[LAU] best mic(s) for environmenal recording?

This is a bit off topic for this list, but I thought I'd try (all my recording gear is 96khz/24 bit & Linux based, does that help?) I am selling my house deep in the santa cruz mountains, and I think the things I'm going to miss most is the birdsong and other sounds of the wilderness around me. So, I keep thinking, I should pick up a good mic soon (stereo mic, or matched pair) - either buy, borrow, or rent for a few days - and record it all, so I can recreate the ambiance and memories of this place one day in the future. Recordings done outside over the years with my available mics - SM-57, SM-58, an AT tube mic, etc - have all generally been kind of hissy and not up to the quality of other environmental recordings I've heard. Maybe that's also a factor of the pre-amps I've used, or inadaquate screening for wind. I have daydreams about somehow making this into a high-resolution surround sound mix, or doing an enormous recording (from dawn til dusk, from dusk til dawn) But I'm WAAAY out of my depth here as to how to get the best recording of the outdoors. -- Mike Taht PostCards From the Bleeding Edge http://the-edge.blogspot.com