Skylarks of Skyrim

By popular demand, now available in ESP-FE.

"Solitude's famous for its Bards College. Worth a visit if you've never been. Some of them can sing just as pretty as a lark." - various carriage drivers.

How would they know? Have they ever even heard a lark?

This mod uses the amazing Sound Record Distributor (SRD) to add skylarks to the tundra around Whiterun and the rocky landscapes of the Reach. You'll hear them, from time to time, on clear or cloudy days. (Audio only. You won't see them, or find their nests.)

I did suggest skylarks to the author of Murder of Songbirds (excellent mod, highly recommended), but they haven't been added to that yet, so I've taken the matter into my own hands. If they do get added there, I'll probably remove this mod from my load order.

Recordings are taken from Xeno-canto, specifically https://xeno-canto.org/812079 and https://xeno-canto.org/812082. Both recorded in Pembrokeshire, Wales by Paul Driver, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4. 0 International.

Compatibility:

Should be compatible with everything. If SRD works in your game, then this mod will work right alongside everything else. Load order is not important, as nothing is overwritten or modified.

Installation:

I recommend Mod Organizer 2, but any other method should work fine. Safe to install or uninstall mid-save.

Further plans:

None: unless I become aware of bugs, or someone tells me a better way to do this, there will be no more versions. I have no ambition to compete with Clofas.

Light plugin?

Yes. Well, probably.

The new version (1. 1) is flagged as Light. My system thinks it's Light. I don't entirely trust it myself, but it seems to work. If that doesn't work for you, feel free to grab version 1. 0 (still available), which is identical except without the 'Light' flag.

Known issues

It turns out that the sound region for "Whiterun tundra" is huge, it extends right up to Dragon Bridge and around Katla's Farm and the Solitude Sawmill. I think there are too many trees in that area to be hospitable to skylarks. Please comment whether you think that's an issue worth trying to fix, my instinct is to leave it alone if I'm the only one who cares.

Because the sound sample is quite long, it can continue playing after you've entered a building or whatever. I don't know how to fix that.