May 11, 2024 • 28 mins
Embark on an aural expedition with Martyn Stewart, as we traverse the lush landscapes of Belize, uncovering the rich tapestry of sounds that define this vibrant country. We rapidly escape the buzz of Belize City for the serene seclusion of Pine Mountain Lodge. . Feel the pounding heart of the tropical thunderstorm, and chuckle along with Martyn's quirky mnemonic for the short-billed pigeon's call. Experience firsthand the acoustic challenges he encountered while recording the symphony of birdlife, bat calls in Orange Walk, and the enchanting nighttime frog chorus, all while reflecting on the dangers of bandit-populated roads that necessitate military escorts.
As darkness blankets Central America, we're serenaded by nature's lullaby—the reliable cadence of sunset at six and the harmonious tunes of the melodious blackbird and the light-coloured thrush. This episode is more than just a sensory journey; it's an open invitation to immerse yourself in the environmental splendor of Belize, whether through the stories and sounds shared here or through the continuous echo of nature's symphony online and on social media.
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Episode Transcript
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Martyn Stewart (00:01):
This is Martin Stewart, with a life in sound
from the Listening Planet.
Amanda Hill (00:15):
Okay, so today we're going to go to a place
that's located on the northeastern coast of Central America
, bordered by Mexico to thenorth, guatemala to the west and
south and the Caribbean Sea tothe east.
So, martin, tell me where weare.
Martyn Stewart (00:29):
We're in Belize today.
Amanda Hill (00:32):
We're in Belize.
We're in Belize, so tell meabout.
One of the things that I findamazing is it's actually an
incredibly small country andwe're going to talk about all
the places today that I'veactually never been.
I've been to Belize many timesand have been diving um.
They've actually got the secondlargest barrier reef in the
(00:52):
world that's true and I've hadthe privilege.
I forgot about that, oh it'sjust, it is truly, truly
beautiful, but I've never, as aresult, gone into the mainland,
and so today we're going to betalking about the mainland.
So tell me about what I don'tknow, the first impression.
(01:14):
I've landed in Belize.
I'm Martin Stewart.
Where are you going?
Martyn Stewart (01:19):
The first place I'm going to is to get out of
the city, to get out of thecoastal areas to get away from
what you would go and see andexperience.
There's different ways ofentertainment in my mind.
If you're a water holic or asnorkeller or a diver or, you
(01:41):
know, a surfer or whatever itattracts so many people.
If you're a, a surfer orwhatever it attracts so many
people.
If you're a nature recordist orwhatever, you're just isolated.
You're like the Carl Pilkingtonguy of the world.
You're just on your own, andthat's the way I love it.
So when I went to Belize, wewere looking for a place that
(02:05):
was off the grid and Ru bookedsomething called the Pine
Mountain Lodge Resort, which hadno electricity.
It had a generator and yourelied on solar power.
You know to keep things going,but it was out there in the
mountains and it was anotherplace.
You know to keep things going,but it was out there in the
(02:25):
mountains and it was anotherplace.
You know that I would.
I'd say it's another room inheaven, basically.
But when you go into Belize,when you fly into Belize City,
it gives you a different kind ofangle to it.
I thought when we first arrivedin Belize City that I'd made a
big mistake because there waslitter and loads of people and
(02:48):
lots of noise and a lot of trasheverywhere, and it wasn't until
you're probably five miles awayfrom Belize City that you
started to realize, wow, this iswhat I wanted to do.
Amanda Hill (02:59):
So, um, belize, the and I know that you record.
You recorded on the mountainPine Ridge the most incredible
thunderstorm.
Martyn Stewart (03:09):
Oh, incredible, incredible.
When you encounter there'schallenges that are not really
evident, as today.
There's a way you record soundand thunderclaps and big bangs
and screams.
You have to calibrate yourlevel indicator so that it
(03:30):
doesn't saturate the sound.
If you're recording somethinglike a thunderstorm, your
calibration has to be dead right.
But today they introduced the32-bit float, which is a setting
on recorders, now that you canbasically record any bangs
without saturating and peakingyour recording itself.
(03:53):
But I didn't have that abilitywhen I first went into Belize,
so you had to set your levels tothe way that I've always set
them, calibrated, you know, theway that I knew would record
these magnificent bangs andcrashes.
So it was probably a couple ofdays into being on the Pine
(04:13):
Ridge Mountain that this stormcame through and the trees were
blowing, the rain started comingdown and then this enormous
bang and crash that kind of putsyour hair on end and just
incredible to be able toexperience something so
wonderful and out of this world.
(04:35):
I think belize thunderstormsare incredible, you know.
They're on a par with a lot ofthe best ones that I've done.
Amanda Hill (04:51):
I think the most magnificent thunderstorm is when
we were in the Pine RidgeMountains.
And then tell me about the.
I love the sand thunder.
I love it.
It makes me feel so secure andcosy and warm.
But I know one of the otherthings that you love about
belize are the different birds,and I also know that you really
like mnemonics, martin.
So tell me about one of thebirds we're going to encounter
(05:13):
today and it's not mnemonic, Ican't say it now it's hard to
say mnemonic.
Martyn Stewart (05:22):
I didn't know what a mnemonic was until I came
into the states and they usemnemonics for bird songs so that
you can remember them.
So I make my own up and whenI'm in a place like belize or
any other country that you know,I'm first there.
I think, okay, that guy'ssaying something, so I'll
(05:43):
remember that, and this guy'ssaying this, so I'll remember
that.
And this guy's saying thisthing, so I'll remember that.
But there was a short-billedpigeon that would say I'm over
here, I'm over here.
Amanda Hill (05:56):
I'm over here.
