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Play my new guessing game

Sound on! Ecotone #01
5

A lot of people love the peace and quiet outdoors.

Me, I love how noisy nature is when you listen closely.

To scientists, an ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities. Perhaps the place where forest bumps up against prairie. Or an estuary where freshwater first mingles with salt. Those edge habitats are often richer in diversity than the spaces on either side.

My weekday career as an audio journalist bumps up beautifully against my weekend life as a naturalist when I’m collecting nature sounds.

Each time I capture the crunch of snow or the “tea kettle” of a Carolina wren, I feel richer for the experience as my old skills meet up with my new skills.

Recording sound is the kind of nature appreciation that lets me live up to the “Leave No Trace” principle.

When I’m on a walk with kids at a sanctuary or wildlife refuge, it’s hard for some to understand why they can’t keep that stick they just found. The “MINE!” is loud, and there’s nothing tighter than a preschooler's grip on something they’re bound and determined to take home to show dad.

I empathize. Even I can be tempted to slip a cool-looking rock in my pocket.

Here’s the spiel we give the four-year-olds:

“This place is protected. Not just to keep it beautiful for us — the people — but to protect the homes of all the plants and animals that live here. If we leave that stick on the ground, we give millipedes, bacteria and mushrooms a chance to break it down. That releases nutrients other animals need. And once an old stick is soft and spongy it’s on its way to becoming fresh, new soil that can help an entire forest grow.”

The spiel doesn’t always work. Sometimes the kid holds onto the stick.

Instead, I start listing all the ways we can take nature home.

Photos.

Crayon drawings.

Sounds.

Sound is my favorite nature souvenir.

ECOTONE is a guessing game. I’ll share an audio clip I’ve collected plus a clue to help identify it. Then you name the nature sound. #SoundItOut

Thanks for playing.

The clue for Ecotone #01 was: sith-yuh-riz-uhm

That’s how you pronounce the word psithurism.

The answer is: Psithurism, the sound of rustling leaves as wind blows through trees.

Did you guess correctly?

Without a visual to provide context, to me, whistling leaves sound a lot like crashing waves.

If you did guess rustling leaves, did you wonder what kind?

Here’s another clue: I gathered that sound in Maryland in January when most trees have let their leaves drop.

5 bonus points if you guessed American beech.

Beech are on a short list of deciduous trees that hold onto their leaves through the winter. Dendrologists aren’t fully sure why but the theories are many and fascinating.

One theory, I call self-mulching. The guess is that trees keep their leaves in cold months, then drop them as leaf litter in spring to give themselves a nutrient boost at the start of the new growing season.

Another theory has to do with megafauna, giant mammals that used to graze North America, such as woolly mammoths. My cursory research didn’t track down any solid science to link those extinct animals with leaves in winter, but it’s awfully fun to think about how they might be related.

But the theory I like best brings us back to sounds in nature. That idea is that trees use the noisy rattle of dead leaves to discourage deer and other browsers from sticking their nose in to eat the trees’ twigs and tasty leaf buds.

Dried-out leaves make a racket. While deer — from their specialized hooves to large ears — avoid predators by being silent.

In my hunt for nature sounds, I’ve never been able to catch deer with my microphone.

What nature sound should I collect next?

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Before you go …

There’s a picture book for that. Check out Leaves by David Ezra Stein.

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