Ohio Outdoors: Summer’s symphony

July is a busy month. We celebrate our country’s birthday, county fairs are getting underway, bald eagle chicks are fledging (able to fly and leave the nest), and then there are the summer concerts. Many cities and towns across the Buckeye State offer free outdoor concerts on special afternoons or evenings throughout the summer. There is another type of concert that is also free, available to everyone, everywhere, and plays all summer long. I’m talking about the musical productions of nature. 

Of course, birdsong can be heard all throughout the year. But mid-summer days include many additional bird voices, including orioles, mourning doves, swallows and cat birds, to name a few. Another bird sound Ohioans can enjoy in the summer months is the hum of rapid wingbeats produced by hummingbirds. Of course, summer nights are filled with birdsong, too. Nighthawks, whip-poor-wills, woodcocks, northern mockingbirds and owl voices can frequently be heard calling out through the darkness.   

But birds aren’t the only critters that add to the symphony of summer. During the long days, insects like bees and mosquitoes each offer their unique buzzes. Chipmunks chirp, gray squirrels chatter, and red squirrels squeak like a dog toy. Grasshoppers sing by rubbing their wings together in a process called stridulation. On the hottest of days, male cicadas can be heard vibrating their tymbals.

Cicadas can be heard droning out their rhythmic calls at night, too. Joining them in the insect section of nature’s nocturnal orchestra are stridulating field crickets and mole crickets as well as katydids, who sound like they are saying their own name.

Our summer chorus would not be complete without frogs. No matter the time of day, they are calling. Bullfrogs are the basses with their guttural grunts. Green frogs (my personal favorite) sound like they belong in the string section. Their croaks resemble the plucking of rubber bands. Leopard frogs make a clicking sound. While a pickerel frog’s call is described as a low, nasal snore, it sounds a lot like a woodpecker from a distance. Wood frogs sound like a muffled conversation where you can hear voices but can’t quite make out what is being said. Spadefoot toads sound like a chain smoker saying “nah”. 

We can’t forget about tree frogs. There are six species of these tiny suction cup-footed amphibians found across the Buckeye State. The most common, the gray tree frog, makes one of my favorite frog calls (in fact, it’s the text alert on my phone). They can be heard day or night, although most often after it rains.

Speaking of rain, who doesn’t enjoy hearing a gentle summer rain falling, especially on a metal roof, or experience awe at a clap of thunder? Nature’s music isn’t just produced by animals. Wind whispers through the needles of evergreen trees and sounds like applause when it blows the leaves of flat-stemmed cottonwood and aspen trees. Brooks babble, streams laugh, and waves can crash, slap and hiss.

Studies show that listening to nature sounds can improve your brain function. Benefits range widely: reduced stress, improved sleep, lowered heart rate and reduced cortisol levels (a natural hormone released when we experience stress). Listening to summer’s symphony can even improve focus and boost creativity. Yet, it’s often difficult to hear the music, especially the diurnal (daytime) performances. Between lawnmowers, leaf blowers, joyful shrieks, loud motorcycles and other human-made sounds of summer, it’s hard to pick up on the ever-present natural sounds. I encourage you to purposefully listen for the summer symphony that nature provides us. Whether day or night, the music is playing everywhere – and best of all, it’s free. 

To listen to bird calls and learn more about our feathered friends, go to: https://www.birds.cornell.edu.

Download the Merlin bird app (also from Cornell) for free onto any mobile device, and it will identify the birds you are hearing.

To hear frog or mammal calls, do an internet search for an audio clip of the animal (the more specific, the better).