Grotto Drip | Music of Nature

This last spring, I visited Lost Maples twice … once in early March (accompanied by fellow nature lover Beth Bannister), and then again in mid-April (accompanied by nature recordist Christine Hass). On both occasions, I hiked 1.5 miles to the Grotto a little before dusk, in order to record as night unfolded. During my visit in March, wind interfered, making it difficult to hear the dripping sounds. But during my mid-April visit, the night was calm and I got my most thrilling Grotto “dripscape” to date … the recording featured at the top of this post.

From my perspective, my new grotto recording is quite an attractive soundscape, not only featuring elemental dripping sounds, but also the occasional musical trills of a pair of Eastern Screech-Owls and a backdrop of crickets trilling softly. I couldn’t have asked for more and consider it one of my best water music recordings to date. What makes it special has to do with the water level in the stream, which was quite low, to the point that there was scarcely any movement of water. However, there were many shallow pools in the stream bed, along with numerous patches of exposed bedrock, moist from the drips and covered with a thin layer of mud. While droplets landing in the pools made familiar watery plunk or plink sounds, droplets hitting the muddy bedrock made lower-pitched splats or thunks. This resulted in a rich low end, and overall a broader frequency range than one might normally encounter when recording drips.

For comparison, check out my very first grotto recording below, which I made in 2001 when the water level was much higher. Notice how different it sounds. The low-pitched splats and thunks so obvious in my new recording are missing because virtually all of the droplets were landing directly in the water. Furthermore, one hears the gentle gurgling of the stream in my old recording, which is not at all present in my newer one. My old recording does include one element I wish were present in my new one … the distant calls of a lone Barking Frog (requires careful listening).

Personally, I prefer my latest recording, primarily because of the addition of the splats and thunks … and of course I’m thrilled by those screech-owl trills! I think my new recording is more unique and unusual, not at all your typical drippy soundscape.