Auditory Sensation: A clear winner during lockdown

Auditory Sensation: A clear winner during lockdown

One of the undisputed winners during this COVID-19 enforced lockdown has been our auditory sensation. Since the cessation of all industrial and commercial activity and its attendant absence of traffic, the ambient noise level has plummeted sharply. The bird songs though always present are now clearly heard without interruption and are given the full attention they duly deserve.

The acclaimed novelist James Joyce in his classic work Ulysses, writes about the Aristotelian concept called “eluctable modality of the audible”, which means, that in hearing sounds, our ears participate in a manner that can change what we hear and by extension be changed or be transformed by them. The lockdown has been a Godsend opportunity to experience this unadulterated joy amidst all the tragedy. Some examples are in order.

The foremost example of such a joyful auditory feast has been the song of the White-browed or Pied Wagtail (Moticella maderaspatensis).

Its bravura performance is a constant presence from the rosy-fingered dawn to the dusk of the setting sun. It is a series of sweet cascading warbles, whistles and trills intermixed in various combinations, with subtlety as its chief virtue. The improvisations are a veritable “raga alapana” and once I was even lucky enough to hear and identify an auditory chiasmus, a rhetorical construct of inversion often deployed in poetry. If perchance, glimpsed during these musical renditions, then one can also witness the Pied Wagtail executing its dance sequence of wagging its tail and thus offering a visual treat as a bonus.

Another bird whose territorial song is noteworthy during March-April is the ubiquitous White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis).

This strikingly plumaged bird of azure blue and brown colour, with a bold reddish bill, sings its continuously oscillating trill, which rises to a crest before falling to a trough, while simultaneously varying its cadence, perched atop a tree or cell phone tower for hours on end, especially during the morning hours.

Finally, there is the Spotted Owlet (Athene brama), the diminutive nocturnal raptor and a widespread resident of our nation, which has the softest of slurs as its vocal signature.

While present even in a noisy urban neighbourhood of any city, it stays well hidden because it is mostly unheard, masked by the din of economic activity. I was forewarned of their existence by my bird watching associate Chetan Joshi in an area beset with neem trees and I was constantly on the lookout whenever I chanced upon the area. Recently, during this lockdown’s grocery shopping errand, I happened to hear a sweet slur as I passed by the neem trees. My heart skipped a beat and with some effort was able to spot and glimpse three of these Owlets staring at me. This gregarious troika after some brief looks of trepidation promptly flew further inside and safely hid themselves. After all, who can blame them for their prudent behaviour, that of fleeing the presence of the super predator, the human being?

If a veritable urban jungle situated in Tamil Nadu’s second city can offer such audio treats mixed with visuals to a housebound birdwatcher, then what to talk of a luckier denizen in proximity to a greenery, forest or wetland in the suburbs or fields? The opportunities are endless to overcome the boredom of the lockdown.

G. Parameswaran.