Martyn Stewart (05:57):
And it's repetitive and it just goes on
and on and on, and you'retalking to yourself, basically,
and then you're answering itback in your head I know you're
over there, I and you're talkingto yourself, basically, and
then you're saying you'reanswering it back in your head I
know you're over there, I knowyou're over there, you're over
there, so it's.
Amanda Hill (06:13):
It's just my just way of torturing myself, that's
all tell me about some of theother favorite bird characters
that you recorded in belize andwhere were you when you?
Recorded in Belize and wherewere you when you recorded them?
I need to know place as well asspecies.
Martyn Stewart (06:25):
Well, I was in the north of Round Orange Walk
where I'd gone up to do bats aswell, so we did a lot of bat
recordings, which is somethingelse.
It's kind of a.
Amanda Hill (06:37):
I don't associate bats with Belize.
Martyn Stewart (06:40):
Oh yeah, but there's tons of species of bats
in Belize, as there is in mostof central um America.
Amanda Hill (06:49):
I'll tell you so where did you go to record bats?
How do you find them?
Martyn Stewart (06:52):
all over Belize to do bats.
Um, I'll give you anintroduction into bats.
So my goal in life was torecord every sound that was
possible that the crittersemitted.
So I had a slogan recording theworld one species at a time.
(07:14):
So it wasn't just birds.
I loved insects, amphibians,birds, mammals, marine life, all
of that, Anything to do withnature that emitted sound I
wanted to record.
So when I set out to record allthe birds of the world, I found
out because I'm not a birder.
A lot of people say I'm abirder but I'm not a birder.
(07:37):
I don't identify birds.
I hear their sounds and Irecord their sounds and tie the
two together.
But if I see a bird, you knowwe've talked about being
colorblind- it doesn't help,you're colorblind, I can't
identify shit.
So birds I found out there weresomething like 10,000 species of
(07:57):
birds in the world and in mylifetime I've got through to
probably 35, maybe 4,000 speciesof birds, probably in the
middle between 3,000 and 3,500,4,000.
And when I was asked by a guyup in Seattle why don't I record
bats as well?
(08:17):
Oh, my God, you know how manybats.
Because they're flying, there'sgot to be 5,000 000 bat species
as well.
And how do you identifysomething that's flying at night
?
That's black, you know, youdon't see it.
So I found out there's athousand bat species in the
world.
Uh, wow, thousand, that's,that's doable.
(08:39):
Then you realize how hard it isto be able to record bats and
identify them.
So to date I've recorded about325 species of bats.
That's unbelievable.
So all the bats in North Americaare recorded and megabats.
There are microbats andmegabats.
(08:59):
There are the vampire bats,there are the bats, you know,
that are down in Belize andCosta Rica, which we spoke about
, but the micro bats there'sprobably quite a few species in
Belize.
So the way you do it is youfind a body of water and you
(09:20):
pull out these mist nets, so thenets are stretched across from
pole to pole with the idea ofcatching the bats.
They fly into the nets and thenyou capture the bats and you
identify the bats.
(09:48):
You get a biologist or a batspecialist that will glue a
bungee cord on the back of thebat and let it fly along a
zipline 20-30 times and as it'sflying back and forward along
the zipline, it's emitting thesesounds, these high frequency
sounds, and you have a batdetector to to record these
species.
You, you can't do it with justa microphone.
You have to have a bat detectorto to record these species.
You, you can't do it with justa microphone.
You have to have a bat detector.
And I bought this reallyexpensive bat bat detector so I
(10:11):
could do this.
The other thing about recordingbats is you had to have rabies
jabs, so you you had to gothrough process of inoculation
and become immune to rabies.
So I went to all that trouble umto go and record bats.
So I recorded these amazing batsup in orange walk, um a lot of
(10:35):
these micro bats in the pineridge mountains.
There were bat species downthere which I recorded.
So once you've recorded thebats along the zip line with the
bungee cord, the next time youbase the sounds on what you've
already recorded and you justadd them to the database so that
you don't have to always putout a misnet to catch them.
(10:57):
So the system is calledheterodyne, so that you're
heterodyne in the sounds thatare inaudible to us, so that
you're heterodyne in the soundsthat are inaudible to us, so
that you bring the, the soundsignature, down to a frequency
that you understand and theysound like squeaks.
They have a definite squeakabout them.
Amanda Hill (11:15):
If you listen to a lot of and can you tell much of
the difference between onesqueak of a bat versus another
squeak of a bat you can do withum with.
Martyn Stewart (11:21):
Um is another squeak of a bat you can do with
spectrogram analysis.
So they have like a call and atail.
But I did a lot of bats these,and they were really, really
interesting.
And a lot of frogs, a lot ofnight stuff.
I love the sounds of the night.
(11:41):
There's that kind of insectchorus which kind of gives you
that pleasing sound and feelingof tranquility.
It's just unbelievable.
And insects have differentsound signatures too.
Amanda Hill (12:00):
Where are you when you're recording insects?
Which part of Belize is it All?
Martyn Stewart (12:02):
over Belize, all over Belize.
You know that's the good thingabout tropical Central America,
that you have an abundance ofcicadas and other different
critters, you know.
And then the owls theyaccompany the insects and you
have the screech owls, you havethe muffled owls, you have
(12:26):
vermiculated screech owls.
You have the dawn, when it'salmost like when the dawn comes,
all the night crowd go.
Ok, mate, I'm going to bed now.
I've been working all night,I've set the tone for you.
And they pull in the moon andthey pull the stars in, and then
(12:50):
all the morning crowd arerolling out.
You know the clouds and theblue sky, and then they get
their coat off and they blowtheir nose and they gargle and
they start to bring the morningin and so who's in the morning
crowd martin?
the morning crowd, you normallyget woke up where's the
(13:11):
chakalaka?
the chakalakas are all over theplace.
The chakalaka start Chakalaka,chakalaka, were they in the
morning?
