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Nature Sounds

ABC

Listen to the soothing sounds of nature directly from the microphones of Dr Ann Jones. 'That bird lady from the ABC' captures wildlife and wilderness in all its glory — bringing you soundscapes of the ocean, forests, rain and storms across Australia. If you need a podcast for white noise, meditation, or to finally get some sleep, this is just what the doctor ordered.

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20 episodes
Avg 1 hr 37 min
English

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S4 · E1
August 4 · 1 hr 39 min
A rainy night with owls beside a waterhole in the desert
SOUNDS LIKE: The pressure release of rain drops hitting parched red sand after a sweltering day and possibly the best owl recording that Ann has ever taken. CONTAINS: Patches of rain, and distant frogs happy with the rain, kingfishers with insomnia. And a spectacular territorial display from barking owls. RECOMMENDED FOR: Lovers of weather, of romance and whimsy, and also of birds-which-sound-like-they're-anything-but-birds enthusiasts. ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES: This is an incredibly dramatic
S4 · E2
August 4 · 2 hr 53 min
Soothing, soft wind through trees in a peaceful desert
SOUNDS LIKE: Laying in a hammock, your eyes closed, no-one for 500km, surrounded by red sand, listening to the wind in trees that've been around since the dinosaurs. Perfect conditions for a nap. Sometimes, you just need to a bit of silence. Of course, nature is rarely silent. She's even better than that. She's better than ANY noise machine a human has ever invented. Let the sound of wind through needle-leaves on Akerre Country lull your worries away. CONTAINS: Wind. Quiet. Zebra finches. Bu
S4 · E3
August 4 · 1 hr 15 min
Peaceful soundscape of soft ocean waves in a sandy bay
SOUNDS LIKE: The 'shhhh' sound that tropical dreams are made of as gentle waves roll through mangrove trees on an island paradise. It's hushed and peaceful. CONTAINS: Soft waves, and salt water moving quite continuously. Quiet insects throughout. The sounds occupy different frequencies and rhythms so they can all be heard clearly even when they're all calling. Listen for high pitched maraca-like single shakes, rickety-whirring phrases, tiny yaps marking a beat, or what sounds like a tiny mobile
S4 · E4
August 4 · 2 hr 20 min
Nature's white noise — thousands of humming insects and a soothing rufous owl
CONTAINS: A consistent insect chorus with a rufous owl calling intermittently throughout. RECOMMENDED FOR: Those who like white noise, brown noise, pink noise. For people who want a consistent soundscape to help mask the sounds of the city, who want something almost mechanical or synthesised to help drown their thoughts. ANN'S NERDY SOUND NOTES: Subtle pulsations, and vibrations, with ticking, buzzing and swooshing that forms soft waves of white noise. It is the insect chorus in rainforest in
S4 · E5
August 4 · 1 hr 30 min
Birds in paradise — a rainforest nature soundscape from Australia
SOUNDS LIKE: You're waking up while on holiday in a tropical rainforest, surrounded by exotic birds. Layers of sound are like vine tendrils curling through the jungle canopy: the birds are near, far, above and right next to you. Let them drown out whatever is giving you the sh*ts. In reality, this place in Cape York isn't really visited by tourists. It's one of those spots that the locals from Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council in Far North Queensland know about. CONTAINS: Mostly birbs. And a cu
S4 · E6
August 4 · 54 min
A cold, crisp night, a high-country river and a whole lot of wombat
SOUNDS LIKE: You have eschewed modern life and joined your new BFF — a wombat — to live a life of naps, snacks and cute attacks. CONTAINS: A clear, cold night and the wombats are stirring, stomping, scratching and most of all, crunching their way through about 2kgs of grass. Nearby, the wombat's neighbours undertake nocturnal shenanigans and no-one seems to get any sleep. Except you. There are birds which should be awake, birds which should be asleep, possums and the star of the show — the ba
S3 · E6
Sep 20, 2022 · length unknown
Where there is water
No music. No voices. Just the sound of a creek bed in outback Australia. In the Murchison district in Western Australia you're surrounded by low lying ranges where rocks have been found that are 4.4 billion years old — they're almost as ancient as the planet itself. Among the crests and dips of Wajarri country is a creek bed on Boolardy Station. Not flowing, but water is still there. And the places where there is water in this arid environment – well, it's a mecca for birdlife. Listen for: ch
S3 · E5
Sep 13, 2022 · length unknown
The storm front
No music, no human voices. Just the sound of an epic summer storm rolling on through the evening. I recorded this at my home. It had been a hot day, and in the late afternoon there was a crack of thunder. I walked out, set the recorder near the woodpile and recorded into the night. In this recording you can hear rain falling, hitting the earth and also hitting the microphones. And you can hear lots and lots of thunder. At first, the afternoon and evening chorus continues, but as the storm int
S3 · E4
Sep 5, 2022 · length unknown
Sounds like camping
No music, no human voices, just the sound of night falling over bushland near Narrabri, recorded by the ABC's Ann Jones. It sounds like camping. Narrabri is in North West NSW, in an incredibly fertile farming area. And yep, you guessed it, where it's fertile, it means you won't get much bushland left intact. This bushland is a patch on the Llara Farm which is used by the University of Sydney for research. I was lucky enough to travel there to film a program about technology and nature for 'Cat
S3 · E3
Aug 29, 2022 · length unknown
Quiet shoreline at sunset
