rural evening noises

jeseymour

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I have a scene in my WIP where the MC, a fugitive, calls his wife. There's a tap on her phone. I had the Feds listening in identify it as a rural area by the sound of the tree frogs (peepers) in the background. It's set in New York's Hudson river valley, north of Poughkeepsie. A beta reader said peepers are only around in the spring, and this is set in early August. I could swear I've heard peepers all summer long, any time I pass a pond in the evening. (I'm in New England.) I did some research via google and read something that said they only call for 8 weeks in the spring, but found someone complaining about hearing them all summer. So, if not peepers, what can I use for background noises that will give my Feds a clue that my protagonist is not in the city? Does anybody else hear peepers in August (evening, just after dusk, near water?) If that noise is not peepers, what is it?
 

alleycat

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I'm not familiar with the sounds of rural areas in NY, but some possibilities:

Bull frogs
Rain crows
Whip-poor-wills (at night)
Crows (yes, they are everywhere, but more common in the country)
Cows! Chickens! ;-)
 

PeterL

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I have also heard sounds like Spring peepers in the Summer, but it may be another species. You don't hsve to be specific, because there are many insect sounds, and some of those may be similar to peepers.
 

milly

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alleycat

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One thing that might also help to identify it as a rural area is the lack of man-made noises such as traffic. You could have one of your characters casually mention this ("I didn't hear any traffic or airplanes noises in the background, not once. He must be well out of the city." or something like that).
 

Pyekett

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shadowwalker

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Not to throw a damper on this, but I'd be wondering how the police could hear this over a phone. One could hear a siren or train whistle, but insects? Granted, cicadas do get very loud, but not that loud...
 

Pyekett

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Granted, cicadas do get very loud, but not that loud...

Ah. Given that I've had an initially quite promising phone encounter interrupted by a technical discussion of the cicada noise in the background, I expect YMMV.

They aren't my favourite insect anymore.
 

Puma

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Tree frogs! Tree frogs make noises all summer especially if it's damp. Sometimes I'll go in search of them from their sounds and find them wedged into the edge of the door frame, hanging on a tree, sometimes even hanging on to a large piece of grass. (I'm in Ohio). They make a trill type of sound. Very beautiful and very recognizable. However, they could also be in suburban areas.

There are a number of smaller frogs that inhabit rural areas - the peepers, chorus frogs, wood frogs, and tree frogs.

Another possibility for you would be the larger frogs - bullfrogs make a distinctive sound (green frogs are similar) and they'd both indicate there was water nearby. During the summer in the evening we get a chorus of bullfrogs, green frogs, and tree frogs (and we are in a rural area.) Puma
 

jclarkdawe

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It's always amusing to see the problems I can cause.

As well as tree frogs, in August you'd have bull frogs and cicadas along the lower Hudson. You'd have owls, maybe some coy-dogs and coyotes. If near farms, you might have cows mooing. Close to the river you might get peeples and seagulls, as well as the buoy bells and foghorns. Whip-poor-wills can be heard especially at dawn and dusk. Bats can be heard squeaking if your hearing is good enough.

Just as noticeable would be the lack of car hum, sirens, horns, and people.

Understand that night noises change throughout the night, and people who really know the sounds can tell you approximately what time it is by the sounds.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

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New Englander here, though I spent some years in the Albany/Troy area... crickets, yes. Cicadas, not so much. Loudest bird calls I've heard in the evening have been crows coming back to roost. They get talkative, it seems. Catching up with each other?
 

shadowwalker

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Ah. Given that I've had an initially quite promising phone encounter interrupted by a technical discussion of the cicada noise in the background, I expect YMMV.

I suppose if the phone were extremely sensitive... don't know if the police would be able to hear it though. As a reader from a rural area, I'd be skeptical. Akin to CSI identifying a perp from the reflection on a car door. ;)
 

jeseymour

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I'm glad you're amused, Jim. I'm thinking of going with the tree frogs. I just won't call them peepers. Do cicadas go that far north? We don't have them here, I don't think. I have done some camping in New Jersey, but not in the Hudson River valley of New York. I think I heard cicadas in NJ. Mostly I remember the monster mosquitoes, but that was because the place we were camping was built in a swamp. Literally. But I'm wandering. Tree frogs, not peepers.

Thanks folks!
 

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BTW, you can hear bull frogs for a mile or more, so there will be no problem hearing them over a phone call made in a rural area, especially if there's a pond nearby.
 

Pyekett

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It's an academic point now, but--

Do cicadas go that far north?

Yes, depending on the year and brood (link is to Massachusetts Cicadas page). They can produce noise to 120 decibels. This, too, is affected by species, brood size, year, and distance of listener, but it can be overwhelming, even in backyards:

Cicada song is illegally loud (Baltimore Sun)
...The insects, which clung to many of the leaves, were so loud they were audible even with the car windows rolled up. Williams checked her earplugs as she climbed from the car. Otherwise, she says, "it's painful after three or four minutes."

