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Sounds of the Season – Water, and Wind in April

Sounds of the Season – Water, and Wind in April

Sounds of the Season – normally by the end of April we might be hearing more bird songs and other wildlife calls. This year our soundscape consists of running water and wind. Snowmelt – it will take some time to relieve ourselves of the winter’s extra-generous bequest of snow cover.

This file begins with about a minute each of water babbling briskly in an ephemeral stream (one which only flows in the spring with runoff or after major downpours) and the same stream heard from under 16” of persistent snowcover; then a slushy approach down steps to the foot of the lower Gooseberry Falls – the roar of which eventually overwhelms the observers, followed by the roar of the upper Gooseberry Falls (can you hear a difference?); and finally the light whooshing sound of the wind in a lone mature white pine holding forth above the relentless gusts in a mixed forest of younger birch and aspen, still bare of any foliage of course. All recordings made April 26 and 27, 2014 in Lake County, Minnesota.