(This record was made on August 14, 2022, during a recording session at Mingchi, Yilan county)

On the day of our arrival at Mingchi, we first participated in a guided tour of the ancient trees. Since it was a restricted area, we could only take photos and listen to the sounds of cicadas and birds. Although the loudest sounds came from the tour guide's microphone and the voices of the visitors.

That evening, we stayed at the Visitor Center. Before that, we checked out nearby locations suitable for recording. Walking upwards from the cabin area, I found a trail that led higher up from the highest point of the cabins. As we gradually moved away from the accommodation and human-made noise, I chose a spot where the sound of flowing water and human interference were minimal. Unfortunately, during the site inspection, I didn’t bring the recording equipment. When I returned after dinner, it was already dark, and even using a headlamp still made it hard to locate the spot I had initially chosen. In the end, I just found a nearby spot. The microphone was set up further away, which might affect the stereo effect (but luckily, after listening to the recording later at home, it wasn’t much of a problem).

After setting everything up, I went back to the cabin to rest, and also assembled the microphone and windscreen to save time, so that I wouldn't be rushed the next day.

The next day, I was woken up by the alarm at 2:50 AM, and we set off around 3:15 AM to find a recording location. Initially, we walked downwards, but the low-frequency noise from the air conditioning in the accommodation area was too loud, so we had to turn back. On the upper level of the accommodation area, we heard a bird calling in the middle of the night, so I quickly set up the recording equipment. The bird call lasted only a few seconds before we heard a barking muntjac deer call, and it wasn’t far away (later, I thought maybe the muntjac deer came out at night to forage and discovered us, and its call was to drive us away or warn others). The barking muntjac deer called for almost three minutes, and based on the volume, it seemed to be gradually moving away from us.

After recording the barking muntjac deer, we continued to walk upwards. We returned to the trailhead we had found the previous afternoon. I turned on the headlamp and began walking upwards, but it was so dark that I could barely see more than one meter ahead. If I had been alone, I would have been too scared to continue. We walked to a point about 5 minutes away from where we had set up the recording equipment the day before and set up the recorder again. After testing the recording for 10 minutes, I thought it was fine, so I left it recording and we walked back to the trailhead to look at the stars and rest.

Around 4:30 AM, four people with flashlights came up from the accommodation area. When I asked, they said they were looking for animals. They kept chatting as they walked, and I was really worried it would disturb my recording. Fortunately, they only searched around the cabin area and left by 5:00 AM.

From 5:10 AM to 5:20 AM, the sky began to lighten, and a white-eared sibia started calling. Shortly after, the dawn chorus began, and it was a special experience to hear and record it for the first time.

By around 6:30 AM, I collected the equipment and returned to the accommodation area. This time, I learned from previous experiences that natural sounds without interference could only be recorded during times when human activity was minimal. However, there was still occasional airplane noise in Mingchi. The total recording time was about 12 hours, but the continuous, interference-free segments amounted to less than 20 minutes.

(這篇是2022年8月14日於宜蘭明池錄音的紀錄)

抵達明池的當天先參加了神木導覽，因為是管制區，只有拍拍照、聽聽蟬鳴鳥叫，雖然導覽人員的擴音器和遊客的講話聲最大聲

當晚住在遊客中心，在那之前先勘查了附近適合的錄音地點，沿著小木屋區往上走發現有一條步道從小木屋區的最高處再往上，等漸漸遠離住宿及人為噪音時，選了個週遭流水聲和人為干擾不明顯的位置。可惜勘查時沒有順便帶著錄音設備，晚飯後再過來的時候天色已暗，使用頭燈仍難以找到原先決定好的位置，最後只有隨便找個湊合的地方，麥克風離的比較遠怕會影響到立體聲效果(還好事後聽了錄音並無太大問題)

設置好後就回小木屋休息，順便把麥克風和防風罩組裝好，節省時間，隔天才不會手忙腳亂。

隔天凌晨2:50被設好的鬧鐘震動叫醒，約03:15出發尋找錄音點。一開始先往下走，但住宿區的空調低頻噪音太大，只好往回走...在我們住的地點上一層區域，聽到一隻鳥在半夜裡叫，馬上架起錄音器材，剛開始錄鳥叫聲沒幾秒，聽到山羌的叫聲，而且距離不遠(後來想想可能是牠半夜出來覓食發現我們，叫聲是為了趕走我們或者是警告同伴)，山羌總共叫了將近3分鐘，以音量來看應該是慢慢遠離我們

錄完山羌，繼續往上走，回到前一天下午找到的步道入口，開啟頭燈往上走，但天氣實在太黑，視野只能勉強看到前方1公尺，如果是我一個人早就怕到不敢再往前走了，走到了步道離前一天設置錄音設備的地點前大約5分鐘路程不到的地方架好錄音機，先試錄了10分鐘覺得應該沒問題後就開著錄，然後我們就走回到步道入口處看看星星和休息

大概到了4:30左右，突然來了4個人提著走電筒從下面的住宿區走上來，問了一下他們說是要來找動物，邊走還邊聊天，實在很擔心破壞了我的錄音，還好他們只有在木屋區附近找來找去，不到5:00就回去了

5:10-5:20開始天色漸亮，從一隻白耳畫眉開始鳴叫，不久後就是清晨的鳥叫聲(dawn chorus)時間，第一次錄到/現場聽的經驗還滿奇妙的。

大約6:30就把設備回收走回住宿區，這次的錄音算是有吸取之前的經驗，在人類活動時間以外的時段才能錄到無干擾的自然聲音，只是明池還是有飛機不時的噪音。總共錄了約12小時，不過截取出連續無干擾的片段其實不到20分鐘

Recording Notes of Mingchi