In the morning they make such adin they drown out.
One Chakalaka will start thecall, and then Mrs Chakalaka,
(13:32):
two streets up the road, isgoing to start shouting back,
and then Ari Chakalaka startsgoing off and Dick Chakalaka
starts going off and dickchakalaka is going, and then
you've got tom, dick, arry,george tom, you know, dave
chakalakas, and they're allchakalaking everywhere.
They're just the most amazingsound.
(13:55):
And when all the chakalakas arecalmed down, then it's almost
like the stage is set for birds,like the melodious blackbird.
Amanda Hill (14:05):
How do you like the melodious blackbird?
How do you like the melodiousblackbird?
Martyn Stewart (14:09):
Well, it's almost going back to my kid days
, you know, when the blackbirdsinging in the woods in
Birmingham, england.
They have that definite kind ofsong about them.
You know it's a blackbird, youknow it's a thrush family.
So the melodious blackbird iskind of like upmarket.
(14:30):
The melodious blackbird has thesuit on, you know, he has the
night gear on Tuxedo and he hasthe dickie bow and he's going to
give you a proper performanceand he'll give you a beautiful
serenade.
So that is beautiful.
(14:51):
And then you have theclay-coloured robin.
It was the clay-coloured robin,it was the clay-coloured robin
when I was there, and then Ithink the ornithologists have
turned the name over to theclay-coloured thrush.
But you have.
Amanda Hill (15:08):
And what about the hummingbirds?
Martyn Stewart (15:10):
Hummingbirds all over the place chipping away in
the wingbeats.
You know, wherever there'sflowers and stuff, there's an
abundance of hummingbirds.
There's um yellow-billed, umyellow-bellied elenas.
There's social fly catchers.
The social fly catcher as well,when it, when that starts to
(15:33):
call, has that mnemonic about it.
It it's that he's almost likemy brother Alan.
You know that monotone.
You need the melodiousblackbird to stand next to him
and say Oi, mate, cheer up,nothing's that bad.
Amanda Hill (15:52):
So tell me about the different regions that you
went to in Belize.
So we've done Mountain PineRidge, where you had that
incredible thunderstorm, but Iknow you also went to the
Columbia Forest Reserve downsouth the Rio.
Bravo.
Conservation area.
Tell me about the differentplaces that you've been to so we
did the Pine Mountain Ridgearea.
Martyn Stewart (16:13):
I put two audio boxes out there and recorded
there every day.
We went south as well, toGuatemala itself, and you had to
have an army, some army people,to assist you on the way, to
accompany you down, because it'squite a dangerous road.
There's bandits come out andthey'll rob.
Amanda Hill (16:33):
Why did you want to go down there then, martin?
Martyn Stewart (16:35):
Because I knew there were a lot of aura,
pendulas and teacums anddifferent species of birds down
there, lots of different parrots, and it was a quiet area and I
thought you know we'll get somedifferent species of birds.
Because you're going more orless through, you're on the
border of Guatemala.
I've only just flirted reallywith Guatemala because I was
(17:00):
always a little bit scared ofgoing in to Guatemala because of
the.
Amanda Hill (17:04):
You're the only person I know that's had army
people accompany him to go.
Martyn Stewart (17:07):
Well, it wasn't just me.
There was a whole bunch of carsthat were going down and okay
it's like a chichen itza typeplace, you know and again, I'm
not really good at names, I'mbad on there, but the um there
was placed down by.
Uh, there was a lake down downthere on borders, something like
(17:31):
Sarston National Park.
There was another place therewhich I was looking for
different bird species but kindof got the same thing.
But the Columbia Forest Reservehad a lot of different sounds
again, different soundscapes,different foliage as well to
reflect the sounds off.
You always find that when youget tropical foliage a lot of
(17:52):
the foliage is glossy.
You know it's thatreflectiveness about it, so
sound reflects and carries indifferent ways.
And when you buy water as well,you get reflective sounds off
water.
And I got close to going, goingnorth, I think we went through
Bella Vista and that way I did arecording of the ocean because
(18:16):
every time you go to a countrythat has ocean around it and
stuff I like to try and recordthe waves and stuff about it
because again, it has adifferent sound signature to
everywhere else.
Amanda Hill (18:28):
Ocean has different density, different salt content
and so some waves and you hearthat difference in the sound you
hear it.
Martyn Stewart (18:37):
Some waves are heavier than others, some are
light, some drop down, butBelize is just completely
interesting.
And if you go further down,you're bordering around Honduras
, which I haven't gone intorecorded, but one of those
places where I'd like to.
You know, if I got the chanceto go to Belize again, I'd like
(18:59):
to go do the south of Belizemore so and then go into
Honduras.
Amanda Hill (19:04):
Can you go to the Rio Bravo Conservation Area?
Where's that?
Martyn Stewart (19:09):
That's south of Belize City.
Amanda Hill (19:14):
So can we have a moment, Martin, to give some
love to the frogs.
Martyn Stewart (19:17):
Oh, we've got to do the frogs.
Amanda Hill (19:20):
Frogs don't get much love.
Martyn Stewart (19:21):
Oh, they get lots of love from me.
I love frogs.
Amanda Hill (19:25):
I know they do Tell me about there are quite a few
species of frogs in Belize andI've got a vocal.
I do Tell me about there arequite a few species of frogs in
Belize and are quite vocal, Ibelieve.
Do you want to introduce someof your frog friends?
Martyn Stewart (19:37):
Well, the frogs around Costa Rica and Belize,
nicaragua are mostly.
They're frogs and not toads.
So there's a lot of species inthe poison dart frog family and
they just have this incrediblevocalization about them.
There's a unique call aboutfrogs, and frogs tell me how
(20:02):
healthy the environment is.
I always say sound is thebarometer of the planet.
