The Sounds of Spring in a Japanese Forest

In May, you have to wake up at 2am to go out and catch the dawn chorus. Sunrise is fairly early, but the birds start singing about an hour earlier. You will be stumbling in the dark looking for a good spot to sit down and catch your breath. As you move through the forest, the sounds of the night are starting to wane. The plaintive call of a lone White’s thrush resonates through the valley, while a distant nightjar’s mechanical churr is slowly fading away.

A calm but lively chorus is taking shape. The first few Japanese thrushes are already up and calling. The Japanese bush warbler is a bit late to the party but can soon be heard tentatively. The cuckoos are up as well, croaking and hooting away. More chirps and trills soon join the dawn chorus as light starts to penetrate through the canopy. The distant hillside creates beautiful reflections and anchors the soundscape in place. Much more closely, a frog starts croaking but then feels too self conscious and stops quickly.

There is thick fog covering the forest. The suspended vapour allows sound to travel further, but it rolls off some of the mid and high frequency content. Man-made sound is completely absent, kept away by the topography of this little valley. The soundscape is pure and untouched, just as it must have been hundreds of thousands of years ago. Enjoy!