It must be a sad year for the toads in Houston. Normally, they are making lots of noise as they look for mates in the spring rain puddles. This year there’s silence because of the drought. Here’s a recording from the Montrose area in 1977.
Listen: Toads in spring (37 seconds)
Friday September 12, 2008 and Hurricane Ike is moving into the Galveston/Houston area. These recordings were made in an urban neighborhood near downtown Houston. They document the changes in sounds as the hurricane moved in over a 24 hour period. They are unedited. Currently posted as rough, unedited clips. Some clippling due to extreme wind.
TV coverage, initial wind gusts blowing the trees. Heard from my kitchen door.
Listen: Friday morning 10:38 a.m.
Wind, leaves, airplane
Listen: Friday afternoon 12:03 p.m.
Cicadas – strong wind gusts
Recorded from a protected area in my back yard.
Listen: Friday afternoon 5:32 p.m.
More cicadas – strong wind gusts
Recorded from my kitchen door.
Listen: Friday afternoon 5:33 p.m.
Increasing wind gusts
Recorded from the north side of my house.
Listen: Friday evening 7:50 p.m.
On July 11 of this year we hiked along the Midway Pass Trail in the Rocky Mountains off Highway 82 between Aspen and Independence Pass. A good trail guide for this area is Warren Ohlrich’s Aspen/Snowmass Trails: Hiking Trail Guide
The mountain streams, each with a distinctive sound, were running strongly so late in the summer because of heavy snow the previous winter. The high point of the trail was a bit over 12,000 feet and you can see from the photos that large fields of snow remained at that altitude.
Stream 1
Listen: Stream 1
Stream 2
Listen: Stream 2
Stream 3
Listen: Stream 3
Listen: Stream 3 – alternate take
Stream 4
Listen: Stream 4
Stream 5
Listen: Stream 5
Stream 6
Listen: Stream 6
This stream was recorded while walking up to it past a large boulder.
Stream 7
Listen: Stream 7
Stream 8
Listen: Stream 8
Stream 9
Listen: Stream 9
Stream 10
Listen: Stream 10
Recorder: Sony PCM-D50
Camera: Canon G7
In late afternoon the cicadas can almost be deafening. Here’s a chorus of them, recorded on August 29, 2008 when the temperature was in the upper 90′s . The singing takes place in a cyclical pattern with quiet followed by a crescendo to maximum volume. I think these are scissor-grinder cicadas – you’ll hear why they deserve the name. A neighborhood dog barks near the end.
Recording info:
Sony PCM-D50
Listen: Cicada chorus (2 minutes, 52 seconds)
These two clips were recorded on a chilly morning, February 24th, 2008, in a neighborhood near downtown Houston. Large numbers of birds pass through the area in the winter. Doves, (white-tipped?) were just beginning their calling, which continued late into the summer.
Montrose area of Houston.
Listen: Birds and train 1 (2 minutes 05 seconds)
Listen: Birds and train 2 (1 minute 14 seconds
Cicadas dominate the ambient sound in our Houston neighborhood in the midsummer. Doves have been remarkably loud this spring and early summer but they subsided a bit as summer wore on. You can hear a few doves in this track along with traffic, air conditioners and neighbors leaving their apartment.
Recording info:
Sony PCM-D50
Listen: Summer cicadas (58 seconds)
Notes about sounds I’ve heard and recorded. The recordings are best listened to with good quality headphones. This blog is a starting point for a larger web project, City of the Ear – John Grossman
