Laura Sebastianelli started out listening for the howls--the howls of wild wolves. She was seeking the calls of “pioneer” wild wolves coming in from Canada that might begin to re-populate the North Woods. Fish and wildlife folks knew that several individuals had arrived in Maine, but the only evidence they had were carcasses-- wolves that had been hit by a car-- or shot for a coyote. They wanted to know if and where they could find them while they were still live. Contracted by the National Wildlife Federation, Laura Sebastianelli loaded up her equipment and went to listen for howls -- and the wolves -- though she did not find them.
Waking at the crack of dawn to listen for the songs of birds, came later in life. “I got into bird recording through the back door,” she says. It’s absolutely delightful to listen so closely.” Sebastianelli gives her skills and experience, time and effort and her “Junes” of every year to help further the research led by Seth Benz, Director of the Bird Ecology Program at Schoodic Institute. The program, down to two citizen science volunteers this year, keeps a finger of the pulse of the bird population in Schoodic, the greater Acadia area, and a bit beyond.
She works night and day. Sometimes she’s up listening in the woods late in the night, listening for the Northern Saw Whet Owl. Sometimes she’s out at dawn and dusk, listening for the Common Night Hawk. But most of the time, she rises at 3:45 to be in the field before the sun spills over the horizon, in the time birders know as “the Dawn Forest.” And there-- she slowly and quietly walks the trails -- waiting and listening for the first song of the morning. It’s a work of love, punctuated by joyous discoveries. “I found Merlins here this year! I’ve got nine minutes of a male and female pair communicating with each other.” “In our first two seasons we never recorded a Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher here, but in 2019 we found the right spot to record them!” In 2018, she held a volunteer service week for other recordists to join her in capturing bird sounds of the park. It’s a constant unfolding discovery of birds that were present-- but not fully known, and birds that were unknown here before—but are now here, nesting and raising young.
As thrilling as it is, it’s a necessarily quiet and often solo endeavor. She finds joy in her work, the doing of the work itself, the discovery of birds not known to nest here, and sometimes the chance recording of bird sounds that few have ever before recorded--like the surprising and seldom heard trilling and softly sung complex songs that the Blue Headed Vireo makes a near their nest. She is still researching deep libraries of recordings to see if a vocalization she recorded of a Common Nighthawk – a rattling sound -- has ever been documented before--or--if she’s the first one to record it. So far, it seems, she may have discovered something new to add to the collective knowledge of these birds. But her recordings are not just for the love of it.
She records them for science, for history, to add to the repository of knowledge. She records them to find out how our landscapes and the songbirds that make up our landscape are changing and evolving. And so, she travels to Schoodic to live for a month each June when the sun rises not much past 4: 30 a.m. Because, she says, June is the month when the migrating birds headed further north have finished passing through. From then, until mid-July, their nesting songs are at their pitch. That’s when she can gets the songs of Acadia’s native birds, the ones that breed and nest on the Peninsula --while they’re courting and marking and claiming their territories --though the songs, calls, thrills and warbles-- that they use to mark their nesting grounds and chase intruders away.
Her recordings, and those of others who’ve contributed to the bird sound project, don’t sit on dusty shelves, or on the C Drive of an old computer. The recordings are available to all on the Macaulay Library on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. Their recordings of White-throated Sparrows for instance may be important, as its song has turned out to be of significant scientific interest of late. On its own, the song is a joyous celebration of life, but it also provides an excellent snapshot of what appears to be a new evolving song pattern for the White-throated Sparrows. It has become a touchstone, part of what may become part of a historic record for the sparrows’ song in the eastern part of Maine, and a contribution to a discussions in the great halls--and leafy corridors-- of ornithology where observers have noted that song of White-throated Sparrows is changing elsewhere-- getting more clipped, becoming shorter --changing the “Canada! Canada! Canada!” part of its song to a clipped “Cana, Cana, Cana.”
And so they watch with a well-tuned ear and good binoculars to see if that evolution of song is moving east. “Will we witness the extinction of the old song of the White-throated Sparrow at Schoodic?” she asks. “Will our woods sound different in the mornings of the future?” Her work is all part of the research and documentation being done by the Citizen Science Program conducted by the Schoodic Institute in conjunction with Acadia National Park. “It might seem insignificant at first, but collectively, it makes a difference,” she says. “What is seemingly insignificant can become all important--so we can document a moment in time, so we can learn.” Personally, she says” It adds so much joy to our lives. It’s like a meditation when you are listening--deeply--in the present. Going forward 20 years, maybe it will make a difference.” For more information on Sebastinelli’s work and the ongoing program with The Bird Ecology Program at Schoodic Institute, check out Schoodic Notes at https://schoodicnotes.blog/ where you will find a library of recordings of birds native to the Schoodic Peninsula by Sebastinelli and other Citizen Scientists.
