Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Night Sounds

We recorded this last night on our deck. You don't know whether to laugh at the comical sounds, be amazed at their volume and variety, or curse the fact that they are keeping you awake. The creatures making these sounds are not 30 feet away from the recorder, and we have no idea what any of them look like, especially those making those "bubbling" noises.

Welcome to the woods!

MP3 File

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hysterical!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

It´s frogs making the sounds, but a bit lod to be honest :-) :-) Love it!!

Ralph said...

I should have said we know they're frogs, Christer. We just wonder what they look like. And how many??? Seems like thousands. And that bubbling sound still does have me mystified. Never heard a frog like that!

jack/andrews said...

You're in the country now, you former 'city slickers'. You are in amphibian heaven with some insects thrown in. Prize those sounds. Amphibians are one of the "coal-mine-canaries" of the environment. How about the bird songs in the am? We probably need to hear those too.

Ralph said...

M&J, there is bird song, but it is nowhere near as cacophonous as the frogs and whatever (whoever?) else that bubbling noise is. If frogs are the canaries in the wetlands, we have nothing to fear in this neck of the woods!

Ralph said...

I've now found out that the piping, high-pitched frogs are green tree frogs, real pretty little things, and that rippling, bubbly sound is from leopard frogs. http://www.bio.davidson.edu/projects/herpcons/herps_of_NC/anurans/anurans.html

Peewit said...

Sure as hell beats the sounds of helicopters and police sirens! (although we can perhaps look forward to a bit of peace from aerplanes again the wind has shifted the ash our way again!)

Ralph said...

Peewit: Oh no!!!!

nan said...

Wow - I feel a song coming on. You could have a major jam session with that groove as the background. Your not in Arlington anymore :-)

Lonely Rivers said...

How long does it last?

Ralph said...

LR: All night, when it's hot. Last night it got down into the 50s and there was blessed silence. I think they'll also shut up once they're finished with the business of making new frogs.

splendid said...

awww Ralph
what a sweet serenade

Cuidado said...

I have a pond and frogs and love the sound.

Mim said...

Wow that is certainly quite a sound...Will this mean you will have to shut the windows and turn on that AC for that NC humidity?
or better yet your own white noise to learn to sleep by.
You are truly in the country.
How is all the indoor organizing and finalizing the move going?

Ralph said...

Hi, Mim. Since the grog noises seem to have everything to do with the temperature (the warmer the night, the louder the frogs), I guess we will have to turn on the a/c. We will, anyway, as the heat and humidity pile up. So far so good, though--it's cooling off considerably over the next several days. Last night there was only silence!

Inside: it looks like we've lived here for years. We're surrounded by all our pictures and glass objects and favorite knock-knacks--we really can't be comfortable in a place any other way. All the work going on now is exterior.

Mim said...

Oh I'm so happy you are both so settled in! All those months of your things in boxes.
And the frog noises...maybe by this time next year the noise will sound like home.
And yes AC when that humidity hits such a high level.
I use a small machine with varied noises to mask the neighbors cows mooing and dogs barking at night, when we choose to leave our windows open on these'between spring and summer' nights.

Ralph said...

I tried one of those "white noise" machines, Mim. I found myself concentrating in individual raindrops, or whatever, and trying to figure out where the loop ended and began. Hopeless.