Over the past few centuries, humans have decimated bird populations — you can hear it in the thinning of the dawn chorus — but it’s difficult to notice sometimes because of shifting baseline syndrome.
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 3
I sometimes think about this when I am hiking in the woods; how different would this place have sounded 100 years ago? It would have likely been a lot louder and a lot buggier.
I often think about descriptions of passenger pigeon flocks and trying to imagine something like a mass of birds a mile wide passing overhead for many hours, numbering more than a billion.
My wife's a field recordist, and we live in the Point Reyes National Seashore, a place famed for its birding. While we're home it feels like there are plenty of birds here — some months more than others. Yet when we come back from trips to Kenya it's clear that even this protected place is practically dead compared to a healthy ecosystem. The auditory comparison is so stark. And yet everyone here thinks it's great and amazing, because they have nothing to compare it to except the city.
Our wilds are worth saving, and improving, but people with comparative knowledge should speak up about the state of them right now.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a kottke.org member. Check out your membership options.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!