I have returned from my semi-annual trip to the Sand Bluff Bird
Observatory.
This bird banding station is one of the largest small-bird banding
facilities in the country. But that is not what makes it worth my
visiting twice per year. This station overseen by Lee Johnson now
has a 36 year data set of banding at a single location by a single
methodology and overseen by a single individual. It is located in
the US Midwest on the northern edge of the "great corn desert". The
data set is not pretty as it shows year after year of declines of
song birds in the US.
For me and I hope others, this gives charge to record ambience now.
To resist just making technical "sound creation" of what something
should sound like. I still expect to be able to find almost all our
local species in 20 years when simply looking for an individual. But
by my memories the chorus is already dying in most places and finding
remnants takes considerable work for good ambience recordings now.
Next spring I hope to again spend the majority of my time during
spring to preserve and demonstrate what we have had and help others
to restore this in the future.
It has become impossible to be optimistic in the short haul so my
hope lies with future people to look back and listen for what we once
had and find the tools to bring it back.
Rich Peet
with a political rant
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