I also say the health of theriver is the dipper.
If the dipper is present,you've got a healthy river.
But you've got a healthyenvironment if you've got frogs
around and there's an abundanceof frog calls when the rain
(20:25):
season comes.
In Costa Rica the frog chorusis nothing like bird sound.
You know it's not like a dawnor an evening chorus, it's just
unique and frogs chorus so thatthey confuse the predators.
If they're all calling togetherand say you have a predator
(20:46):
like an owl that wants to go andeat some frogs, it can't signal
a man.
You know it can't identify wherethe call's coming from because
it's all over the place.
But once you break into theirhabitat, a frog will stop
calling when the hell's thefrogs gone?
And then a frog will go frog,frog, see if it's okay, and then
(21:08):
he'll say it again, frog, frog.
And then another frog will gosee if it's okay, and then he'll
say it again.
And then another frog will goand the other frog will go and
it's almost like is he gone yet?
I don't know.
Do you think he's still here?
I think so.
Why aren't the others callingbecause they think he's still
(21:29):
here?
I think so.
Why aren't the others callingBecause they think he's still
here?
But I think he's gone now.
Okay, do you want to go first?
I'll go first, okay.
And then everyone startscalling because they know it's
(21:52):
safe.
I mean, how cool is that?
We install alarms and shit.
We install alarms around ourfront.
Amanda Hill (22:00):
You know, nature has frogs yeah, yeah, I love
that they've got frogs.
I want to.
I want to.
This is a quick dive.
Yeah, I love that They've gotfrogs.
I want to.
This is a quick dive intobeliefs.
I want to end with what I thinkis one of my also favourite
sounds, which is the night time.
So tell me what the night?
(22:22):
We spend a lot of time, martin,talking about the dawn chorus,
because that's what we alwaysassociate with so much
incredible life and biodiversity.
But paint the picture for me ofthe.
It's six o'clock and what am Igoing to start to eat?
What's going to put me to sleepin Belize?
Martyn Stewart (22:41):
Well knowing you , probably two glasses of Pinot
Grigio.
Amanda Hill (22:49):
As long as I have some fries with it, then I'm
okay.
Martyn Stewart (22:52):
The thing about Central America the clock, the
sun.
Whether it's spring, summer,autumn, winter, six o'clock is
the end of the day.
The sun you've got short days.
When you're in the NorthernHemisphere, you've got short
days.
When you're in the northernhemisphere you've got 24 hours
light.
(23:13):
If you're up in the Arctic, ifyou're down south in the summer,
you've got the same thing.
If you go into your place,where you are up in Portland,
night times in the summer youcan go up to 10 o'clock when
you've still got light.
But there's no compromise inCentral America.
Six o'clock, okay, let's getthis crowd out now.
(23:37):
And at 10 to 6 you get thecicadas come in and then they
start to intensify their callsand all the insects start to
call.
And once the sun's gone down,the temperature just changes,
fluctuates just that little bit.
(23:57):
So the insect chorus getslouder and then, as it cools
down, it starts to soften outthe common parakeet which will
have that unique call about it,then the owl choruses and then
the frogs.
So through the night you've gotthese guys.
It's like the night watchman.
(24:19):
Oh, oh oh.
Until someone breaks up.
You know, when we talkedearlier on about the blackbird,
my mate that I learnt in theforest.
When the blackbird came in theforest, I knew someone.
I knew someone come in theforest when the blackbird would
make an alarm.
Well, you learn these things,like the critters everywhere you
(24:40):
go.
They all have that same abilityto.
They're telling each otherbasically fucking hell,
something's going on over here,need to shut the fuck up, need
to keep it quiet.
They're telling you thatsomething's strange in their
environment, and not just them,but other animals use those
(25:02):
sounds as a precaution.
They use it for their abilityto ward off any kind of threats
that they find in the night.
Remember, you have a lot ofnocturnal animals that walk in
the forest.
You have, like the jaguar,you've got the cooties, I think
(25:26):
they're called.
They're like the equivalent ofthe raccoon in North America,
and they're looking foreverything, so a frog will sense
that they're present becausethey eat the frogs, although
some of the poison dart frogsare pretty, so there's a clever
thing as well.
They also have different colorsabout them, and the redder they
(25:49):
are, the more poisonous they'regoing to be and then of course
you got snakes.
Amanda Hill (25:54):
You got snakes parading, so do you have sound
recording only?
Martyn Stewart (25:57):
rattlesnakes my because they don't otherwise
make much your brother, your dad, my brother john yeah, when I
was young, locked me in thereptile house with Alan when I
was a kid and frightened theshit out of.
I was always petrified aboutsnakes and, of course, when I
(26:19):
met Ru, we went down toQueensland, australia which
we'll do as another kind ofpodcast and I said are there any
snakes in here?
And she said you're not goingto see any snakes.
And within 10 minutes we're onthe walk.
There's a bloody poison snakecrawled up onto the chair.
Amanda Hill (26:35):
That always happens do you have any favourite?
So if I close this off, if Iwas going to go back to Belize
and finally persuade my scubadiving family to now go into the
mountains or the rainforest,where should I go?
Martyn Stewart (26:58):
Oh, you'd have to go to the Pine Ridge
Mountains, because it's not theplace that anybody would have on
their list.
You'd have to go there andexperience that and, with the
heat and the humidity, whenyou're up in a high altitude
it's cooler and the air isbreathable and it's beautiful.
But it's just a wonderful placeand you've got acres and acres
(27:22):
of land up there to walk freelyand there's no roads.
The only roads are to thelodges and then that's it.
You're just on your own.
Amanda Hill (27:33):
And if you closed your eyes, martin, what are the
sounds that you'd be hearingthat would make you know that
you're now in Belize?
