Which birds sing all summer long? Robins do. They are singing this morning as though they just got back from the south. Robins only stop singing while they are moulting. While robins can sing all day long it is in the earliest hours, typically starting at 4:00am that they sing louder, livelier, and more frequently. If we were to follow robins to their winter homes, they sing all winter too. They only stop singing at night, and are one of the last to stop singing each day.
Some birds sing more when it is cooler in the early mornings or after a rain. Others prefer the hot weather - goldfinches are an example of this.
We can expect birds to go on singing into summer and to diminish around August when they are moulting or foraging widely as food is abundant. Many of us have really noticed the bird song this year. With less traffic noise and fewer people about this year, it is easier to hear them and birds are more active.
More irises today, again taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens Laking Garden. This is a messy flower in my view. Even if it was allowable to pick or cut off the dead flowers, there would likely be damage to the overall stem. So it is hard to get a picture of a grouping or mass of flowers. Mostly one takes portraits of individual flowers.
Does every season have sounds? What are the sounds of Spring? They are bird songs! You can find music to tweet to by the National Trust. Or you can find websites that ask you whether you can hear these sounds and if not, it may mean you need hearing aids. What are the sounds that are the signs of hearing loss? If human conversation is between 60 and 70 decibels, here are sounds that are the signals:
1. Birdsong - decibels not available 2. Pattering rain - 50 decibels 3. Rustling leaves - 20 decibels 4. Spring peepers - decibels not available 5. Buzzing mosquitoes - 40 decibels 6. Noisy squirrels - 20 decibels
What is the decibel range of birds? It turns out it is difficult to decide - some parts of their call are outside the range of human hearing. What is known is that the lyrebird of Australia or the American bittern are the loudest. I would have thought it must be over 135 decibels as that is what the Moluccan Cockatoo has been recorded at. However, they are listed at 101 decibels.
There was a Great Horned Owl calling in the night last week in our vicinity. Did you know that the Great Horned Owl can be heard for over 2 miles?
And if the forest turns out to be too quiet to hear, move to the ocean. The loudest animal on earth is the blue whale and it can generate sound levels of 188 decibels. This can be heard for hundreds of miles underwater. No hearing aid needed there.
I haven't found any loud plants so far. Here's an orchid.
