Valla forest Nature reserve – High summer day

These sounds were recorded in The Valla forest Nature reserve which is located in Linköping, Sweden. This is a nature reserve that you can find very close to the city center. It’s close to the university and a natural area for inhabitants of Linköping to visit.
What is the soundscape of this area? Well, it´s full of pleasant sounds of nature but it´s very hard to find a place in The Valla Forest were the sounds of traffic isn´t present.

The Valla forest was established as a nature reserve in 1994. In 1989 a referendum resulted to not build a planned road that would have gone right through the area. The Valla Forest is dominated by tall pines. Its home too many red-listed (endangered) species. The Valla Forest is also home to many significant culture historical sites like graves and settlements.
The avifauna of the area haven’t been properly documented yet but there is at least seventeen known red- listed birds that inhabit the Valla Forest. Most of the birds are temporary visitors but some live permanently in the Valla Forest.
Examples of red-listed birds that you can hear in the area are:
Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis).
Red- throated pipit (Anthus cervinus).
Lesser woodpecker (Dryobates minor)
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

This is the sound of a typical high summer day. It was recorded in a meadow. A symphony of grasshoppers (Caelifera) playing. The high frequency noise that the grasshopper makes is produced by the insect grinding its wings together. This sound is often mistaken for crickets (Gryllidae) but the actual cricket is much more uncommon than the grasshopper and its sound is less often heard.

Sound recording and photography: Fredrik Johansson