onfocus

I went to a cyclocross race for the first time in Portland this weekend to take some pictures. Unfortunately I left my camera batteries at home so I had to get by with my sound recorder and a little video camera I had with me. The main thing I wanted to capture was the sound of the race. The cyclists don't make much noise, but the crowd comes armed with cowbells or even pots and pans to rally the cyclists as they go past. The noise ebbed and flowed as the riders were on different parts of the course. Here's a sample:



The cowbells give the cheering a distinct sound. If you're curious about what it looked like, here are some of the video clips I shot:

Last week when I was in San Francisco I took a BART train from the airport into the city. I took a sound recording at some point to catch a distinct hum the train has as it gets going. Here's what I heard:

Today I recorded a strange bird that lives at this four-way stop in McMinnville. It's a fairly busy intersection and the bird hears cars stop and take off all day, every day. Its standard chirp is already loud and screechy, but it has another chirp that sounds exactly like a car with a loose fan belt taking off from a stop. Check it out:



That whine is the bird. The funny part is, there's a house at the corner where the people obviously have an antagonistic relationship with this bird. Their trees are full of silver streamers that blow in the breeze—meant to scare the bird away. I couldn't see the bird at all, but it must be some sort of mockingbird.

Took a nice walk through Beazell Memorial Forest this morning. It's about 30 minutes west of Corvallis, and it's a fairly new park. The trails are pristine, and the forest is shaded and lush. The forest floor is covered with ferns. Here's a sound clip I took on a bridge crossing Plunkett Creek:



I'm looking forward to going back over to that area to check out Fort Hoskins.

Update: Nevermind.

Corvallis has an extremely casual 4th of July parade that anyone can join. There are only a couple of floats, a few businesses, but mostly just people walking and riding bikes. It's not very long, and it's fun to see everyone. My favorite part of the parade today was a couple of kids playing the Star Spangled Banner on tubas as they walked by:

Alsea Falls is a small waterfall about 30 miles southwest of Corvallis. Today we took some back roads we hadn't been on before to get there, and then we took a nice walk around the falls. Here's what the falls sounded like:

Corvallis has a great Farmers' Market and we try to go every Saturday. They block off 1st street by the river (view from above) and a few city blocks are filled with local vendors selling food.



Here's what walking through the farmer's market sounded like yesterday:



If you listen you can hear a guy playing a didgeridoo, kids screaming as they run through a fountain, a few guys playing jazz, dogs panting, and lots of snippets of conversations. The best reason to go to the Farmers' Market right now? Oregon Hood strawberries are in season. We made this fantastic strawberry shortcake with Hood berries from the market:



Best. Strawberries. Ever.

You're probably wondering what Chip Ross Park (view from above) sounds like in the afternoon. I can finally answer that for you.

Speaking of sounds, here's what my backyard sounds like around 5am.



Now that spring is here and I'm sleeping with the windows open I often wake up to this around 5. There's even one bird I call the alarm clock bird that I'd like to catch on tape sometime.