To hear the song of the forest is to return to nature, remembering what is important and who we are in the great scheme of things. When I tune into it and let the rest of my mind chatter go, it fills me with life, hope and wonder and it is always a teaching, learning and calming experience.
Listening to the forest wren, one of the smallest birds after the hummingbird, makes me wonder how such a tiny bird can have such a long and beautiful song. It is truly a love song. They have a nest in a wild rose bush that smells wonderful and is full of buzzing bees next to a trail that enters the forest here. I could never reproduce that long chant they make, I can hardly grasp even a few notes of it.
I have heard the wonderful song of the ouzel, that river and creek-side resident that bobs and walks through and under the water looking for bugs attached to the rocks. It is another long, melodic rhapsody. These little greyish birds keep me company along the fresh water shoreline and usually only sing when there is a pair. Along with the bubbling of the water moving downstream, these are two of my favorite songs of the forest.
Then there are the trumpeter swans which have such long necks and a booming trumpeting song that is so majestic, echoing and reverberating off the forest and mountains. No orchestra could reproduce that amazing, life altering sound. To see and hear them reminds me of royalty.
If one gets the opportunity to hear the call of a wolf, or a pack singing, it connects one to the cosmos and you are transported into infinity and the powerful life of this planet. It truly frees your soul.
…..my wolf teacher singing on the island
The hum of the hummingbird is like a miniature low level aircraft throughout the bush and they chitter and chirp as they meet up with each other. ....unless it is the Anna's hummingbird and then, look out, it is something altogether different; loud, powerful and penetrating.
The song sparrows love to sing from the depth of their beings, loud and transporting, they make me aware of happiness around me, always busy scratching and chattering until they burst into song at the top of the branch. They are the ones that end their song with "senior juicy" that always makes me smile.
The owls make the night so interesting, erupting into calls to others and their young and there is such diversity in their species, each having totally different sounds. There is one that sounds like a spaceship beeping that goes on and on throughout the night.
The osprey young are distinctive in the pleas to their parents as they learn to fly, going up and then falling, only to sweep up again. They sound and probably feel like they are going to crash land but they never do.
My eagle friend used to call when she wanted something to eat or attention but now she has me trained to just instinctively know when she is nearby. Her patience is infinite. Tom Brown Jr., the famous tracker, said that we can feel the concentric rings of energy given off by living beings, even two miles away.
………This is “Chocolate”, our friendly eagle (photo: Ben Barclay)
The mother woodpecker and her young chirp loudly and the knocking on the ancient trees with their pointed beak is always amazing to hear.
There are the robins, first thing in the morning and last call in the evening. I always know when things are OK and at peace from their different songs.
……A new brood of babies playing outside over the ocean, photo taken today, July 19th.
The splashing in the water of the baby raccoons and their loud desperate call to their mother when she is out of sight or range tells me how they are all doing. I have had to rescue some of them occasionally and return them to their mothers who are really excellent moms, I don't know how they do it with such a playful, rauccous, curious brood.
Then there are the frogs, what a chorus!...and the chickadees and the drumming of the two different kinds of grouse and so much more. The wind in the evergreen needles and branches sounds like a rushing river and the changing energy of the ocean waves washing up on shore is like listening to this great Earth breathing.
All this great symphony and the stories it tells is so important to our lives. It is ecstatic and fulfilling, full of surprises and beauty. With awareness, attention, love and caring for the forest and nature, our lives and that of others are really wonder filled!
…..trail in old growth forest
I sometimes take my drum deep into the forest and add my voice and song to it all. It seems to like that. Love to you all from the west coast, S