For the past week, we’ve been digitally recording bird calls from behind the Raymond Plank Creative Center at Ucross. The recorder (the SM2+ from Wildlife Acoustics) will automatically turn on to record ambient sound every day for 30 minutes before and after sunrise/sunset — thus recording the morning and evening choruses of local bird species. We will be receiving a second unit in early August, to be set up near Big Red Lane.
These two recording units will remain as permanent, long-term, bird monitoring stations on the ranch. By hooking the units up to solar arrays, and deploying the units with nearly 600 GB of storage space, autonomous data collection can continue for months with little to no maintenance or upkeep.