Song Birds, Night Sounds

New Bern, NC
35 05.91 N 077 01.95 W

I've mentioned before that Libby misses her garden.   Obviously, there must be some things about shore bound life that we miss.   For me it is the sound of song birds and other night sounds.   I'm reminded of that by being in New Bern and Zebulon where we are treated to those wonderful sounds temporarily.

You see, most of the time we are too far from shore to hear the song birds.   Instead, we hear the sea birds, the lapping of the waves, and sometimes the sound of dolphins venting.  

My favorite song bird sound is that of the mourning dove.  At night, the crickets establish the "normal" background that marks night.   Indeed, a night doesn't sound normal at all without the crickets.  In the 1970s, we had a visit from a man from Finland.  He never heard a cricket before.  He almost tore his apartment to bits to locate the source of that strange sound at night.  It kept him from sleeping.  For him, crickets were entirely unnatural.

Most of all, I and Libby miss the sound of our peepers.   Peepers are tiny little frogs that make big sounds.  A colony of peepers lived near the pond at our house in West Charlton.   The arrival of spring was marked in our minds by the sound of the first peeper to thaw out and make his sound.  Then, throughout March, April and May, the number and volume of peepers increase to a crescendo.   Finally, by the end of June the sounds stop.  You see, they peep in search of love. "Peep peep.  I'm over here."  When they find it, they are satiated and peep no more.   Wonderful.