So I haven't let you open youreyes, you've just your eyes have
got to be closed.
What's very specific to Belizefor you?
Martyn Stewart (27:52):
The morning choruses of the melodious
blackbird and the light-colouredthrush.
Amanda Hill (27:59):
OK, let's close with them.
Thank you, Martin.
Martyn Stewart (28:06):
You've just experienced another journey on
the Listening planet podcast.
Dive deeper into the world ofnatural sounds by connecting
with us online.
Visit our website or follow uson social media.
Let the symphony of naturesurround you wherever you go.
Happy listening.
This is Martin Stewart, with a life in sound
from the Listening Planet.
Amanda Hill (00:15):
Okay, so today we're going to go to a place
that's located on the northeastern coast of Central America
, bordered by Mexico to thenorth, guatemala to the west and
south and the Caribbean Sea tothe east.
So, martin, tell me where weare.
Martyn Stewart (00:29):
We're in Belize today.
Amanda Hill (00:32):
We're in Belize.
We're in Belize, so tell meabout.
One of the things that I findamazing is it's actually an
incredibly small country andwe're going to talk about all
the places today that I'veactually never been.
I've been to Belize many timesand have been diving um.
They've actually got the secondlargest barrier reef in the
(00:52):
world that's true and I've hadthe privilege.
I forgot about that, oh it'sjust, it is truly, truly
beautiful, but I've never, as aresult, gone into the mainland,
and so today we're going to betalking about the mainland.
So tell me about what I don'tknow, the first impression.
(01:14):
I've landed in Belize.
I'm Martin Stewart.
Where are you going?
Martyn Stewart (01:19):
The first place I'm going to is to get out of
the city, to get out of thecoastal areas to get away from
what you would go and see andexperience.
There's different ways ofentertainment in my mind.
If you're a water holic or asnorkeller or a diver or, you
(01:41):
know, a surfer or whatever itattracts so many people.
If you're a, a surfer orwhatever it attracts so many
people.
If you're a nature recordist orwhatever, you're just isolated.
You're like the Carl Pilkingtonguy of the world.
You're just on your own, andthat's the way I love it.
So when I went to Belize, wewere looking for a place that
(02:05):
was off the grid and Ru bookedsomething called the Pine
Mountain Lodge Resort, which hadno electricity.
It had a generator and yourelied on solar power.
You know to keep things going,but it was out there in the
mountains and it was anotherplace.
You know to keep things going,but it was out there in the
(02:25):
mountains and it was anotherplace.
You know that I would.
I'd say it's another room inheaven, basically.
But when you go into Belize,when you fly into Belize City,
it gives you a different kind ofangle to it.
I thought when we first arrivedin Belize City that I'd made a
big mistake because there waslitter and loads of people and
(02:48):
lots of noise and a lot of trasheverywhere, and it wasn't until
you're probably five miles awayfrom Belize City that you
started to realize, wow, this iswhat I wanted to do.
Amanda Hill (02:59):
So, um, belize, the and I know that you record.
You recorded on the mountainPine Ridge the most incredible
thunderstorm.
Martyn Stewart (03:09):
Oh, incredible, incredible.
When you encounter there'schallenges that are not really
evident, as today.
There's a way you record soundand thunderclaps and big bangs
and screams.
You have to calibrate yourlevel indicator so that it
(03:30):
doesn't saturate the sound.
If you're recording somethinglike a thunderstorm, your
calibration has to be dead right.
But today they introduced the32-bit float, which is a setting
on recorders, now that you canbasically record any bangs
without saturating and peakingyour recording itself.
(03:53):
But I didn't have that abilitywhen I first went into Belize,
so you had to set your levels tothe way that I've always set
them, calibrated, you know, theway that I knew would record
these magnificent bangs andcrashes.
So it was probably a couple ofdays into being on the Pine
(04:13):
Ridge Mountain that this stormcame through and the trees were
blowing, the rain started comingdown and then this enormous
bang and crash that kind of putsyour hair on end and just
incredible to be able toexperience something so
wonderful and out of this world.
(04:35):
I think belize thunderstormsare incredible, you know.
They're on a par with a lot ofthe best ones that I've done.
Amanda Hill (04:51):
I think the most magnificent thunderstorm is when
we were in the Pine RidgeMountains.
And then tell me about the.
I love the sand thunder.
I love it.
It makes me feel so secure andcosy and warm.
But I know one of the otherthings that you love about
belize are the different birds,and I also know that you really
like mnemonics, martin.
So tell me about one of thebirds we're going to encounter
(05:13):
today and it's not mnemonic, Ican't say it now it's hard to
say mnemonic.
Martyn Stewart (05:22):
I didn't know what a mnemonic was until I came
into the states and they usemnemonics for bird songs so that
you can remember them.
So I make my own up and whenI'm in a place like belize or
any other country that you know,I'm first there.
I think, okay, that guy'ssaying something, so I'll
(05:43):
remember that, and this guy'ssaying this, so I'll remember
that.
And this guy's saying thisthing, so I'll remember that.
But there was a short-billedpigeon that would say I'm over
here, I'm over here.
Amanda Hill (05:56):
I'm over here.
Martyn Stewart (05:57):
And it's repetitive and it just goes on
and on and on, and you'retalking to yourself, basically,
and then you're answering itback in your head I know you're
over there, I and you're talkingto yourself, basically, and
then you're saying you'reanswering it back in your head I
know you're over there, I knowyou're over there, you're over
there, so it's.
Amanda Hill (06:13):
It's just my just way of torturing myself, that's
all tell me about some of theother favorite bird characters
that you recorded in belize andwhere were you when you?
Recorded in Belize and wherewere you when you recorded them?
I need to know place as well asspecies.
