Living on Bowen Island, we are blessed with wilderness at our doorstep.
Along with forming a background for our daily activities, nature can be a focal point for our mindful awareness. We evolved listening deeply to natural soundscapes for our survival, and doing so today, like a form of meditation, is deeply calming and re-sensitizing.
Listening also connects us to place, and to all our neighbors, including the non-human ones and their stories.
Spring is a time when natural sounds seem even more obvious and diverse, with new sounds of frogs, insects, sea lions, and especially birds. We can enjoy listening for the unique qualities of each sound, to put names and faces to them (apps like Merlin are great for that) and to connect with what these neighbors are up to.
The spring’s first melodic robin song, the metallic zing of the Rufous Hummingbird, and the glimmering song of the Yellow-rumped Warbler announce their arrivals of the season. The thrilling sounds of Trumpeter Swans and Snow Geese overhead on their journey north connect us to the vast land and incredible journeys beyond our island.
Listening to the rich complexity of the dawn chorus can spark a regular listening practice. Then, long after the morning songs fade, and through the winter, the abundant year-round residents like chickadees, towhees, and juncos tell their stories, free for the listening.
A great place to start deeper listening is right near your home. As we move about our day quickly, we can cause our avian neighbours to react to us. However, if you are still for a few minutes, do you notice the songs and companion calls of their calm, baseline activities?
Are there ever sudden changes in sound, for instance, to short, sharper alarm sounds, or perhaps dead silence? And what are these sounds telling a story about? Did a cat walk by, or a falcon swoop past?
These are all clues that can help us understand the language of birds a little more, from spending a few quiet and still minutes listening in the same “sit spot” each day.
Bowen Nature Club is offering a Birding by Ear outing on Saturday, April 26 from 10 am to 12 pm, led by naturalists and musicians Nova Pon and Christiaan Venter. Space is limited, so please sign up now if you’d like to join us by emailing [email protected]
Nature offers a lifetime of fascinating listening, but some sounds are only here for a short time in the spring, so go hear what they have to say.
