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Field recording

Lamb and sheep calling to each other, with chickens clucking

B9074, Shetland, Shetland Islands ZE1 0XL, UK

A field recording by Felicity Ford made in B9074, Shetland, Shetland Islands ZE1 0XL, UK on 3 August 2013, in the afternoon. Soundscape: birdsong & dawn chorus, streets & traffic and crowds & voices.

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Lamb and sheep calling to each other, with chickens clucking
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Recordist's notes

This is a recording featuring lambs, a sheep and some chickens that live on the Burland Croft Trail; an amazing place run by Tommy and Mary Isbister. Tommy and Mary have been in Trondra since 1976, working and developing their crofts in a traditional way. Their main aim is to maintain native Shetland breeds of animals, poultry and crops, and to work with these animals and the environment in the tried-and-tested ways that sustained countless generations of Shetlanders in the past. The Burland Croft Trail is open all summer, and Mary and Tommy were incredibly helpful when I visited them, showing me around and introducing me to all their animals and also showing me some of the amazing knitwear produced by both Mary, Tommy and Mary's mothers, and their daughter, showing three generations of knitting and textile skill within one family. Tommy and Mary send their wool off to Jamieson & Smith to be scoured and spun, and it was beautiful for me to see wool which I have knit with growing on the sheeps' backs. A road (which you can hear in this recording) separates one section of the sheeps' field from another one. There is a tunnel that connects them, but the sheep cannot always find each other through it. In this recording, somehow a lamb and its mother have been parted by the road, and are calling to one another. The deeper baa belongs to the mother; the urgent, high-pitched sound is the baa of the lamb. You can also hear the sounds of gulls, chickens, and what I think are oystercatchers. I was sitting with my back to a further field where there are two very tame lambs for children visiting the croft to bottle-feed; you can hear them snuffling and shuffling about near to where I was sat while recording this. Recorded with Naiant X-X microphones and FOSTEX FR-2LE.

Written by Felicity Ford on radio aporee ::: maps.

Recorded nearby

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Sources & credits