The Seasons of Sounds

Those of you who live in locations having four distinct seasons know that certain sounds accompany each season

Some of the sounds are natural being made by animals, insects, birds, and some are man-made. Usually, they arrive suddenly and without warning and just as usual they slowly and unnoticeably fade to nothingness.

This is most apparent with natural sounds. I notice the first blackbird and robin calls of the year, but most every spring I am somewhat surprised they were even absent. I suppose, their arrival is much more of a pleasant event than their disappearance. The frogs are also a spring sound and again their sounds slowly fade into nothingness not being noted. Motorcycles are the only distinct and new man-made sound of this season.

The telltale sound of Harley Davidson motorcycles become apparent. This, for myself, is an unwelcome development. I do not ride motorcycles and the notion of riding a loud bike just does not appeal. I have a few friends that ride BMW motorcycles and that is the ticket. We have Harley riding neighbors but they are considerate about it, they don’t tune their bikes in the morning and do not use their bikes to herald their arrival anymore than the baseline sound level. Of course, one can never go far without hearing the ba-dump ba-dump of someone whose vehicle spends more energy driving woofers than the car itself.

In the summer, there are no new birds, but the sound of children and families laughing and playing in the sunshine is the sound of the season. Boat engines and jet-skis are other sounds I strongly associate with summer. While the natural sounds are well established there are a few others that I associate with summer. The buzzing-whir and rapid chirp of hummingbirds, the peeping sound of ospreys, and the cackling screeches of bald eagles. These are sounds to be had Upnorth.

Late summer and fall the sounds become different. As I note above, it is not necessarily the absence of robins, blackbirds, and frogs I notice, but the arrival of crickets. Starting in mid-August the sounds of crickets are obvious. We’ll be in bed with the windows open and you can hear the crickets. Other insect sounds become noticeable too. As I drive the sounds of the insects in the ditches and fields are nearly monotonic, as if they there is a grand insect orchestra conductor. The tones and pitch of the insect orchestra all seem to rise and fall in a specific rhythm. Stop your car to listen and nothing changes.

The fall has its own sounds. The machine gun like pounding of a startled ruffed grouse as it seeks to put as many trees between itself and the lead bearing down on it. The sound of distant gunshots as hunters try to beat those same grouse. Of course, who misses the honking geese as they fly their < shaped formations. Other sounds of the fall season? The sound of chainsaws and splitting mauls (or power splitters) making wood for the following year.

Winter brings another sound and that is of near silence. The gentle rushing of the wind has its own song, especially when you are in a heavily forested area. The far off whine of snowmobile engines, the steady constant drone of engines and chairlifts is another winter sound that comes to mind. The sound of scraping snowboards is a distinct sound I can imagine quite easily.

There are a few sounds that are season-less. The dee-dee-dee of chickadess (at about 13-15 seconds is the most distinct winter call), the caw-caw-caw of crows, and the deep caw-caw-caw of ravens.

Remember you have multiple senses, use them all.