Spring 8: Pulses

9:00am-9:25am, Bussey Hill, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, MA
cold, mostly clear


I'm not sure which bird* made the constant deedeedeedeedeedeedee in the background here, but I liked it:


The steady pulsing quality made me think of the animal song research my friend Marie was telling me about. Some scientists have studied how, when you relate an animal's call to its pulse rate, and slow it down or speed it up to the same speed as a human heartbeat, clear melodies emerge from previously amorphous sounds. This was specifically true of certain birds and whales.

At home, I played around with the idea of overlapping many versions of this bird pulse at different rates, with the slower ones sounding lower in pitch, and pulling a melody out of this:

*Update 4/4: Pulsing bird identified as a Dark-Eyed Junco. Thanks, Rich!*