Every year I bring the recorder out listen to some of the other-than-human animals in our shared spaces. I then come home, dreamily relisten to the recordings and then set them up as a show. Why would I broadcast an hour of other animals making noise? Well, that’s a long story which if you have listened to the show before you probably know already.
The other-than-human world is alive and breathing. They sing and mate and eat and die, just like us. We honour all the varied stages of our human lives through words and song, of which we record, archive, teach and celebrate, so why not them? Sure we use our languages to speak to their lives, but wouldn’t it be nice to allow them to sing their own songs and for us to pay attention as we would our own? I certainly think so.
There is a beautiful mystery within these recordings. I don’t stick around when I record them, but I bring them home and listen and it’s all a surprise. What made that Robin (Turdus migratorius) alarm? Who was wading in the river near by to make the sounds of rippling currents? Why do some of the Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) suddenly stop singing? Who may have been hunting in the dark just out of sight? It’s a beautiful chance to hold the land a little longer, to investigate a little deeper and to hopefully know a little more intimately, year after year.
If you would like to hear the recordings from last year, you can listen here.