Friday, April 24, 2015

A Vocal Spring

Version française

Ten days ago we were under snow.   Now many of the flowering plants that bloggers from warmer climates have been describing in the last month have rushed into bloom here too. However,  if blooms are important markers of the changing seasons, here and at this time of the year, they are not the most obvious.





As many of you know, the house and garden here are in a relatively remote and scarcely populated area, next to a Canadian national park, in the middle of woods and meadows. There are very few human beings around. Working in the garden these days, you can admire daffodils and tulips, but what is most noticeable are not the blooms, but rather the sounds, especially bird calls all around us.

Spring being the season of love, you hear a lot of bird mating calls. All through the day, the wild turkeys are very vociferous, at least until they have laid their egg.  Then they become very discreet. Recently I saw one perched in a tree outside the front door.   It took off in an explosion of wings hitting tree branches. Here is a poor picture of one foraging by the house a few years ago.







Most days are punctuated by their gobbles in the distance.

In the daytime, the loudest call we hear is that of the Sandhill crane.  They happen to be our largest bird. I apologize for the quality of the picture. This one, taken from a window a few weeks ago, shows you how well camouflaged they are.


They actually have a very noisy call.


I haven't heard the male grouse drumming yet, but it is only a matter of days. Some of you will remember that one of them crashed through a window last fall.


The drumming sound can be heard from quite a distance.


To round it all off, you add the "booming" of the bittern. The volume is very low, but, like the grouse's drumming, you hear the low sound from far away.


When it comes to sound volume, the winner is Spring Peeper, a tiny little frog that packs in the decibels. Individual males call at an amplitude of between 80.2-92.4dB (a Boeing 737 or DC-9 aircraft at one nautical mile (6080 ft) produces 90 dB).


 Their chorus starts just as the sun is setting, and it goes on through much of the night.


As you see (or hear), at Roche Fleurie, at this time of the year sounds are as good an indicator of spring as blooms!

28 comments:

  1. Our little tree peepers are just starting up, too.
    All the birds at our feeders keep up a comfortable chatter; often the tree is quite full of birds waiting a turn. But if a hawk sails over the chatter ceases at once and the sound is of rushing wings in the air. I think the mourning doves keep the best watch for hawks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is amazing how everyone suddenly disappears and second later you see a hawk sailing over. You describe it very well.

      Delete
  2. Bitterns are quite rare here and people travel all over to try and spot one. Our chorus is mainly robins, blackbirds, dunnocks and wrens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bitterns are rare here too. However we are surrounded with marshes and swamps, their habitat.

      Delete
  3. Spring peepers must be loud !
    It looks like Spring is really blooming now.
    Enjoy !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are loud but I cheated a bit - the Peepers produce 80 decibels (measured right by the frog) the plane produces 90 dB but from a distance of a 1000 feet if I remember well. Still, it is loud.

      Delete
  4. I know exactly what you mean, our birds wake me up at 4am this time of year, I try to get back to sleep, but I'm not always successful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are not yet there but we will in a few weeks when days start very early.

      Delete
  5. It all sounds amazing! You just can't beat the calls of the birds at this time of the year. Oh my....wild turkeys and cranes, I am envious, and that is a marvelous frog too!!! A fascinating post.xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is so many birds because we are in a remote area - no industry, no agriculture except grazing cows and hay making..

      Delete
  6. The Spring Peeper makes a lovely sound, it reminds me of holidays in the tropics.
    I remember your description of the whip-poor-will on my blog last summer. That had me in stitches. You guys, possibly less so I would think..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fortunately the whip-poor-will are not yet back. In fact we get used to them and we do not hear them anymore. It is visitors who are very eager to hear them (they are rare) but change their mind about them once they have been waken up for or five times in one night!