... At the [URL="http://www.absolutewrite.com/topic/science-technology/science/maryland-zoo-baltimore-PLCUL000181.topic"]Baltimore Zoo[/URL], employees have been forced to shout in the thickly wooded areas and listen hard for the sound of their walkie-talkies.

...In some areas, the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration could cite them for exceeding the 85- to 90-decibel limit set by law, according to spokeswoman Linda Sherman.

Regulators at the city Health Department's environmental health section would crack down, too. Daytime noise limits are set at 58 decibels at the property line in residential areas. Power tools and air-conditioning equipment are not allowed to exceed 70 decibels during the daytime in the city's neighborhoods.

This was in reference to a 17-year brood with 3 different species. Alas, my fated call was in a 17-year cycle breakout as well. My own cycle may not be quite 17 years, but I harbor sufficient resentment that I can cheer the cause of the lowly tree frog instead.

Best wishes on the book.
 

blacbird

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Distant dogs barking, sporadically. Really. For some reason, dog barks carry over enormous distances on quiet nights. I lived in rural areas of the Midwest U.S. during my growing-up years, and this is one of my most vivid nighttime memories.

Another would be distant train sounds, both the whistles and the general rumble of passage, although I suspect this is less common today than when I was a teener.
 

Pyekett

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Does the Hudson River still carry barges? If your call is made from near the river, it's another possibility. nautical008.wav is pretty close to my memory of the barge foghorns from nights along the Ohio River.

That, and the white searchlight playing through a bedroom window. Was hard to sleep for the longest time after moving to the city. Too noisy in different ways.

---
Edit: Heh, it's from the "Absolute Sound Effects" site.
 
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jallenecs

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I don't know about the Hudson River valley, but the Ohio River valley is rife with cicadas in summer. You tend not to notice them if you live with them, but outsiders find the noise quite notable.

---
Added: They go by cycles, but the cycles of various species differ. You can identify a lot by sound analysis. Looks like they arrange themselves around the eastern US hardwoods, up into Massachusetts, NY, etc.

Yeah, but cicadas are very picky about when they sing. they do NOT sing at night, they do not sing when it rains. Heck, they stop singing when a cloud passes over the sun for a moment.

again, I don't live in the Hudson River Valley (I live in the Ohio Valley), but here we have coyotes, foxes and wild dogs, all of which make very distinctive sounds at night. the foxes, in particular, are extremely unnerving, even when you're used to them; when they're in breeding season, it sounds like a woman screaming bloody murder.
 

Elaine Margarett

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I'm in Maryland...well, sometimes I'm in Maryland. The tree frogs here are so loud you have to raise your voice to be heard over them. I've had people comment when I'm talking to them on the phone and I'm outside that they can hear them.

How about a rooster crowing? It's a bit of a fallacy that roosters only crow in the morning. I've heard them at all hours of the day and night.

HTH
 

Pyekett

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Yeah, but cicadas are very picky about when they sing. they do NOT sing at night, they do not sing when it rains. Heck, they stop singing when a cloud passes over the sun for a moment.

*gently

In this, as in so many things, YMMV.

When and where a cicada calls depends on the species. Some are most heard in the middle of the day, some at dusk and into the early evening (which is the time of day specified by the OP). Apparently there is one species in Japan that is more likely to sing when it becomes clouded.

Life is wide and varied, well beyond what I myself imagine.
 
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jclarkdawe

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The train thing is probably something I should include, and I could even mention things like the various insects. Thanks very much everybody!

The trains on the Hudson differ depending upon which side you're on. The western side is all freight, mainly container trains, usually running in the 80 - 100 car range. They're hauling and my guess is they're doing about sixty mph. I've never seen a coal train there, although that doesn't mean there aren't any. It's all high speed freight.

East side is passenger trains mainly, with Amtrak and MetroNorth sharing track. Trains are a lot shorter, running maybe ten passenger cars at the most. MetroNorth is a push-pull operation, with diesel-electric power beyond Croton. Top speeds are in the 70 - 80 mph range.

Both lines are very close to the river. But there are differences in the sounds of trains, including the horns, but even more in the duration of the rumble sound. A freight train will take a minute or so to pass, while a passenger train is a lot shorter.

Barges use the Hudson heavily during the summer, and it's rare that you can't see at least one.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

jallenecs

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*gently

In this, as in so many things, YMMV.

When and where a cicada calls depends on the species. Some are most heard in the middle of the day, some at dusk and into the early evening (which is the time of day specified by the OP). Apparently there is one species in Japan that is more likely to sing when it becomes clouded.

Life is wide and varied, well beyond what I myself imagine.

Granted. I'm in the Ohio Valley, as I said, and we just endured the seventeen year cicada cycle a couple summers ago. The cicadas were so loud that they drowned out the television, the telephone, you name it. Conversations outside were impossible without shouting, and they would actually wake me up before my alarm would go off in the mornings.

Because they were so ubiquitous, and so loud, we all got to the point of really knowing their patterns. But, as you pointed out, my mileage may vary. So I qualify my statement: what I said holds true for the cicadas that were in the Ohio Valley this last cycle.