December-ways 1864 | Dawn to Noon | Cupola

The Red – Blaze – is the Morning – / The Violet – is Noon -, c. 1863 (Fr602A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, the temperatures in December fluctuated between 0º and 49º F, with an average of just over 30º F. Stratus and nimbus clouds were most often observed, interspersed with cirrus, cumulous, and cumulostratus. The dominant winds came from the NW and W. The first of December was recorded as “Fair,” and fair or fine days fell on Dec. 11, 12 [evening], 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 27, and 28. Of the remaining days, 3 were cloudy (Dec. 2, 3, 13); 8 were foggy or misty, often with high winds (Dec. 5 [high winds], 6 [high winds], 9, 10 [high winds], 17, 24, 25, 26); 6 were days of rain (Dec. 4, 9, 12, 17, 25, 26); and on 6 snow fell (Dec. 8, 9, 14, 19, 20, 29). 

Bird species in the scatterplot for December number about 45, with many now hidden from us.

.

In the Data Firmament, December is the long morning of winter.

The listener listens to the beginning of the season of cold from high in the cupola of the house. Sounds from the ground float up to them; sounds from the sky seem to fall down to them. 

In the pre-dawn hush, the coldest hours of the day, the birdscape still sleeps deep inside the larger wave of the weather. 

:30

The winds waken the birds who have been hunkering in their roosts, some clinging to trees, some sheltering in cavities. The listener hears them leaving their nightly sanctuaries, flying against the elements, then flocking in edge habitats to forage. 

A sense of species no longer clings to them. They come all together: Black-capped Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Red Crossbills, Dark-eyed Juncos.

Their flight calls are brief, erratic, scratchy.

The sound of dead leaves.

:56

A Brown Creeper’s high, wavering song travels far in the cold air.

1:32

A sleigh is traveling at the edge of the world.  

1:52

It is day. And only the sound is the wind’s tracery and a single Blue Jay crossing into January.  

January-soundways 1864 | Afternoon to evening | Edge Habitat

There’s a certain Slant of light, / Winter Afternoons -, c. early 1862 (Fr320A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, the opening days of January were windy, with bursts of cold recorded early in the month (Jan. 2, 3, 7, 8, and 9) and again at its close ( Jan 30, 31). Snow fell or drifted on Jan. 4, 5, and 6; rain, mist, and hail visited on Jan. 15, 18, and 19; and a few days were sunken in clouds: Jan. 8, 17, 20, and 29. Cold days alternated with warmer days of thawing on Jan 24, 25, and 29; and “fine days” unfurled in small stretches: Jan. 3; Jan. 10-14; Jan. 26-28. The thermometer dipped to -1.5º F on Jan. 7, the coldest recorded temperature for the month, then rose to 44.2º F on Jan. 29, the month’s highest recorded temperature. Rain and snow-melt accumulated to just over 2 inches; and 5 inches of new snow fell. Stratus clouds were the most frequent sky-covering, and winds came most often from the NW + W.

Bird species in the scatterplot for January number around 40.

At the break of January, the December snows have stopped but the wind continues.

In the cold, the listener is walking evenly over the snow. Their footfalls pass out of the village.

:13

Bird-sounds—now just brief calls and briefer song-fragments—draw the listener to a clearing where small, furtive flocks forage in the slant afternoon light of the northern winter. Their random tracks are a cartograph in the snow, a star chart for an unknown galaxy of cold.

:28

The listener who has been still in the still world for a long time turns back.

The foragers are falling into silence.

1:23

Winter reduces variables to a minimum. The dusk is a shimmer of violet blue.

The note of a solitary Black-capped Chickadee hitting the night air is the last sound January remembers.

