Air Date: Week of March 3, 2023

A gilded barbet perches on a tree branch. (Photo: © Dusan M Brinkhuizen)

Sound recordist Gordon Hempton brings us the sounds of the Amazon in this BirdNote® from Ashley Ahearn.

Transcript

BASCOMB: Industrial and other human-made noises permeate our modern world. But nature is still singing, if we just listen. BirdNote®'s Ashley Ahearn has more.

BirdNote®

Sound Escapes - Learning to Be a Deep Listener



AHEARN: Gordon Hempton is a sound recordist who has spent his life capturing the sounds of the natural world. He’s learned to be a deep listener, kind of like a sonic meditator. And after a lifetime of traveling the world and listening and recording, he still is amazed by what he hears.



HEMPTON: I was recently in a very remote part of the Amazon rainforest. And I just was taking it all in. And I begin to hear the insect patterns, and how they are rhythmic and each rhythm is a different insect, especially as the light weakens and we make the transition from day into evening and night. Oh my God. And I realized this is the sound of the spinning Earth. That this is actually like a huge clock -- it’s just so elaborate and so precise that is beyond human invention.



Gilded barbets are found throughout the western Amazon Basin. (Photo: © Dusan M Brinkhuizen)

[Zambo Ambi]



Now Gordon wants to help you learn how to start listening to the workings of that massive natural clock. You can get started at birdnote dot org slash sound escapes.


###

Written by Mark Bramhill


Bird and nature recordings by Gordon Hempton.


BirdNote’s theme music composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.


Producer: John Kessler; Managing Producer: Jason Saul; Editor: Ashley Ahearn; Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone; Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill.
© 2019 Tune In to Nature.org   March 2019/2022   Narrator: Ashley Ahearn
 
ID# hemptong-SE-Amazon-01-2019-03-07           hemptong-SE-Amazon-01

https://www.birdnote.org/listen/shows/sound-escapes-learning-be-deep-listener

BASCOMB: For pictures, head on over to the Living on Earth website, loe dot org.

Links

Find this story on the BirdNote® Website