Martyn Stewart (06:25):
Well, I was in the north of Round Orange Walk
where I'd gone up to do bats aswell, so we did a lot of bat
recordings, which is somethingelse.
It's kind of a.
Amanda Hill (06:37):
I don't associate bats with Belize.
Martyn Stewart (06:40):
Oh yeah, but there's tons of species of bats
in Belize, as there is in mostof central um America.
Amanda Hill (06:49):
I'll tell you so where did you go to record bats?
How do you find them?
Martyn Stewart (06:52):
all over Belize to do bats.
Um, I'll give you anintroduction into bats.
So my goal in life was torecord every sound that was
possible that the crittersemitted.
So I had a slogan recording theworld one species at a time.
(07:14):
So it wasn't just birds.
I loved insects, amphibians,birds, mammals, marine life, all
of that, Anything to do withnature that emitted sound I
wanted to record.
So when I set out to record allthe birds of the world, I found
out because I'm not a birder.
A lot of people say I'm abirder but I'm not a birder.
(07:37):
I don't identify birds.
I hear their sounds and Irecord their sounds and tie the
two together.
But if I see a bird, you knowwe've talked about being
colorblind- it doesn't help,you're colorblind, I can't
identify shit.
So birds I found out there weresomething like 10,000 species of
(07:57):
birds in the world and in mylifetime I've got through to
probably 35, maybe 4,000 speciesof birds, probably in the
middle between 3,000 and 3,500,4,000.
And when I was asked by a guyup in Seattle why don't I record
bats as well?
(08:17):
Oh, my God, you know how manybats.
Because they're flying, there'sgot to be 5,000 000 bat species
as well.
And how do you identifysomething that's flying at night
?
That's black, you know, youdon't see it.
So I found out there's athousand bat species in the
world.
Uh, wow, thousand, that's,that's doable.
(08:39):
Then you realize how hard it isto be able to record bats and
identify them.
So to date I've recorded about325 species of bats.
That's unbelievable.
So all the bats in North Americaare recorded and megabats.
There are microbats andmegabats.
(08:59):
There are the vampire bats,there are the bats, you know,
that are down in Belize andCosta Rica, which we spoke about
, but the micro bats there'sprobably quite a few species in
Belize.
So the way you do it is youfind a body of water and you
(09:20):
pull out these mist nets, so thenets are stretched across from
pole to pole with the idea ofcatching the bats.
They fly into the nets and thenyou capture the bats and you
identify the bats.
(09:48):
You get a biologist or a batspecialist that will glue a
bungee cord on the back of thebat and let it fly along a
zipline 20-30 times and as it'sflying back and forward along
the zipline, it's emitting thesesounds, these high frequency
sounds, and you have a batdetector to to record these
species.
You, you can't do it with justa microphone.
You have to have a bat detectorto to record these species.
You, you can't do it with justa microphone.
You have to have a bat detector.
And I bought this reallyexpensive bat bat detector so I
(10:11):
could do this.
The other thing about recordingbats is you had to have rabies
jabs, so you you had to gothrough process of inoculation
and become immune to rabies.
So I went to all that trouble umto go and record bats.
So I recorded these amazing batsup in orange walk, um a lot of
(10:35):
these micro bats in the pineridge mountains.
There were bat species downthere which I recorded.
So once you've recorded thebats along the zip line with the
bungee cord, the next time youbase the sounds on what you've
already recorded and you justadd them to the database so that
you don't have to always putout a misnet to catch them.
(10:57):
So the system is calledheterodyne, so that you're
heterodyne in the sounds thatare inaudible to us, so that
you're heterodyne in the soundsthat are inaudible to us, so
that you bring the, the soundsignature, down to a frequency
that you understand and theysound like squeaks.
They have a definite squeakabout them.
Amanda Hill (11:15):
If you listen to a lot of and can you tell much of
the difference between onesqueak of a bat versus another
squeak of a bat you can do withum with.
Martyn Stewart (11:21):
Um is another squeak of a bat you can do with
spectrogram analysis.
So they have like a call and atail.
But I did a lot of bats these,and they were really, really
interesting.
And a lot of frogs, a lot ofnight stuff.
I love the sounds of the night.
(11:41):
There's that kind of insectchorus which kind of gives you
that pleasing sound and feelingof tranquility.
It's just unbelievable.
And insects have differentsound signatures too.
Amanda Hill (12:00):
Where are you when you're recording insects?
Which part of Belize is it All?
Martyn Stewart (12:02):
over Belize, all over Belize.
You know that's the good thingabout tropical Central America,
that you have an abundance ofcicadas and other different
critters, you know.
And then the owls theyaccompany the insects and you
have the screech owls, you havethe muffled owls, you have
(12:26):
vermiculated screech owls.
You have the dawn, when it'salmost like when the dawn comes,
all the night crowd go.
Ok, mate, I'm going to bed now.
I've been working all night,I've set the tone for you.
And they pull in the moon andthey pull the stars in, and then
(12:50):
all the morning crowd arerolling out.
You know the clouds and theblue sky, and then they get
their coat off and they blowtheir nose and they gargle and
they start to bring the morningin and so who's in the morning
crowd martin?
the morning crowd, you normallyget woke up where's the
(13:11):
chakalaka?
the chakalakas are all over theplace.
The chakalaka start Chakalaka,chakalaka, were they in the
morning?
In the morning they make such adin they drown out.
One Chakalaka will start thecall, and then Mrs Chakalaka,
(13:32):
two streets up the road, isgoing to start shouting back,
and then Ari Chakalaka startsgoing off and Dick Chakalaka
starts going off and dickchakalaka is going, and then
you've got tom, dick, arry,george tom, you know, dave
chakalakas, and they're allchakalaking everywhere.
They're just the most amazingsound.
(13:55):
And when all the chakalakas arecalmed down, then it's almost
like the stage is set for birds,like the melodious blackbird.
