Sound Escapes - Our Listening Guide

BirdNote^®

Sound Escapes - Our Listening Guide

Written by Mark Bramhill

This is BirdNote.

[WIND ON PRAIRIE]

We’re in Saskatchewan’s Grasslands National Park, just a few miles north of the Canada/US border. Gordon Hempton - a lifelong nature recordist - is our listening guide today:

GH: Prairie areas // are vulnerable to wind. And the presence or absence of wind // shapes the way bird song sounds.

To be heard over the loud winds, birds need to have a wide dynamic range.

GH: So soft then loud, then soft then loud. Very fast. And also frequency modulation. // that means they’re going to be very songful.

But even with these adaptations, their songs are most plentiful when the wind is the calmest:

GH: Very early morning when the light is just beginning to turn a little milky on the eastern horizon // and the stars begin to disappear. The air is the calmest. The opportunity to sing is most efficient and all-prevailing. // As the light begins to get a little bit brighter on the horizon, things really come alive.

[BIRDS AT DAWN]

You’re listening to a sneak preview of Sound Escapes, a special podcast production from BirdNote. You can hear the full half-hour of Grasslands National Park - and other episodes of the show - at our website, BirdNote.org/soundescapes

For BirdNote, I’m Ashley Ahearn.

This show is made possible by Jim and Birte Falconer of Seattle, the Bobolink Foundation, Idie Ulsh, and the Horizons Foundation.

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Bird sounds provided by Gordon Hempton
BirdNote’s theme composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler; Managing Producer: Jason Saul; Editor: Ashley Ahearn; Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone; Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill.
© 2019 Tune In to Nature.org   April 2019   Narrator: Ashley Ahearn
 
ID#  hemptong-SE-Saskatchewan-01-2019-04-19    hemptong-SE-Saskatchewan-01