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 snowmelt totalled almost 3 inches. Stratus clouds were abundant, followed in number by nimbus clouds, and, rarely, 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.” 

They think: Let us make this month a remembrance to sparrows.

:20

In the day’s failing light the birds that the Father counted amass in vast airy formations in which some will fly 200 miles in a night, then 2,000 along the migration route with some riding 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; the torn-apart melodies of their deaths ascending from the old, chthonic earth.

1:18

The Hermit Thrush.

The Winter Wren.

A Peace, as Hemispheres at Home – (Fr1104A)

1:35

All is quiet. The only sound is the unending sound of air moving and moving the night migrants in circles around the world.