February-soundways 1864 | Night | Dream Forest

The Forests as they froze, c. 1865 (Fr967A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, storms opened the month, and Feb. 2, 3, and 4 were gusty and cold. But on Feb. 5, unexpected fine weather “spoiled” the sleighing, and fine days recurred at regular intervals across the month on Feb. 7, 10, 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 27. Snow fell on Feb. 8, 14, 16, 17 (“severe”), and 26. Rain, too, was intermittent, falling on Feb. 22, 24, and 25. At its nadir, on Feb. 18, the thermometer registered -4.3º F; at its apex on Feb. 26, it rose to 46.8º F. The accumulated rain and snow-melt was noted at just over 1 inch, and 6.5 inches of new snow covered the ground. Stratus clouds were the most frequent sky-covering, and winds came most often from the NW + W. On Feb. 9, the Aurora Borealis manifested in the sky; and on Feb. 15, a halo appeared at Noon.

Bird species in the scatterplot for February number about 44. 

In the Data Firmament, February is the long night of winter. The listener dreams of birds in a forest. 

They are in the spires of the northern hardwoods: white and red pine, mixed oak, elm, ash, red maple, and hickory. Safe in their cold roosts, there is only the sound of the stars sweeping around them.

:12

Now the first night birds test the dark. A parliament of owls—bard owls, short-eared owls, great-horned owls, snowy owls—reigns in the cacophonous dark.

1:00

While their eyes are closed during REM sleep, owls display eye movements and their heads nod slowly, suggesting a state similar to dreaming in humans. 

1:16

Some owls will migrate further north with the opening of the ice. Dreaming the zugunruheof, they will gorge on berries, their internal organs metamorphosing for the journey.

March-soundways | Vernal Equinox | Window

First at the March / Competing with the Wind -, c. 1875 (Fr1383A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, March began and ended with snow. Only 6 fine (“bright,” “clear”) days—March 2, 8, 12, 21, 24, 25—are recorded, while storms—snow, hail, rain—troubled Amherst on March 13 (rain and hail), 20 (snow squalls), 29 and 30 (Nor’easterner). High winds visited on the 9th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 26th, 29th, and 30th of the month. On the coldest day of March, the thermometer fell to -15º F, and freezing weather was reported on March 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 (-10º), 23, and 26. On the warmest day the temperature rose to 53º F. The cumulative rain and snow-melt measured 2.578 inches, and 5 inches of new snow fell. Stratus clouds were most often observed in the sky, along with nimbus, and winds blew most often from the NW + W. On March 10, a halo appeared in the sky. 

Bird species in the scatterplot for March now number over 60.

:00

The earth is a cold and dripping garden and all the world tilts towards the vernal equinox.

The birds that never left are now outnumbered by those returning. 

:10

First the “freeing of the waters” brings a wave of sea-birds. Canada Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, Mergansers, Black-crowned Night Herons all cleaving northward…

:15

Next songbirds pierce the veil of spring: the first Bluebird is noted in the Snell’s 1864 weather record on March 7; the first Robin of the year on March 13. 

:37

Whirlwinds of Phoebes, Meadowlarks, Cowbirds, Rusty Blackbirds, Linnets, and Pine Siskins follow them…

:39

And then whirlwinds of Flickers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows…

1:00

All along the northern corridor the listener hears the sound of new light in trees.

1:23

The sky is falling. Rain and downed birds hit all over the earth.

A singing world torn asunder.

April-soundways | A Door Ajar | Into the Wave

Absent place – an April Day -, c. 1865 (Fr958A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, April opened with rain, which returned on April 2 (“NE weather”), 10, 14, 23 (with lightning), 25, 26, 27, and 29, but fine days were also abundant, falling on April 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16, 21, 24, 29, and 30. Winds blew primarily from the N, NE, and NW—and clouds—stratus most commonly, followed by nimbus—appeared in the skies on April 5, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, and 27, with snow reported on April 10 (mixed with rain and hail), 11, and 12. On the coldest day of the month, April 5, the thermometer fell to just below 32º F; on the warmest day, April 22, it rose to almost 65º F. Together rain and snow-melt measured 2.5 inches, and 5 inches of new snow fell.

