Lavender bush

I found these things in a lavender bush whilst on holiday in Cornwall. The hummingbird-hawk-moth was very shy and interestingly I think only one individual was visiting the bush over a week or so whilst I was watching it.

I also recorded ambient sounds from the middle of the garden lawn in the same area. There are natural sounds of birds and insects as well as passing cars and aircraft. A machine which sounds like a lawnmower is running in the distance a lot of the time, but stops and starts.

A higher quality version of this recording is available on freesound.

I became interested in field recording in January 2013 after a failed attempt to record ambient sounds of the Kalahari during a research trip, using an MP3 player. Since then I have obtained a better recorder and learned a bit about the fascinating art of field recording and acoustic ecology, an introduction to which can be found in the TED talk given by Bernie Krause.

Of course bees were all over the lavender too, and here you can see a slow motion video of two bees visiting the bush. The sound for this video was recorded separately and is not slowed down.