Last night before bed I spent a couple hours learning by listening. I listened to frog sounds . I took a frog quiz which included 15 sets of 30 seconds of listening to nature and choosing which frogs were croaking. Some questions had 4 or 5 frogs in it. Other questions had fewer but I always heard at least two frogs in every question. I really had to use my auditory sense for this test and normally I don't rely on my ears exclusively. I was tired when I went to bed and I left a window open. I like to listen to the sounds of nature at night. I think this was the second night with the windows open for the year. As my body cycled down towards sleep I relaxed onto my pillow that still smelled like the fresh outdoors because I hung my sheets on the line. I went to sleep rather quickly except for my ears. Was it the auditory exercise that kept my ears awake after the rest of me went to sleep? I'm not sure but my ears woke me up when I heard things. I identified a robin that should have gone to bed hours ago. Can a robin be a night owl? This one was. At 12:45 a.m. my brain processed something in the far distance that made my eyes fly open. I listened. Way far away, probably in Andover, a barred owl called. I listened to it call three times before I went back to sleep. In the morning, before my alarm went off, a cardinal in the black spruce right outside my window called and called and called. A blue jay rudely gave directions from the back yard. Blue jays are bossy. Black capped chickadees were singing their fee-bee song. A robin sang in the front yard. Far to the east, again, probably in Andover, two sand hill cranes were talking. I'm sure they will be quiet as soon as an egg is laid. I wanted to get a good night of rest but I wasn't too upset with the birds. I thought it was a strange feeling to have my ears be so awake while the rest of me slumbered on.
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