On April 7, the Northern Lights appeared in the sky.

Bird species in the scatterplot for April exceed 100.

The listener leans in an open doorway attending to the rain.

:06

A Bobolink cuts the airy way, then passes into Sparrow-billows moving north: Savannah Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, Field Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Swamp Sparrows…

:20

Warblers,  swallows, swifts, and vireos sweep in on new winds.

:57

They are drawing the boundaries of their territories with invisible threads of sound.

1:10

The listener is reading: …an ear better unwinds the simultaneous warblers in a summer birchwood (Ronald Johnson, ARK)

Acousmatic sound, from the Greek “a thing heard,” is an experience of sounds without seeing their originating causes.

1:35

It is a lonesome glee.

Now the Wren, gravid and hidden.

Now the Thrush, high in the canopy.

Now the spectral song of the Ruddy Pigeon, searching for its closest missing kin and sounding its passing and passing out of the world forever.

May-soundways | High Spring | Pelham Hills

The Hills in Purple syllables, c. 1865 (Fr1026A)

The Snell’s meteorological record for May indicates a month of marked fluctuations: while the average temperature was recorded at 60º F, the temperature fell to 40º F and rose 86º F during the month. Frost covered the ground on May 2, but by the sixth of the month it was “hot + clear,” and the note for May 9 reads “Summer day.” All through May constellations of rainy and windy days—May 1 [“rain a.m.”], 3 [“rain a.m., squalls”], 4 [“many clouds”], 7 [“a little rain in the evening”], 8 [“sprinkles a.m., thundershowers p.m.”], 11 [“Lowery”], 12 [“mist 8 am”], 13 [“Lowery. Distant thundershower”], 14 [“Lowery”], 15 [“Lowery; sprinkles, showers”], 16 [“very showery”], 17 [“Thundershowers about”], 18 [“Showers about; sprinkles”], 24 [“Thundershowers”], 26 [“Lowery, sprinkles”], 27 [“Rain AM”]—alternated with constellations of fair days until the end of the month when the fair days came in a wave: May 5 [“Fine day”], 6 [“hot + clear”], 7 [“Pleasant”], 9 [“Summer day”], 12 [Fair evening], 19 [“Fine day”], 22 [“Fine, cool day”], 23 [“Fine day”], 25 [“PM Fair”], 28 [“Fine AM”], 29 [AM clear”], 30 [“Fine day”]. Atmospheric symptoms associated with hotter temperatures also appeared across May. On May 10, a recorder noted “smoke, distant lightning NW”; on May 20, the same recorder made the note “Smoky, hazy”; and the final day of May was recorded as “Hot, clear.” All month long, South and South-east winds swept through Amherst and greater New England.

In the scatterplot for May, the bird species count reaches over 150—the highest number in the yearly cycle.

.00

The listener has come down from the height of the Pelham Hills into the Valley, now an echo-chamber of wild birds sounding their continuous, ecstatic carol.

In the first “fine days” of May a wave of Warblers streams into the Northern Hemisphere: Black-and-white Warblers, Golden-winged Warblers, Tennessee Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Parula Warblers, Cerulean Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Yellow-rumped Myrtle Warblers, Black-throated Green Warblers, Blackburnian Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Bay-breasted Warblers, Blackpoll Warblers, Pine Warblers, Prairie Warblers, and Palm Warblers.

:06

And even before the bright wave of Warblers has subsided, a second current of May birds flows among them: Flycatchers, Swallows, Thrushes of all kinds, Orioles, Grosbeaks, Buntings, Scarlet Tanagers, Redstarts, Pewees, Rails, Sandpipers, and Plovers…

:29

May is an ambush of birds.

An inundation.

:50

Beneath it the subsong of nesting, the mystery of refuge, is barely beginning its flutter.

1:31

In the last fine days of the month, the planet passes under the primeval song of the hermit thrush.

