Today I am staying back a ways from the falls and concentrating more on the vegetation, the trees and the grass, the birds and the crickets that also compose this soundscape.
You can hear the falls in the distance of course because it really is a very noisy space. The white noise of the falls blankets everything and tends to act as a muffler. But I am trying to stay away from the edge of the falls so that the roar doesn't overwhelm all the other sounds. Today I am noticing a few cicadas, but they aren't buzzing loudly. It's a cool-ish morning. They don't come out until later in the afternoon or when the day gets really hot. Sometimes they come out in the morning. Crickets are still here, of course. I would imagine the first frost will put an end to them.
I recorded a nice little bird chorus back among the trees. I think I'd like to mix them in with my spring bird sounds from my early April soundwalk. The soundscape really does change from season to season. It is only by listening closely and with attention that you realize they are fundamentally different places from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year.
Different things happening, both socially and also in the natural world. You cannot hear those changes unless you really take the time to listen to them and really hear them.
General observation - for a city with so many green spaces, Ottawa really is a very noisy city. Ironic that there is this beautiful park in the middle of the city which is stunning to look at but the sounds here are an invasion. Not the sound of the falls, but rather all the transportation sounds - buses, cars, planes.
Beautiful to look at, but not always so beautiful to listen to.
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