Sound Escapes - Dawn on the Mississippi

BirdNote^®

Sound Escapes - Dawn on the Mississippi

Written by Ashley Ahearn and Mark Bramhill

AA: This is BirdNote.

You might think of the Mississippi River as the central artery of North America.

From Canadian rangeland and the Rocky Mountains in the West, to the Alleghenies and the West Virginia hills to the east, the Mississippi River system drains more than a million square miles of North America into the Gulf of Mexico.

AA: Well, turns out it’s also a central artery for migratory birds. The Mississippi Flyway - as it’s known - is one of North America’s four major corridors for migrating birds. Each spring, billions of birds make their way north from Central and South America into the U.S. and Canada.

Gordon Hempton recorded the sounds of early morning on the river, as the birds were waking up and singing to the dawn. And there were a lot of birds.

GH: This is almost like the symphony during rehearsal, when they’re tuning their instruments. They’re getting all jazzed up. At one point even the woodpeckers get in there with a percussion section. And, you know, it just develops a voice of its own.

AA: You’ve been listening to a sneak preview of a special production from BirdNote. You can hear the full podcast - with immersive recordings from all over the world - at BirdNote Dot Org Slash Sound Escapes.

I‘m Ashley Ahearn.

This show is made possible by Jim and Birte Falconer of Seattle, the Bobolink Foundation, Idie Ulsh, and the Horizons Foundation.

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Producer: John Kessler

Managing Producer: Jason Saul

Editor: Ashley Ahearn

Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone

Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill

Narrator: Ashley Ahearn

Bird and nature sounds provided by Gordon Hempton.

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

© 2019 BirdNote   June 2019

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