maybe known to you as a kid as the spur-winged plover) goes past screaming.

00:26:05 This is a grey butcherbird and it makes me doubt some of my grey shrike thrush IDs from earlier – they both can sing as if playing an enchanted flute.

00:39:12 You can hear the fantails beak clacking as it calls, and flies about. It sounds like tiny little knuckles being cracked in rapid succession.

Mix Engineer: Isabella Tropiano.

This program is produced on the land of the Wathawurung people.