Ears Wide Open

Annual Backyard Birdcount February 16-19 - Participation is welcomed in the 10th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count, co-sponsored by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Instructions and checklists are available online; monitoring can take as little as 15 minutes. During last winter's count, many finches remained farther north than usual, snowy owls were seen in record numbers along the US/Canadian border, and the Number One most-reported species was the Northern Cardinal. [BIRDCOUNT WEBSITE]

Maine Windfarm Surprises Neighbors With Noise - A new windfarm in Mars Hill, Maine began powering up in recent weeks, and neighbors were surprised to find that the noise was loud enough to hear on the phone and keep them awake. A little digging found that the permit for the windfarm, approved with minimal oversight, predicted noise levels at nearby houses could exceed state standards. The 28-turbine windfarm is New England's largest; with 16 currently in operation, six formal noise complaints have been filed. “One night, I kept wondering why the furnace wouldn’t shut off and then I realized it wasn’t that, it was the windmills outside,” Merle Cowperthwaite said. He feels particularly pessimistic about the wind turbines. “The only thing we’ve got going for us is we’re getting older and that means we’re getting deafer,” he said. State, local, and windfarm officials are investigating. Source: Bangor Daily News/WindAction, 1/27/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Amplitude Modulation of Low Frequency Noise investigated as source of disruptive wind turbine noise - A couple in Lincolnshire, England have been driven from their home by nightytime noise from a windfarm over a half mile away. "It sounds like a train coming towards you that never arrives," said Jane Davis. The noise is a whooshing pulse that is triggered in certain wind conditions; the phenomenon, known as Amplitude Modulation, is being studied by a government panel, the Wind Turbine Noise Working Group. Source: Farmer's Weekly, 1/12/07 [READ ARTICLE(pdf)]
[SEE WIND ACTION ARCHIVE OF NOISE-RELATED NEWS ITEMS]

Navy Active Sonars Granted 2 Year Exemption from MMPA - In response to increasing restrictions imposed on mid-frequency active sonar training missions, including an out-of-court settlement during the summer in Hawaii and recent California Coastal Commission requirements, the Pentagon has taken advantage of its right to exempt the Navy from provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The exemption, an extension of a 6-month version issued last summer in the midst of the Hawaii court battle, will cover a period of two years, during which the Navy will aim to complete several recently initiated Environmental Impact Statements addressing active sonar training in various oceans. The Navy says the exemption will allow it to proceed with 40 separate training missions over the coming two years. Sources: Monterey Herald, 1/24/07 [READ ARTICLE] Honolulu Advertiser, 1/24/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Two sources from Navy perspective: The Strategy Page, 1/25/07 [READ ARTICLE] Navy Office of Information, 1/26/07 [READ PRESS RELEASE] Two sources from NRDC perspective: NRDC Press Release, 1/23/07 [READ PRESS RELEASE] All-Headline News, 1/23/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: California Coastal Commission Adds Limits to Navy Active Sonar - For the first time, the US Navy has applied for approval from the California Coastal Commission before initiating mid-frequency active sonar training missions off the southern California coast. The CCC responded by imposing restrictions beyond those commonly imposed by federal regulatory agencies; among the additional safety measures required by the CCC are a maximum received level (sound experienced by whales) of 154dB, rather than the 173db required by NMFS or the 190dB proposed by the Navy, avoiding biologically-rich seamounts, and shutting down the sonar completely when whales are closer than 2km from the Navy ship. The Navy is taking the new requirements under consideration; if they refuse to comply, then the CCC or environmental groups could ask the courts to intervene. Sources: San Francisco Chronicle, 1/11/07 [READ ARTICLE] San Diego Union-Tribune, 1/11/07 [READ ARTICLE]

Study Confirms Birds' Changing Songs in Cities - Field studies in ten European cities, including London, Paris, and Prague, have confirmed that great tits adapt their songs to be better heard above a variety of noise conditions. The city-dwelling birds, a species that has adapted well to urban settings, were compared to forest-dwelling birds nearby. In songs important for mate attractions and territory defense, the urban songs were shorter and sung faster than the forest songs. The urban songs also showed an upshift in frequency that is consistent with the need to compete with low-frequency environmental noise, such as traffic noise. The capacity of great tits to sing within a relatively wide frequency range, and the ability to adjust songs by leaving out lower frequencies, seems critical to the bird's ability to thrive despite urban noise. Species without these capacities may have no other choice than to escape city life. An earlier study by the same researchers had identified frequency differences in great tit songs in one urban area, reflecting the amoung of low-frequency noise they had to be heard above; this study expands the findings to include many populations of tits, and compares urban to rural populations. Source: ScienceDaily, 12/5/06 [READ ARTICLE]

Recordist Hempton Installs One Square Inch of Silence in Olympic National Park - Gordon Hempton, a natural sound recordist and master listener who gained a measure of fame during the 1990's boomlet in natural sound production, has created a physical expression of his long-time drive to encourage national parks to establish sonic refuges. In Olympic National Park, which is one of the places which the least intrusion of human sound in America, Hempton has established his first "One Square Inch of Silence," at a location that is generally free of human noise. Visitors, led by directions found on his website, are invited to visit the spot and leave their impressions in a jar. "Quiet is going extinct," Hempton said. "I wanted to find a quiet place and hang on to it and protect it." National park officials like the concept. "We're certainly aware of the need to take whatever measures we can to maintain the natural quiet," said park Superintendent Bill Laitner, who hiked to the spot with Hempton earlier this year. "We are so strapped for resources that there's just no way we can . . . do this kind of research on our own." Hempton has also released a CD recorded at the Olympic One Square Inch. Source: CNews/Canoe, 10/28/06 [READ ARTICLE] Hempton website [GO THERE]

Colorado Softens New Noise Limits on Oil and Gas Installations, But It's Still an Improvement for Ranchers - The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission bowed to industry concerns about cost and modified a rule set to go into effect on January 1st governing noise from rural oil and gas installations. In December 2005 the Commission voted to limit noise to 45dB at night, and 50dB during the day; the industry challenged these limits, and will now be required to quiet their installations to 50dB at night and 55dB during the day, measured at 350 feet from the installation. A recent survey by Commission staff found that only 13% of compressors now meet the standard; enforcement will be contingent on complaints filed by citizens. The new rules contain several provisions that represent a step forward for quieting the wide-open ranchlands being inundated by natural gas and coalbed methane development. All engines within 400 feet of a residential building will be required to have mufflers installed; low frequency noise, below human hearing, will be regulated; and the new dB limits are themselves an improvement over the previous industrial standards of 65dB at night and 70 dB during the day. Sources: Durango Herald, 9/20/06 [READ ARTICLE] Earthworks website [READ RULE SUMMARY] [SEE NOISE NEWS LINKS]

Humpback Make Over 600 Distinct Sounds - A new study of humpback whales off the coast of Australia has identified 622 distinct sounds, which cluster into 35 basic call types. These sounds are typically short and discrete, unlike the long "songs" for which humpbacks are famous. "I wouldn't say (whales possess) language, as that's a human term. Whales don't string these sounds together like words and form sentences. It's more like a simple vocabulary," said researcher Rebecca Dunlop. She said these included "wops" made by females, "thwops" made by males, "yaps" made when pods split, and high pitched cries that appeared to express anger. Another new discovery was that whales also sometimes "speak" short song units individually instead of singing them, most commonly males trying to win the attention of a female in the midst of more than one whale singing. Source: Underwater Times, 11/20/06 [READ ARTICLE]