June-soundways | Nest & Egg | Bird-Blind

I showed her Secrets – Morning’s Nest -, c. 1862 (Fr346A)

According to the Snell meteorological record, in June 1864 the temperatures averaged in the mid-to-high 60s, but rose briefly into the 90s. And while the first half of the month was dominated by fair days with occasional showers on June 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 12, the second half of the month was hotter, with many days marked as dry, dusty, smoky. The end of the month was afflicted by severe drought. While the largest number of days—June 3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30—were quiet, with no perceptible weather sounds, a cold wind on June 10 was followed by frost the next day, and wind, this time a drought wind, came again on June 27. Stratus clouds were most often in the skies above.

Bird species in the scatterplot for June number just over 100, with losses of almost a third from May’s high count.

:00

At the opening of June, the listener has taken their place in a bird-blind deep in the wood and the pitch of the dawn song.

In the semi-dark, they can already hear Robins and Thrushes. At first light, others join them: Warblers, Sparrows, Finches, Bluebirds, Chickadees, Orioles, Flycatchers, Tanagers, Swallows, Grosbeaks, Phoebes, Cuckoos, Catbirds, Swifts, Buntings, Veeries, Bobolinks…

:20

On the way to the longest day of the year birds keep on their nests, protecting their eggs or feeding their young.

The soundscape of aeries is a tensile net of knots and aperatures.

:27

In the blind the listener listens beside a nest of Wrens. Their begging sounds hiss in the ear.

1:16

Something that is not one of them has entered the wood.

An axe rings out in cradle world. Alarm now rocks it.

July-soundways | Afternoon | Molt

Or Nature – spending with Herself / Sequestered Afternoon -, c. early 1865 (Fr935B)

The Snell record reveals a meteorologically quiet July. Quiet settled into twenty-six of the month’s thirty days: July 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Of the remaining days, rain broke the silence, first on July 2 and 6, when it fell lightly and intermittently, next on July 10, when it took the form of a violent thunderstorm from the north, and finally on July 24, when rain fell all day long. Stratus clouds dominated the skies, and the most often referenced atmospheric condition was dry, hot, smoky skies. July 22 was so arid and smoky that the mountains disappeared from view. While the average temperature for the month was 71.5º F, the thermometer rose to 91.9º F, and the month ended with all living things subjected to parching drought.

Bird species in the July scatterplot number just under 100.

Now we enter the space just after high summer when the sonic extroversion of spring and early summer is replaced by an inhabited hush. It is not that the birds have departed—they remain all around us—but rather that they have withdrawn into the interior time of the molting season. Their feathers, ravaged from the effects of wind and rain and long bleaching in the sun, must fall away, leaving their wings marred by gaps, their powers of flight impaired. In the period of the molt, summer’s wild songbirds—sparrows, warblers, thrushes among them—wander away from their defended nesting territory and stop singing; sensing their new vulnerability to predators, they go to ground, concealing themselves in the vegetation and only furtively calling. The molt is a period of mending, but for now the fullness of restoration is uncertain.

:00

The listener is bedded down in a depression in the forest floor, the abandoned sleeping site of another animal since passed on. They barely stir but enjoy an interval of solitude, the flow of a destinate existence, in currency with winds, birds, thoughts…

:15

Out of the hum of insects—cicadas, crickets, katydids, bees, beetles, mosquitoes—July first offers, they have learned to pick out the invisible sounds of the molting birds: Wood Thrushes, House Wrens, Chipping Sparrows, Gray Cat-birds, American Goldfinches, Veeries.

:30

And behind these sounds, still others: American Bitterns, Least Bitterns, Ruffed Grouses, Bob-whites, all the Rails, Woodcocks, Upland Plovers, Spotted Sandpipers, Mourning Doves, Cuckoos, Whip-poor-wills, Nighthawks, Flickers, Kingbirds, Flycatchers, Swallows, Blue Jays…

:70

From their hollow in the ground, the listener gives shapes to the flickerings of shadows: is it the Great Blue Heron who has crossed July’s threshold with the Glossy Ibis, the Purple Martin, the Peregrine Falcon, the Louisiana Waterthrush, the Downy Woodpecker?