Amanda Hill (14:05):
How do you like the melodious blackbird?
How do you like the melodiousblackbird?
Martyn Stewart (14:09):
Well, it's almost going back to my kid days
, you know, when the blackbirdsinging in the woods in
Birmingham, england.
They have that definite kind ofsong about them.
You know it's a blackbird, youknow it's a thrush family.
So the melodious blackbird iskind of like upmarket.
(14:30):
The melodious blackbird has thesuit on, you know, he has the
night gear on Tuxedo and he hasthe dickie bow and he's going to
give you a proper performanceand he'll give you a beautiful
serenade.
So that is beautiful.
(14:51):
And then you have theclay-coloured robin.
It was the clay-coloured robin,it was the clay-coloured robin
when I was there, and then Ithink the ornithologists have
turned the name over to theclay-coloured thrush.
But you have.
Amanda Hill (15:08):
And what about the hummingbirds?
Martyn Stewart (15:10):
Hummingbirds all over the place chipping away in
the wingbeats.
You know, wherever there'sflowers and stuff, there's an
abundance of hummingbirds.
There's um yellow-billed, umyellow-bellied elenas.
There's social fly catchers.
The social fly catcher as well,when it, when that starts to
(15:33):
call, has that mnemonic about it.
It it's that he's almost likemy brother Alan.
You know that monotone.
You need the melodiousblackbird to stand next to him
and say Oi, mate, cheer up,nothing's that bad.
Amanda Hill (15:52):
So tell me about the different regions that you
went to in Belize.
So we've done Mountain PineRidge, where you had that
incredible thunderstorm, but Iknow you also went to the
Columbia Forest Reserve downsouth the Rio.
Bravo.
Conservation area.
Tell me about the differentplaces that you've been to so we
did the Pine Mountain Ridgearea.
Martyn Stewart (16:13):
I put two audio boxes out there and recorded
there every day.
We went south as well, toGuatemala itself, and you had to
have an army, some army people,to assist you on the way, to
accompany you down, because it'squite a dangerous road.
There's bandits come out andthey'll rob.
Amanda Hill (16:33):
Why did you want to go down there then, martin?
Martyn Stewart (16:35):
Because I knew there were a lot of aura,
pendulas and teacums anddifferent species of birds down
there, lots of different parrots, and it was a quiet area and I
thought you know we'll get somedifferent species of birds.
Because you're going more orless through, you're on the
border of Guatemala.
I've only just flirted reallywith Guatemala because I was
(17:00):
always a little bit scared ofgoing in to Guatemala because of
the.
Amanda Hill (17:04):
You're the only person I know that's had army
people accompany him to go.
Martyn Stewart (17:07):
Well, it wasn't just me.
There was a whole bunch of carsthat were going down and okay
it's like a chichen itza typeplace, you know and again, I'm
not really good at names, I'mbad on there, but the um there
was placed down by.
Uh, there was a lake down downthere on borders, something like
(17:31):
Sarston National Park.
There was another place therewhich I was looking for
different bird species but kindof got the same thing.
But the Columbia Forest Reservehad a lot of different sounds
again, different soundscapes,different foliage as well to
reflect the sounds off.
You always find that when youget tropical foliage a lot of
(17:52):
the foliage is glossy.
You know it's thatreflectiveness about it, so
sound reflects and carries indifferent ways.
And when you buy water as well,you get reflective sounds off
water.
And I got close to going, goingnorth, I think we went through
Bella Vista and that way I did arecording of the ocean because
(18:16):
every time you go to a countrythat has ocean around it and
stuff I like to try and recordthe waves and stuff about it
because again, it has adifferent sound signature to
everywhere else.
Amanda Hill (18:28):
Ocean has different density, different salt content
and so some waves and you hearthat difference in the sound you
hear it.
Martyn Stewart (18:37):
Some waves are heavier than others, some are
light, some drop down, butBelize is just completely
interesting.
And if you go further down,you're bordering around Honduras
, which I haven't gone intorecorded, but one of those
places where I'd like to.
You know, if I got the chanceto go to Belize again, I'd like
(18:59):
to go do the south of Belizemore so and then go into
Honduras.
Amanda Hill (19:04):
Can you go to the Rio Bravo Conservation Area?
Where's that?
Martyn Stewart (19:09):
That's south of Belize City.
Amanda Hill (19:14):
So can we have a moment, Martin, to give some
love to the frogs.
Martyn Stewart (19:17):
Oh, we've got to do the frogs.
Amanda Hill (19:20):
Frogs don't get much love.
Martyn Stewart (19:21):
Oh, they get lots of love from me.
I love frogs.
Amanda Hill (19:25):
I know they do Tell me about there are quite a few
species of frogs in Belize andI've got a vocal.
I do Tell me about there arequite a few species of frogs in
Belize and are quite vocal, Ibelieve.
Do you want to introduce someof your frog friends?
Martyn Stewart (19:37):
Well, the frogs around Costa Rica and Belize,
nicaragua are mostly.
They're frogs and not toads.
So there's a lot of species inthe poison dart frog family and
they just have this incrediblevocalization about them.
There's a unique call aboutfrogs, and frogs tell me how
(20:02):
healthy the environment is.
I always say sound is thebarometer of the planet.
I also say the health of theriver is the dipper.
If the dipper is present,you've got a healthy river.
But you've got a healthyenvironment if you've got frogs
around and there's an abundanceof frog calls when the rain
(20:25):
season comes.
In Costa Rica the frog chorusis nothing like bird sound.
You know it's not like a dawnor an evening chorus, it's just
unique and frogs chorus so thatthey confuse the predators.
If they're all calling togetherand say you have a predator
(20:46):
like an owl that wants to go andeat some frogs, it can't signal
a man.
