Just a Trickle

Recorded in the mountains between Murrieta and San Clemente, Southern California.

These mountains are an island of scrubby nature in the midst of dense and heavy urbanization. I was surprised at how remote it was, given its proximity to civilization, but more importantly – it was dead silent. Not even an airplane overhead.

While exploring the dirt roads that weave through these small mountains, I stumbled across a tiny trailhead for Fisherman’s Camp Trail. I noticed a narrow but deep ravine that ran alongside the trail. Deeper into the ravine, I could barely make out the sound of trickling water. Perfect. I scrambled down the steep side of the densely-vegetated ravine, found the source of the sound – a tiny stream of water – and set up my recorder. Listening back later, I was treated with what has become one of my favorite recordings. You can hear a bird that I have yet to identify chirping in the beginning and a group of frogs calling from deeper in the ravine. You will also notice a soft, low-pitched buzzing, scratching sound. This is from the wings of GIANT crane flies buzzing against foliage as they flit above the surface of the shallow water, hunting for smaller insects. These crane flies were almost as big as my hand.