      Delete
  7. Early spring sounds wonderful in your neck of the woods. I can picture sitting in the sun listening to a chorus of nature all around... quite a contrast to the street noise we get here. The turkeys don't seem at all like what I'd think they would, all that noise from a bird I normally only see disappearing into the brush. What a surprise!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for leaving a comment.
      In fact we only hear the turkeys at this time of the year. It must be a mating call we hear. In a few weeks you won't hear them anymore. The cranes we hear all year round and the grouses started drumming yesterday.

      Delete
  8. Yes! We heard the spring peepers last night when we were driving to our cottage in central Wisconsin. I thought it was too cold for them (hovering near 32F for a low), but they seemed OK with the chill. Seems we have similar wildlife in our locations. Your descriptions of the sounds and behaviors are spot-on, and the recordings are fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am also surprised how the cold does not seem to affect them much. The last few nights have also been just below freezing and you could hear them (not as many as when it is warmer though).

      Delete
  9. You really live on a great spot far away from the madding crowd, wonderful! O yes, here we have enough birds too and I love their early morning sounds, but no Spring Peepers, what an amazing noise they make.Of all these birds in our surroundings I only see sometimes a bittern, but even these birds are rare here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know how bitterns are almost impossible to see. Last summer one stayed on the shoulder of a stretch of road for several days. It would look at cars driving byand would not try to hide. Something was wrong with it. I thought its mate might have been killed on the road and it was waiting for it. I have seem ducks do that.

      Delete
  10. Hello Alain, with all that racket - especially from the frogs - it's a wonder you manage to get any sleep at night! Did you install triple glazing to keep your sanity?

    ReplyDelete
  11. We have a couple of very loud Jays around at the moment which are very distinctive with their screeching cry although these have been making all sorts of weird and wonderful warbling noises as well, perhaps in an effort to attract a mate. It doesn't surprise me that the birds with the deeper calls can be heard from a distance, low frequency sound is very difficult to attenuate unlike high frequency which is relatively easy. I was involved with sound engineering at one time and we had a test house set up to test the attenuation values of different materials. The testing was usually done first thing in the morning (6.00 am.) and we were puzzled by a very low frequency rumble that showed up on the noise meter until we realized it was actually the vibration from the traffic on the motorway about a quarter of a mile away, needless to say we then started to test in the middle of the night until it could be quantified.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our Spring dawn chorus sound quite loud but nothing like yours. What wonderful creatures you have. The way your garden rushes on from snow to daffodils and tulips amazes me.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love the sounds of spring. Regardless of what the plants are doing, spring peepers tell me the weather is finally making a turn for the better. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's a noisy time Alain! You are extremely lucky to 'hear' such wonderful sounds knowing that these wonderful creatures are not too far away.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love the sounds of spring, Alain as well. Here are many robins making their nests. Your daffodils and tulips are very pretty, your garden is ahead of mine, as we had two cold weeks and cold winds.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We have Common Cranes on our fields as well! They can be loud, but their sound is very special. And on morning hours you can see them dancing sometimes to each other. Very big and elegant birds!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Love this post, Alain! What a peculiar sound these frogs make. Ours are in a very talkative mood too (not at this moment, think they've worn themselves out last night!) but unlike most people I really enjoy listening to them. Plenty of birds here as well, the golden oriole being one of my favourites as it reminds me of Africa. Do the turkeys cause any problems in your garden? Your descriptions of where you live sound very inviting to me. Must be a bit like our place, maybe even more isolated. How lucky you are to be able to live in such an unspoilt place. Maybe you'd like to share some pics of the wider landscape some day. Any crickets yet? They've started to 'sing' recently, sure sign that summer is on its way. Hope no more snow for you, fingers crossed :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Spring is my time of year. Where your house is situated sounds like paradise.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The most exotic bird nesting in or near my garden is a robin! But I know what you mean about birds marking the change in seasons. I awake to bird calls. I love the company of birds as I garden. We occasionally see grey long neck cranes. Wish we had a wild turkeys nesting nearby! That would be neat.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment