Anyway, this recording is very different form the rest. As has often been the case in recent years I didn’t remember my annual recording until the last minute. So late last Saturday night I grabbed my little MicroTrack 24/96 and walked down the street (current domestic activities keep me from straying far from home). There were only a few fireworks going off in our quiet little neighborhood. In the distance could be heard the big display(s) from closer into town. The keynote sound though, quite surprising in a desert, were these unbelievably loud frogs. We are in the monsoon season and had indeed received some heavy rains recently. I hadn’t noticed but the rains had collected in a small drainage area at the end of the block. As I got closer and closer to the small pond (pool really) the sounds of the frogs grew deafening. Every once in a while some firecrackers could be heard or else a larger mortar would explode and illuminate the sky above me. The frogs seemed hardly bothered, although they’re syncopation did alter a bit after each one. As I stood there listening I noticed how much louder and more relevent the frogs sounds were compared to all the incendiary hoopla of the fourth of july celebrations.

The most curious thing though is that these frogs exist at all. I’m told they can live underground for long periods of time (as long as 7 months). before coming up when they sense a rain storm. Amazing. This also reminded me of another fortean phenomena related to frogs that I had read about in an old issue of Fortean Times Magazine. I’m referring to quarymen who had found live frogs inside of rocks they had just broken open. Frogs falling from the skies and now coming up from the earth. What next?

Recording of July 4th, 2009 in Santa Fe, NM

One of the pics is of Dave Weininger, a really cool guy who brought and is pictured here w/ Fritz. That link on his name will give you a glimpse of how much of a mad scientist this guy is. The other pictures of are of some seriously real looking fake guys. It took me walking over to check these guys out several times before I believed they were “really” “not real.” Ah, movie magic.

As I learned in my own research, sound is the light of the sea. Light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum and travels fairly decently through air (the better in a vacuum). Light does NOT travel very well through water (which, for instance, is why SONAR is used underwater instead of RADAR). Sound, on the other hand, is composed of pressure waves and requires a medium through which to propagate (there is NO SOUND IN A VACUUM). Thus, conversely, the denser the medium the more efficiently (faster & farther) sound can go). Water, being denser than air, is optimally suited for acoustic communication.

I recently heard someone distinguish sound from sight by asserting that sound is the result of some physical action in our environment. At least as far as physics is concerned this is true. For a sound to happen, a vibration must occur, and a vibration is a physical response. Even our sense of hearing is a part of this process. The mechanism of our ear is itself physical – the vibrations in air moving our ear ‘drum’ and those sensations (through a magical process not yet fully understood) being turned into electrical impulses that we can ‘hear’ as words, music etc. Truly a wondrous phenomena.

Perhaps paradoxically, to fish silence itself acts as a kind of light, heightening their sensitivity to the acoustic environment by reducing interference. All of this information, combined with two other aspects of our own acoustic perception; (1) the meeting point of air & water acts as a sound barrier, almost totally eliminating our awareness of underwater sounds, (2) Our visual oriented culture tends to regard sound as a ’secondary’ phenomena (think traffic noise, lawn mowers, even music) may be leading to the great un-addressed environmental problem of our time. If fish (as well as all other kinds of aquatic life, from wales to plankton) depend on a ‘clean’ acoustic environment to communicate (and thus ‘live’) then the impact of the global din of shipping traffic noise must be acknowledged. As few people ever get to hear what it sounds like underwater, I urge you to give a listen. The good folks I sailed around Puget Sound with are continuing there Orca research and have permanent hydrophones placed around the Sound with feeds running live online 24/7. One is here, another here, and another here.

It is difficult to understand without seeing, but most of the sound you will here are large shipping containers, probably a mile or two away.

To read the full article go here:
What’s making that awful racket? It may be fish
Be sure to listen to some of the sounds as well, here

The pinnacle of the trip came the next day as we found ourselves along Highway 180 near the border of Arizona. We had been looking for a place to hike and it was getting late in the day. We were in the middle of the Gila National Forest but there tweren’t any trees to speak of. It was looking to be HOT and dusty hike (ugh). So when we came across a park visitors center we were ready for some guidance. Turns out that just a few miles more down the road is The Catwalk National Recreation Trail. I knew from the pictures it was the right place for us. And boy was it cool.
Took quite a few pictures and did some recording to. Both coming soon.