No music. No voices. Just the sound of a quiet ocean inlet in the early evening, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. This shoreline is home to many wallabies; will they make any sound? This was recorded over the summer of 2021/22 as I was spending time on Phillip Island / Millowl in Victoria, filming for 'Meet the Penguins' on ABC TV. I put the recorder out at Rhyll Inlet as the sun is setting. It's been a hot day and the cicadas are calling. Rhyll Inlet is a mixture of saltmarsh, mudflats, man
S3 · E2
Aug 23, 2022 · length unknown
An hour before dawn in arid WA
No music. No human voices. Just the sound of a frog chorus and a pre-dawn rain shower in arid Western Australia, recorded on location by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. Get in a car in Perth and drive 4 hours northeast to sit beside a pool of water as the frogs call and rain rolls in. It's an hour before dawn. This soundscape was recorded on Badimaya country on Charles Darwin Reserve which is owned by Bush Heritage Australia. I was there to film an amazing tree called the sandalwood for 'Australia's
S3 · E1
Aug 16, 2022 · length unknown
Life in a forest of giants
No music, no voices. Just the sound of the mountain ash forest, recorded by the ABC's Dr Ann Jones. The mountain ash is the tallest flowering plant in the world, a eucalypt that can reach 90m in height. And beneath its arbour is an incredible array of wildlife, including an incredible chorus of birds. I recorded this while filming 'Australia's Favourite Tree' for ABC TV near Marysville in Victoria. It was a cold, misty morning on Taungurong Country and among the first sounds that can be heard
S2 · E5
Aug 16, 2021 · 1 hr
Heavy rain and desert thunder
No music, no talking, just the sound of a rain storm in the desert. Wiluna is a town on the Traditional lands of the Martu people in Western Australia. It’s on gorgeous arid country, about 960km east of Perth. After days of dry heat in excess of 40, it was late afternoon when a huge storm rolled in. Nowhere has storms like the desert, where the hot air rises off the ground to meet the clouds with huge rumbles and rolls that expand across the whole horizon. The rain continued on and off all nigh
S2 · E4
Aug 12, 2021 · 1 hr 29 min
Dawn at the creek
No music, no voices, just imagine you’re camping beside a creek in early spring. Listening Notes from Ann: It was the first hot day of Spring on Wadawurrung Country west of Melbourne. Out of bed before the sun, I walked through the bush listening to the last of the nocturnal sounds, and found a place on a ridgeline overlooking a creek. There are hundreds of large trees with lots of hollows all scattered across the steep slope down to the creek and I set the recorders out just as the da
S2 · E3
Aug 9, 2021 · 1 hr 9 min
Midnight frog chorus
No music, no voices, just the sound of night time at a swamp on Wadawarrung Country in Victoria. Listening Notes from Ann Jones: There are at least three species of frogs calling all the way through this recording – maybe more. And they provide a wonderful blanket of noise for you to snuggle under. Here’s what I can hear: 00:00:07 – The ‘tonk’, ‘bonk’ and ‘donk’ of the pobblebonk (Limnodynastes dumerilii). These frogs are sometimes also called banjo frogs because of their plucking call
S2 · E2
Aug 5, 2021 · 1 hr 35 min
Lyrebird songs in a Gippsland rainforest
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. I made this recording on a wintery morning, outside a hut high up in the mountains of Gippsland on Gunaikurnai land. I arrived in the dark and didn’t realise how high up the hill I was. As the sun rose it took time for it to reach the bottom of the gullies, and so the dawn chorus extended longer and was more distant and echoey. It’s harder than normal to decipher what’s what in this recording because all around the hut there were lyreb
S2 · E1
Aug 2, 2021 · 1 hr
Carolling magpies in Western Australia
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest waking up. This recording was made while traveling through Whadjuk Nyoongar land, WA. The birds differ between east and west Australia. That huge swathe of arid country in between has meant that birds have evolved into different sub-species, species and variants. Listening notes from Ann Jones: 00:00:00 Normally I would cut out my footsteps walking away from the microphone, but this audio is too beautiful. You can hear carolling magpies, as
S1 · E5
Jul 29, 2021 · 1 hr 30 min
Gentle rain on a tin roof in the outback
No music, no voices, just the sound of a spring shower hitting a corrugated iron roof. This recording was made on Wadawurrung Country, in west Victoria, Australia. Listening notes from Ann Jones: 00:02:00 Wind in the trees, and grey currawongs calling to each other in chiming duets. 00:06:00 Galahs fly past, their nesting hollow is close by. 00:07:41 I think this could be brown thornbills, tiny little birds. But would you believe, they’re actually sort of chunky for thornbills, at about seve
S1 · E4
Jul 22, 2021 · 2 hr
Peaceful morning forest songs
No music, no voices, just the sound of the forest coming to life early one morning near Canberra -- where the gum trees grow small and with twisting white trunks. In the twilight of the morning I creep out from under the covers to set up the microphones right next to a dam. We are on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and not far away there are paddocks, livestock, a road and a farmhouse. But right here all there is, is nature waking up for the day. Listen for the drops of dew falli
S1 · E3
Jul 21, 2021 · 2 hr 30 min
Relaxing birdsong by the ocean
No music, no voices, just the sound of the Roebuck Bay mudflats near Broome, WA. Hear the breeze across the water, crabs and mudskippers flipping and flopping, and a tide that slowly comes in. Roebuck Bay is on the traditional lands of the Yawuru people is one of the most magical places in Australia. It is a 34,119-hectare mudflat, washed every day by a tide that reaches kilometres from the shoreline. In the sapphire waters there are all sorts of sea turtles, saw fish and dugongs, and the red sa

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