You know it can't identify wherethe call's coming from because
it's all over the place.
But once you break into theirhabitat, a frog will stop
calling when the hell's thefrogs gone?
And then a frog will go frog,frog, see if it's okay, and then
(21:08):
he'll say it again, frog, frog.
And then another frog will gosee if it's okay, and then he'll
say it again.
And then another frog will goand the other frog will go and
it's almost like is he gone yet?
I don't know.
Do you think he's still here?
I think so.
Why aren't the others callingbecause they think he's still
(21:29):
here?
I think so.
Why aren't the others callingBecause they think he's still
here?
But I think he's gone now.
Okay, do you want to go first?
I'll go first, okay.
And then everyone startscalling because they know it's
(21:52):
safe.
I mean, how cool is that?
We install alarms and shit.
We install alarms around ourfront.
Amanda Hill (22:00):
You know, nature has frogs yeah, yeah, I love
that they've got frogs.
I want to.
I want to.
This is a quick dive.
Yeah, I love that They've gotfrogs.
I want to.
This is a quick dive intobeliefs.
I want to end with what I thinkis one of my also favourite
sounds, which is the night time.
So tell me what the night?
(22:22):
We spend a lot of time, martin,talking about the dawn chorus,
because that's what we alwaysassociate with so much
incredible life and biodiversity.
But paint the picture for me ofthe.
It's six o'clock and what am Igoing to start to eat?
What's going to put me to sleepin Belize?
Martyn Stewart (22:41):
Well knowing you , probably two glasses of Pinot
Grigio.
Amanda Hill (22:49):
As long as I have some fries with it, then I'm
okay.
Martyn Stewart (22:52):
The thing about Central America the clock, the
sun.
Whether it's spring, summer,autumn, winter, six o'clock is
the end of the day.
The sun you've got short days.
When you're in the NorthernHemisphere, you've got short
days.
When you're in the northernhemisphere you've got 24 hours
light.
(23:13):
If you're up in the Arctic, ifyou're down south in the summer,
you've got the same thing.
If you go into your place,where you are up in Portland,
night times in the summer youcan go up to 10 o'clock when
you've still got light.
But there's no compromise inCentral America.
Six o'clock, okay, let's getthis crowd out now.
(23:37):
And at 10 to 6 you get thecicadas come in and then they
start to intensify their callsand all the insects start to
call.
And once the sun's gone down,the temperature just changes,
fluctuates just that little bit.
(23:57):
So the insect chorus getslouder and then, as it cools
down, it starts to soften outthe common parakeet which will
have that unique call about it,then the owl choruses and then
the frogs.
So through the night you've gotthese guys.
It's like the night watchman.
(24:19):
Oh, oh oh.
Until someone breaks up.
You know, when we talkedearlier on about the blackbird,
my mate that I learnt in theforest.
When the blackbird came in theforest, I knew someone.
I knew someone come in theforest when the blackbird would
make an alarm.
Well, you learn these things,like the critters everywhere you
(24:40):
go.
They all have that same abilityto.
They're telling each otherbasically fucking hell,
something's going on over here,need to shut the fuck up, need
to keep it quiet.
They're telling you thatsomething's strange in their
environment, and not just them,but other animals use those
(25:02):
sounds as a precaution.
They use it for their abilityto ward off any kind of threats
that they find in the night.
Remember, you have a lot ofnocturnal animals that walk in
the forest.
You have, like the jaguar,you've got the cooties, I think
(25:26):
they're called.
They're like the equivalent ofthe raccoon in North America,
and they're looking foreverything, so a frog will sense
that they're present becausethey eat the frogs, although
some of the poison dart frogsare pretty, so there's a clever
thing as well.
They also have different colorsabout them, and the redder they
(25:49):
are, the more poisonous they'regoing to be and then of course
you got snakes.
Amanda Hill (25:54):
You got snakes parading, so do you have sound
recording only?
Martyn Stewart (25:57):
rattlesnakes my because they don't otherwise
make much your brother, your dad, my brother john yeah, when I
was young, locked me in thereptile house with Alan when I
was a kid and frightened theshit out of.
I was always petrified aboutsnakes and, of course, when I
(26:19):
met Ru, we went down toQueensland, australia which
we'll do as another kind ofpodcast and I said are there any
snakes in here?
And she said you're not goingto see any snakes.
And within 10 minutes we're onthe walk.
There's a bloody poison snakecrawled up onto the chair.
Amanda Hill (26:35):
That always happens do you have any favourite?
So if I close this off, if Iwas going to go back to Belize
and finally persuade my scubadiving family to now go into the
mountains or the rainforest,where should I go?
Martyn Stewart (26:58):
Oh, you'd have to go to the Pine Ridge
Mountains, because it's not theplace that anybody would have on
their list.
You'd have to go there andexperience that and, with the
heat and the humidity, whenyou're up in a high altitude
it's cooler and the air isbreathable and it's beautiful.
But it's just a wonderful placeand you've got acres and acres
(27:22):
of land up there to walk freelyand there's no roads.
The only roads are to thelodges and then that's it.
You're just on your own.
Amanda Hill (27:33):
And if you closed your eyes, martin, what are the
sounds that you'd be hearingthat would make you know that
you're now in Belize?
So I haven't let you open youreyes, you've just your eyes have
got to be closed.
What's very specific to Belizefor you?
Martyn Stewart (27:52):
The morning choruses of the melodious
blackbird and the light-colouredthrush.
Amanda Hill (27:59):
OK, let's close with them.
Thank you, Martin.
Martyn Stewart (28:06):
You've just experienced another journey on
the Listening planet podcast.
Dive deeper into the world ofnatural sounds by connecting
with us online.
Visit our website or follow uson social media.
Let the symphony of naturesurround you wherever you go.
Happy listening.
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