Adrian Newton

A sound walk celebrating the River Allen, Dorset, and the wildlife that lives there.

Developed in association with Wimborne Community Theatre as part of their river project, 'Our rivers run through us'. www.wimbornecommunitytheatre.co.uk

Extracts from 'Liquid gold' by Hugh Miles reproduced with kind permission. 

Nemeton digital arts: nemeton.org.uk
electricbackroom STUDIO: electricbackroom.org.uk

The River Allen is home to many species of invertebrates, including river flies, beetles, molluscs, dragonflies and damselflies. These are a hugely important part of the river ecosystem, providing a valuable source of food for other organisms, such as fish and birds. The larvae of many river flies, dragonflies and other insects live under the water surface, so are difficult to see. However, using special microphones, we can hear them. The underwater soundscape of a chalk river is surprisingly rich - it sounds a bit like a rain forest, with many species of chirping insects. You can hear some of them on this recording. Very little is known about sound production by freshwater insects, but most of the sounds you can hear in this clip are made by different species of underwater beetle. You can also hear minnows feeding and attempting to nibble the microphone. Most freshwater invertebrates eat water plants and organic debris of different kinds, although some eat other insects or crustaceans.

More underwater sounds recorded in the River Allen. You can hear minnows swimming, different species of water beetles, and the sounds made by caddisfly larvae as they feed. The squeaking, creaking sounds are made by water plants, as they produce bubbles of gas that move through their tissues. These sounds are accompanied by a poem about the River Allen, written and narrated by Barbara Hart.

Here sounds recorded underwater have been combined with the sound of the flowing Allen. You can hear the chirrups and clicks of different underwater insects, including those made by beetles, together with sounds made by water plants. The swishing and plopping sounds are made by minnows as they feed, which they do in small shoals. These river sounds are accompanied by three poems, written and performed by Sue Bullen, Tuppy Hill and Jeff Hart.

If you're lucky, you might spot a mammal species as you walk along this stretch of the river. Otters have recently become more abundant in the Wimborne area, and can sometimes be seen feeding or playing in the Allen. Sometimes you might hear them, instead. Otters make a variety of unusual calls, some of which you can hear in this recording. Another mammal that lives here is the water vole, which makes burrows along the river bank. You can hear the squeaking sounds they make in the second part of this clip, together with the characteristic 'plop' as they dive in the water. Water voles eat vegetation, such as the plants that grow along the river bank. Otters eat fish, crayfish, frogs and small birds, and also water voles if they can catch them.

If you visit this part of the river at dusk on a summer evening, you are likely to see bats leaving their roost and foraging up and down the river for the insects that they eat. Wimborne is home to a colony of Daubenton's bat, which is a specialist water bat. These make a range of ultrasonic calls, which are outside the range of human hearing. You can hear them using a bat detector, which alters the frequency of the sounds. These recordings were made in this way. The sounds are a mixture of bats echolocating, to sense different objects, and the sounds they communicate to each other. The chirrups rising rapidly in frequency are made when the bats catch an insect, such as a midge, caddisfly or mayfly.

Most of the underwater sounds that you can hear in this recording were made by caddisfly larvae. 
These live on the river bed, where they make cases by spinning together stones, sand, leaves and twigs with a silk they secrete from glands around the mouth. They make these sounds by rubbing their legs against their heads, to warn off other caddisfly larvae from their feeding nets. You can also hear sounds made by water plants and minnows as they feed. These sounds are accompanied by two poems about the Allen written and narrated by Tony Horitz.

This brief summary of the River Allen is an audio extract from the film 'Liquid gold' about the river, produced by local film-maker Hugh Miles. The film, produced for the Dorset Wildlife Trust, can be viewed in its entirety on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoQltmP9nE

You can find out more about the work of the Dorset Wildlife Trust at this link: 
https://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/

This introduction to the River Allen is an audio extract from a wonderful film about the river, produced by local film-maker Hugh Miles. The film, entitled 'Liquid Gold', was produced for the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and can be viewed in its entirety on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMoQltmP9nE

As you will hear in this introduction, as one of only a few chalk rivers in the world, the River Allen is very special for wildlife. The river has also been important to people living in this area for a very long time. It begins as a series of springs arising in the chalk hills to the north. The Dorset Cursus, one of the largest Neolithic monuments in Europe, connects many of these springs together. The Cursus was built more than 5000 years ago, and appears to have been used for funerary practices and rituals associated with the afterlife. So perhaps people living in this area viewed the river as something sacred, arising from the underworld, where it was guarded by the spirits of our ancestors.

Two of the most notable bird species of this stretch of the river are kingfishers and swans. You might see them if you look carefully. Or you might hear them if you listen. Kingfishers make a penetrating high-pitched call as they fly up and down the river. You can hear these calls in this recording, followed by a range of different sounds made by swans. The hissing sound you can hear at the end of this clip was made by an angry swan when somebody got too close to its cygnets - it's a warning to stay away. Swans eat water plants, which they take from the riverbed using their long necks. They also eat water snails that cling to the vegetation together with small fish, frogs and worms. Kingfishers, as their name implies, eat fish, especially sticklebacks, elvers (small eels) and minnows. They also eat aquatic insects, freshwater shrimps and tadpoles to top up their diet.

In this recording you can hear sounds recorded underwater in the Allen, made by different species of water beetle, caddis flies and other insects, together with the sound of minnows feeding and water plants photosynthesizing. These are combined with three river haiku, which were written by Lynn Davy, Adrian Newton and Arthur Newton and are narrated by Lynn Davy.

Sound fishing 2 River Allen, Wimborne

10 ECHOES

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The Echoes

Fly, beetle, minnow

It gathers and flows

Ripples sketch their circles

Otter, water vole

Water bat

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