The sounds of the African savanna at dawn in the dry season.

It's a dark moonless night in the African bush. This is the dry season, and it hasn't rained in many months. The atmosphere is thick with dust and haze, so you can barely see any stars. The nights are truly dark this time of the year, which means wildlife has to rely on sound much more than other senses to communicate.

I've been to this part of Africa in the rainy season, and I'm surprised at how sparse the night soundscape is now. The insect chorus would be intense and shrill, but instead it is very sparse. Only a handful of crickets call every now and then. Lion roars and hippo grunts reverberate around dry riverbeds. Occasionally a panicky lapwing or thick-knee will utter a shrill alarm call, only to fall back asleep immediately afterwards.

But something is changing. Very slowly, the complete darkness starts to fade, and the sky lights up above the Chindeni hills in the East. All of a sudden there are very distant bird calls. As light permeates the miombo and mopane woodlands, nocturnal animals begin to retreat to their daytime resting places while diurnal creatures are starting to wake up and move around.

There is no clear moment when the dawn chorus starts. For a long time it seems like there are only a handful of sparse distant bird calls, and as your mind starts to drift, you realise it's happening. It's a proper chorus, and dawn is upon us. Birdsong echoes in the valleys and there's a dense insect buzz everywhere. It's not as lush and vibrant as rainy season dawn choruses, but it's lovely nonetheless. As the morning sun bathes the landscape in a beautiful golden glow, the African bush gets ready for another scorching day.

Recorded in South Luangwa NP with Sony PCM A10 and Clippy EM272 microphones. Enjoying the videos I upload on here? Feel free to support me by:
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