the use of field recordings was in the avant-garde , musique concrete , experimental and more recently ambient was evident almost from the birth of recording technology. Most note worthy for pioneering the conceptual and theoretical framework with art music that most openly embraced the use of raw sound material and field recordings was Pierre Schaeffer who was developing musique concrete as early as 1940. Field recordings are now common source material for a range of musical results from contemporary musique concrete compositions to film soundtracks and effects.
It has been suggested that birdwatching is a form of expression of the innate need for human connection to the environment. (See also Biophilia hypothesis .)
Ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen considers birdwatching to be an expression of the male hunting instinct. Indeed, most birders, especially those below middle-age, are male; however, one of the top world listers was a woman, Phoebe Snetsinger .
Another intriguing connection has been that of the interest in birds by spies. Several cases of spies who were serious ornithologists exist, including Sidney Dillon Ripley , St. John Philby , and Richard Meinertzhagen .