“Have you heard? Or more accurately, not heard? Vicious fires and vanishing ice floes aside, there’s yet another ominous sign that all is not well with the natural world: it’s getting quiet out there. Too quiet. […]
This is the chilling news: Bit by bit, bird by bird, species by species, gurgling brook by gushing river, the song of wild nature is, in many places, falling deathly silent…In short: What once was a rich, varied symphony of sound has become a far more subdued chamber orchestra, with large spaces of eerie silence where there was once a vast natural racket, signifying everything. […]
But overall, the tonal shift is undeniable, and deeply unsettling: There is now less birdsong than at any time in human history. Fewer lions’ roars, beehive hums, elephant rumbles, frog croakings, simply because we’ve killed off so many of them, and show no signs of slowing. One by one and species by category, the orchestra’s players are exiting the stage. The concert will never be over, but at this rate, it might be a very bleak final movement indeed.”
~ Mark Morford
Don’t miss his entire post here: The Silence of the Birds: When nature gets quiet, be very afraid
Photo: Don’t miss Stuart Palley‘s photographs of wildfires in California in a series titled Terra Flamma.
Live & Learn 
Hard to hit ‘like’ on this post, pal, but glad to see awareness raised. I saw a photo of an emaciated polar bear the other day–something I have never seen–and felt sick to my stomach. We are not being very good stewards of this gorgeous orb on which we reside, that was my thought, and this piece merely reinforces that sad conclusion. When will we learn?…..
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I saw the same photo and it hasn’t left my memory and heart. We are terrible stewards of this planet, diminishing its resources and ecosystem so that one can’t even bear to think about the inevitable conclusion.
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Yes, gut wrenching…
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
“The Silence of the Birds: When nature gets quiet, be very afraid” …. very afraid indeed ……
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A sad commentary on change and loss…. “You could feel the lack of healthy sound vibration in the air”.(from the link provide via of SFGate)….The flyway over, North Dakota and Southern Canada has been compromised too…the man made oil fields impact on birds is horrendous, as well. The decline in butterflies and pond turtles, is sadly on the increase….Two summers ago we went to take a hike to an amazing old growth trial we hadn’t been on in years….sadly, we couldn’t find it & .assumed it had been wiped out by fire, we got home. googled and discovered that indeed was the fate… such shock and disappointment…. the smoke was horrible this summer…and so many places around the west that we’ve had the blessing of visiting, have been either lost (obliterated) or damaged.. We are so fortunate to have traversed the majesty and I grieve the loss of wide areas of land mass and those who will never have the opportunity to experience what once was…..(btw, Mt Saint Helen’s impact was so awful as well) I encourage people to grow an organic garden with lots of herbs and flowers to draw in bees, birds and butterflies and thus bats, too. Get out and enjoy nature when ever you can…make those memories…Cornell has an amazing resource of files of images & sound files of birds songs, http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478 I can’t and don’t want to face a world where the song of a singing bird is no longer…
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Heart breaking. Thanks for sharing the Cornell link. Appreciate it.
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oh, it is almost time to start filling up the bird feeders…our beautiful sunflowers (we usually have over 200 heads) are once again providing food for a number of species of birds, every year I look forward to the ‘Battle Cry’ of the Steller’s and Scrub Jay’s posturing for dominance over the many choice sunflower heads. After they have eaten them all the smaller birds move in for the tiny bugs. Living in a clearing on the edge of the forest ringed by Old Growth vistas is a privileged….we will travel to the spellbinding coast this morning and stay a few days before traveling to honor my Mom at her celebration of life….. i
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You mean you don’t have them full from the Spring time forward? (And I’m so envious of the spellbinding drive down the coast)
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The photo – and story – is incredible. It seems the fire is almost trickling down that hill in an attempt to flow out to the sea. How horrible. Hard to believe there can be a place like that on the planet when I look outside my window and see such glorious greens and blues.
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Yes, and all too real unfortunately.
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We fill the feeders to supplement any gaps they might experience
typically* mid October through sometime in April…then there is much natural food source for those sweet sounding birds..*(although my hubby came across a bag of seed the other day and made the fill) When we had snow! and a bone chilling, cold snap the Starlings survived on the hanging apples that were too high for us to reach, (in the picking season) on the otherwise naked trees..Their beaks penetrated & tore through the frozen ruby red jewels exposing the life sustaining sweet white, crisp flesh The coast so wild, rugged, free and uncrowded and a mere 58 miles.. the experience of the peace and beauty will be appreciated…we leave at 10 am…
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the silence is deafening.
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I just can’t hit the like button on this. It is so true, and I am very afraid.
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Oh, me, too.
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The decline of our songbirds is really heartbreaking. There is so much that people could do to mitigate this situation, but few seem to care.
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It is heartbreaking.
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so sad…
Diana xo
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Reblogged this on The Turning Spiral.
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