Wildlife Soundscape at Heal Somerset

6 ECHOES

Location: Frome, Somerset, England, United Kingdom

Immerse yourself in a deeper experience with Heal Somerset. Our six sound echoes will open your ears and mind to the hidden wonders of nature in these special locations. From the sounds inside an oak tree to the mysterious noises of the night, prepare to encounter nature at its most magical and surprising. The echoes are placed along mowed paths, guiding you from the car park to an undulating path along the fields and river. As you walk, there's no need to activate the echoes manually—just press play, and the sounds will automatically engage as you enter each echo zone. For more details about the echo you're hearing, simply check your phone for a full description and a picture of the soundscape. We hope you enjoy this unique experience!

Lesser horseshoe bats

We are very lucky to have a colony of Lesser Horseshoe bats on site, which roosts in one of the old farm buildings. This is one of the rarer British bats, which has declined significantly in recent years. It is also one of the smallest native bat species. Like other bats, it uses echolocation to navigate in the dark. However the sound frequencies that it uses are much higher than most other bat species, at around 110 kHz. This is way above the limit of human hearing. These recordings were made using a bat detector, which converts these signals into audible sounds. The sounds you can hear were made as the bats left the roost for foraging, just after sunset. Some bats left the roost to test the conditions, before briefly returning to the roost. Little is known about bat social calls, but it’s almost as if the bats were communicating. What might they be saying to each other, do you think?

1 sound

Grassland invertebrates

Now that grazing has been reduced on our site, the grasses and other herbaceous plants are being allowed to grow much larger than they did before. This is creating a deep litter layer of dead plant stems, which is a perfect habitat for many different invertebrate species. These recordings were made by placing microphones in this litter layer, to find out what might be living there. The sounds you can hear were made by beetles, grasshoppers and other insects as they move about this habitat. There are also many spiders, which are hunting these insects as prey. So partly what you can hear is the sound of insects running away from the spiders!

1 sound

Yellow meadow ant

Our site is home to a number of colonies of the yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus. This makes the large anthills you can see in some of the fields. The large soil dome above the nest helps regulate its temperature and humidity. These nests provide important habitat for many meadow plants, and the ants themselves play an ecological role in nutrient cycling. But what does it sound like inside an ants nest? Here we used special microphones to listen in. You can hear the sound of many thousands of ants moving around their nest - large colonies can support up to 40,000 ants. But towards the end of this recording you will hear a mystery sound - we don’t know what made it! It sounds a bit like a motorbike or a lawnmower. It is probably made by an insect; perhaps the winged ants vibrating their wings. Or perhaps it is made by one of the other insect species that lives inside meadow ants, such as hoverflies or beetles. What do you think made this sound?

1 sound

Dawn Chorus

The dawn chorus is one of the most wonderful natural phenomena, when many bird species greet the dawning of a new day by singing. It has been described as a symphony of song performed by birds looking for love, and to defend their breeding territories. This recording was made on our site during early May, when the dawn chorus is reaching its peak. It provides an impression of the diversity of birds living in the area, which is likely to increase further as the ecological healing process continues. How many different bird species can you hear in this recording?

1 sound

Beaver

Beavers became extinct in Britain about 500 years ago, but in the last few years they have been reintroduced to many parts of the UK. They are now spreading in this part of Somerset, and we were very excited to find that they have colonised our site. Beavers love to eat the vegetation that grows near rivers, including water plants and trees such as willow and alder. These recordings were made at the darkest part of the night, when the beavers are most busy. What do you think they were doing when they made these different sounds?

1 sound

Oak

Oak is one of our most important native tree species. Amazingly, oaks support more than 2,300 other species, including birds, bats and insects - more than any other tree species in this country. There are many large oaks dotted around our site, some of which are growing in hedgerows, and others in the middle of fields. In such cases they act as important oases for wildlife - you can sometimes see clouds of insects surrounding them. You might also notice many young oak seedlings colonising the fields, now that grazing has been reduced. But what is it like inside the tree? These recordings were made using special microphones, which enable us to listen to the sounds deep in the heart of the tree. You can hear the sounds of twigs and branches moving, as well as leaves rustling in the wind.

1 sound

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