Virtual Vacation

A trip to the Yucatan need not sap everyone's work ethic, as amply demonstrated by this week's contributor, Martyn Stewart, moderator of the Nature Recordists mailing list. He writes, 'I recorded these insects and frogs at dusk at El Cuyo near Rio Lagartos, in the Mexican Yucatan. With its subtropical forest and mangroves it's a great habitat for flamingos, for which it's famous. I was more interested in documenting the state of the biophony there after the hurricane (Wilma); some areas of the Yucatan were totally devastated. Many birds were killed and a lot of farmland and pasture was under water for months afterwards. My recordings will be used to form a baseline for future catastrophes. Recorded onto a Sound Devices 744 recorder using Sennheiser MKH-30/40 mics in an MS pattern.'