Birds on 45 (pt.2)

A few more bird sleeves courtesy of Ben who dug these up at the Music & Video Exchange in Greenwich. Thanks! These are, quite literally, birds on 45:

It appears these records were the result of collaboration between the RSPB and the Dutch Society for Bird Protection at some point in the 1970s. These items are numbers 4 and 5 in a range of 12 records that contain field recordings of some of the most common birds in Britain and the Netherlands.

The recordings, made by one Hans A. Traber, are of surprisingly high quality. But what makes the records all the more endearing is the fact that, as well as recording birdsong, the tracks also capture fragments of other background sounds too. The liner notes for the Swallow recording (track 7- disc 5) describe the scene thus “this song was recorded when the bird was perched on a telephone wire in a farmyard, so that we can hear cocks crowing, men walking about, cows mooing and, in the distance, crows calling”. A charming scene I’m sure you’ll agree.

Disc 4 covers the calls of numerous owl and woodpecker species (an interesting inclusion of which are those of the Grey-headed Woodpecker and Black Woodpecker, two species that are not found in Britain). For Scops Owl, the liner notes poetically describe other owls calling in the distance “almost like echoes”. I can’t find any other information about Hans Traber but I find myself quite fascinated by how the process of field recording works. He certainly knew his stuff.

They are quite lovely items, although I can’t imagine them piled high at too many record stores around the country at the time!

Finally, despite it being an LP, special mention should be made to this cover recommended by Lindsay. I’m not especially familiar with the work of Bert Jansch but with a cover featuring Avocet, Kingfisher, Lapwing and an Osprey, it must be a winner!