1:52

The sun is below the horizon; in the lower atmosphere of the falling Earth the Wood Pewee’s song disperses the remaining afternoon light.

August-soundways | Evening | Harvest

The mower is tuning his scythe, c. about 1884 (Fr1649n)

According to the Snell meteorological record, in August the median temperature was 70.8º F, with a low of 54.8º F and a high of 98º F. Stratus clouds frequently covered the sky, altering occasionally with cumulostratus and nimbus. A little over four inches of rain fell, and winds, though light, often changed direction—NW + N 28; SW + S 19; SE + E 39; NE + N 14. The quiet weather of June and July extended into August, with the Snell’s record reporting 22 days—Aug. 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31—without perceptible meteorological sounds. Of the remaining days, five were marked by curtains of light rain—Aug. 5, 6, 17, 22, 27—and the remaining three—Aug. 1, 3, 7—by thunderstorms. On August 9, the record noted, “Sun visible, but no shadows, noon,” and throughout August the weather is often described as fair but smoky.

Bird species in the scatterplot for August number about 108, with new arrivals of rare or irregular birds making the August numbers rise slightly above those for July…

In between the storms, in stretches of fine weather, a green and silver ambush of Veeries, Wood Thrushes, and Cuckoos.

:16

Bobolinks, Black-and-White Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireos, Henslow’s Sparrows, Hummingbirds, King Rails, Terns, Upland and Solitary Sandpipers still sound in the settling of August’s ever-expanding quiet.

:35

Now out of the south come Blue Herons and King Rails; now out of the north a few Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Plovers, and Terns…

They cross without touching each others’ flight- and song-paths.

1:05

Across acres and days is the sound of the scythe…

1:12

The listener is at their desk. Their pen is crossing the paper. The yellow fields will soon lie fallow again.

1:34

Night comes on with dark flocks of hawks—Northern Harriers, Cooper’s Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, Marsh Hawks, Nighthawks—spiraling their return to the high trees.

September-soundways | Fall Morning | The Swell of the Migration

Autumn begins to be inferred, date unknown (Fr1693[A])

According to the Snell meteorological record the median temperature in September was 57.8º F, with the thermometer rising as high as 80º F and falling to a low of 41º F, occasioning a brief frost. Rain and snow-melt totaled just over 2.5 inches. Stratus clouds were abundant, alternating with stratocumulous and nimbus, and, rarely, with cumulous, cirrus, and cirrocumulous clouds. Winds from the NW and W prevailed, though winds from all directions swept through September. Fine days—Sept. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28—were interspersed with days of rain—Sept. 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 18, 24, 29, 30 (“cleared at evening”). On Sept. 8 a rainbow stretched across the sky; and on Sept. 20 a bright aurora arch appeared in the sky.

Bird species in September’s scatterplot exceed 100.

:00

September is woven on the shuttles of Amherst’s silk looms and the murmuring of cicadas, katydids, crickets, grasshoppers.

:15

The listener listens to a procession of departures.

First the diurnal migrants: Sharp-shinned Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Marsh Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Merlins, Peregrine Falcons, Osprey, and Crows.

:31

And next the shorebirds: Green and Black-crowned Night Herons, American Wigeons, Shoveler Ducks, Terns, Wood Ducks, Green-winged Teals, Sandpipers, and Yellowlegs.

:35

In the din it is necessary to attend closely to hear the Warblers beginning their exodus down the latitudes.

:40

And to hear the songbirds furtively departing from the understory.

:46

In the up- and down-drafts of the fall-ing world, four birds sound briefly: the Whip-poor-will, the Bobolink, the Hummingbird, and the House Wren, who sings last and longest.

