Night Music

I admit, I should probably toughen-up and learn to sleep more soundly in the woods.  I am not talking about the family campground experience, but the wilderness.  You, the tent and miles of forest.  I listen at night.  I can't help it, the woods are surprisingly loud when the sun goes down.  What do I hear?  Pine needles and twigs hitting the ground.  Great Horned Owl.  Distant rustling, or nearby scratching.  I tell myself, oh it's just a squirrel, can't hurt you.  Then I remember squirrels go to bed at night.  Oh boy.  Chipmunk?  No, fast asleep too.  My ears strain, listen, listen, nothing.  Relax....I can hear my body.  In the wilderness in the dead of the night, you can hear your insides, your heart, your lungs, and just a presence about yourself that you never noticed before, and it makes you realize how loud the regular world is. TWIG SNAP!

 OHMYGOSHWHATISOUTTHERE!!!!!!!!

"Andy, there is something out there, I just heard something."   

"There are a lot of things out there Anne."

"Oh."

Loons.  Have you ever heard a loon call?  One of the animal kingdom's finest sounds.  It's a haunting call,  the closest comparison I can think of is a coyote howl.  But you've probably heard a loon before and just didn't know it.  They use them as sound effects during the spooky scenes in TV and movies.  A distant, eerie moan, just as the hero senses trouble.  That's the classic loon call.

Loons are just birds, which would have been nice to know when I embarked on my first wilderness camping experience.  Andy and I went canoe camping in Nova Scotia, it was our first time in the north county, which is classic loon habitat during the summer months.  Andy and I crawl into our sleeping bags, settle in and realize the forest is alive that night, it's like a wilderness Times Square.  Twigs, leaves and pine cones are dropping, scratching, scuffling, hooting owls, a chorus of frogs, coyotes in the distance.  Dear me.  And then, the loon. 

Wha....?   I'm just not going to fall asleep tonight, I say to myself,  best to stay up, and be at the ready for whatever THAT is.    

All night I laid there listening to that sound.  I now know I was being treated to the finest loon recital I have ever heard, and I am kind of disappointed and a little embarrassed that I didn't know better at the time.  A sleepless night over a bird.  Sheesh, what can I say?

Want to hear the loon?  Take a summer trip to a lake in the northern United States.  Loons call during the day and night, but wait for it at night, you'll be in for a treat, as long as you remember it is just a bird.  Can't wait for your trip to the lake?  Listen to a loon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiXjCifQn0w   

Go, go, go!

Anne