155: Blustery Autumn Afternoon Beside Frozen Medicine Lake

155: Blustery Autumn Afternoon Beside Frozen Medicine Lake

Author: Sound By Nature December 7, 2023 Duration: 1:01:40

This was recorded on a cold and windy late autumn day at the edge of Medicine Lake in Modoc National Forest, Siskiyou County, California.

At the location beside the lake where this was recorded, shards of ice that looked like broken plate glass were piled up along the shore. This occurred sometime in the days prior, when the lake had frozen over and the thin ice was broken up by wind and blown across the surface of the lake to its edge, where it accumulated into a long pile which stretched for several hundred feet along the shoreline. As the biting wind blew unobstructed across the frozen lake, it caused the icy surface to flex and move, making an abundance of cracking, crunching, creaking, crackling, snapping, and popping sounds in the piled ice shards at the lakes edge, as well as the sound of water moving and gurgling just beneath the ice.

I made this recording using the wind protection I recently made for my Wildtronics SAAM microphone. The mic was directly in the path of the strong and gusty wind, and without the wind protection the recording would have been ruined by wind noise overwhelming the mic. The materials I used to make the wind protection were paid for in part with contributions from listeners, to whom I am extremely grateful. Thank you!

If you are interested in supporting me by making a contribution, you can do so by clicking the following links or the link at the end of this podcast description-

⁠⁠https://soundbynaturepodcast.com/donations/⁠⁠

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Thanks to everybody that has rated the show, and especially those of you that have written a review on Apple Podcasts. Your kind words mean a lot, thank you!!

If you'd like to see pictures of the area this was recorded, check out the Instagram or Facebook page for the podcast, you can find either of them by searching @soundbynaturepodcast.

If you have questions or comments email me at soundbynaturepodcast@gmail.com

Please do something today, and everyday, that helps preserve nature for current and future generations. Thank you very much for listening. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sound.


Sometimes the most profound moments come from simply listening to the world outside our windows. Sound By Nature is an invitation to pause and immerse yourself in the authentic acoustics of the natural world, curated into thoughtful audio experiences. Each episode is a dedicated soundscape, free from narration or music, capturing everything from the gentle patter of rain in an old-growth forest to the distant crash of ocean waves at dusk. It’s a resource for recentering, whether you need a backdrop for deep work, a tool for meditation, or a gentle path into restful sleep. This podcast draws from the fields of acoustic ecology and environmental science, presenting these recordings not just as ambient noise, but as a connection to the intricate and often overlooked sound environments that surround us. Tune in, put on your headphones, and let the raw, unedited symphony of the planet provide a much-needed respite from the clutter of daily life.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Sound By Nature
Podcast Episodes
Bonus! Visitors In The Night At Russian Lake [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:38
This was compiled from parts of the overnight recording I made tree ears style on a Mountain Hemlock tree standing near Russian Lake in the Russian Wilderness on a very warm summer night in mid July. The first part of th…
169: Russian Wilderness- Tree Ears- Nightfall Beside Russian Lake [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:59
This was recorded on a partly cloudy and warm summer evening beside Russian Lake in the Russian Wilderness, Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. The wind was calm and the lake was still as frogs sang in…
168: Russian Wilderness- Tree Ears- South Russian Creek [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:33:00
This was recorded on a partly cloudy and hot summer afternoon beside South Russian Creek in the Russian Wilderness, Klamath National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. I made this recording tree ears style on a Mountai…
167: Nighthawks Over Chimney Crater Lava Flow [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:44:04
This was recorded early on the morning after summer solstice on the Chimney Crater lava flow in the Medicine Lake Highlands in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. Numerous Common Nighthawks were…
166: Tree Ears- Beside The North Fork Of The Sacramento River [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:47:00
This was recorded beside the North Fork of the Sacramento River on a partly cloudy and warm afternoon in late spring in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. It was made using the tree ears recordi…
Bonus! Lone Coyote Howling In The Night [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:47
This was recorded the night prior to the previous episode. I set up two drop rigs on either side of a large meadow the evening before, one of them was a tree ears set up on a Lodgepole Pine and the other was my SAAM mic…
165: Beneath Aspens At Meadows Edge [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:00
This was recorded on a mostly cloudy morning under Quaking Aspen trees at the edge of a meadow in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. Kelly Rafuse (@soundbynaturepodcast) • Instagram photos and v…
164: Peaceful Night In The Forest [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:12:06
This was recorded on a quiet spring night in a Ponderosa Pine dominant forest in the McCloud flats area of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Siskiyou County, California. The night started of breezy, then gradually became c…
163: Gold Bluffs Beach- At The Edge Of The Beach And Forest [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:00:00
This was recorded on cloudy night on the margin between the beach and the forest at Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. The wind, blowing offshore, picked up for a short t…
162: Gold Bluffs Beach- Low Tide in the Intertidal Zone [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:50:58
This was recorded in early spring on a mostly cloudy morning at Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County, California. The wind was light and the ocean surface glassy, and I placed the micro…