1:12

The listener is trying to decipher a sound on the horizon.

W. H. Audubon said it was a “torrent” and “a noise like thunder” or “the creaking of a tree”.

No one remembers it now.

1:46

The listener keeps listening to a sound made by a bird passing out of the world a century ago, flying at a speed of 100 km/hr.

October-soundways | The Month of Sparrows | Night Migration & Fall Out

She staked Her Feathers – Gained an Arc -, c. 1864 (Fr853A)

The Snell’s meteorological record tells us that in October the median temperature was 46.4º F, with the thermometer rising to a high of 68.7º F and falling to a low of 28.5º F. Rain and snow-melt totaled almost 3 inches. Stratus clouds were abundant, followed in number by nimbus, and, rarely, by cumulostratus and cirrus clouds. Winds from the NW and W prevailed across the month. Fine days (Oct. 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 18, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29) alternated with days of clouds (Oct. 1, 4, 12, 16, 19 29), mist or rain (Oct. 2, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 27, 28, 30), and high winds (Oct. 3, 6, 14, 15, 17, 20 [“rough day”], 23, 30).

Bird species in October’s scatterplot number around 100.

:00

Still in the semi-darkness the listener watches the eastern sky.

The Snow Geese are moving high above the world, drawing it northward. They cross together with other new arrivals: Black Ducks, Gadwalls, Hooded Mergansers, Saw-whet Owls…

:10

In the opposite direction, drawing the world southward, come near-infinite numbers of songbirds: Mourning Doves, Blue-birds and Blackbirds, Phoebes, Warblers—and so many Sparrows: Lincoln’s Sparrows and Henslow’s Sparrows, Song Sparrows and Savannah Sparrows, Field, Fox, and House Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows….

The listener is hearing the words of Matt. 10:28-29 in their head.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Let us make this month a remembrance to sparrows.

:38

In the failing light of early evening the birds that the Father counted amass in vast airy formations.

They will fly in formation for 200 miles in a night, then another 2,000 along the migration corridor.

Some birds will ride on the backs of others.

1:00

Rough weather drives them south in large movements.

There are fall-outs—a pelting of birds down, down into rank, weedy fields; their last songs ascending from the old, old chthonic earth.

1:18

A Hermit Thrush.

A Winter Wren.

A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home –

1:35

Quiet again. And the only sound the everlasting sound of air moving and moving the night migrants in circles around the world.

November-soundways | Quiet | Irregular Visitors

’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s / Deep Pillow – to have shared -, c. 1864 (Fr764A)

In November 1864 the Snell meteorological record reports a median temperature of 38º F, with the thermometer rising to a high of 62º F and falling to a low of 10.8º F. Rain and snow-melt totaled just over 6 inches; and 9 inches of new snow fell. Stratus clouds were abundant, along with large numbers of nimbus clouds and occasional fog. Winds from the NW and W prevailed across the month, though SW and S winds also visited. November opened with three fine, cold days (Nov. 1, 2, 3), followed by a day of rain (Nov. 4), and another of snow and wind (Nov. 5). After the rhythmic alternating of fine and rainy days between Nov. 6 and Nov. 10, clouds on Nov. 11 and wind on Nov. 12 presaged a violent snowstorm on Nov. 13, followed by two more days of drifting snow.

Bird species in November’s scatterplot number under 70.

Now winter is almost upon the world: the canopy is bare, grasses are withering, and daily the sounds of birds grow fewer.

By day, the fragmentary notes of a few songbirds—Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Meadowlarks, Pine Grosbeaks, Redpolls, and Sparrows—scatter the air between billows of quiet.

:37

By night, on Northwest winds, the silent migration of waterfowl navigating by the light of the moon and stars continues, though now diminished.

1:35

The world is winds only and the echoing wail of a Common Loon, gavia immer…

Under its spell, the writer draws their pen across the long opening of the cold.

They are moving far out on a line of verse, almost alone.