By Grace Davis, Jeremy Davis, Faith Jayaram, and Tony Yuan To

Today we had the oppurtunity to work with composer Alex Shapiro in bioacoustics. While traveling around San Juan Island, we took field recordings and wrote about the myriad of noises that were present. The roar of a ferry, the soothing crash of waves, the sweet melody of birdsong–we were surrounded by the sound of our environment, slowing down from our usual routine. During our travels, we stopped in Friday Harbor, South Beach, and the San Juan National Forest. In each location, we made a point to individually spend some time with just the sounds of our surroundings.

When we visited a prairie, we heard crickets singing and birds chirping. However, there was one significant noise that kept appearing: planes. Derek told us that planes were constantly creating noise over the field, so the island was never left in complete silence.