Time now for Listening Spot. This is the third effort filed under the self-describing pseudonym, with the recipe being a long field recording accompanied by a number of musical movements comprising a greater whole. Put simply, it’s just meant to be more dreamy.

For this outing we have left the Columbia River, and the Wapato Valley (aka Portland Basin), where we have settled in for a few months. (But barely, we’re not officially done here. There’s two more installments over the next two weeks.) Oaks Bottom is a mixed wetland on the Willamette River in Portland, about 10 river miles from the Columbia confluence, and the southern edge of Wapato Valley. In some ways it approximates what the Columbia shorelines would have looked like 100 years ago: marshy wonderlands where cottonwood trees thrive.

Oaks Bottom was my go-to destination for many years. I became quite familiar with the soundscape over time. I can usually identify the wildlife there by ear. If listening back to a recording I can tell you what season it was made, down to the month. My favorite season: Spring. It’s the best.

In this recording we hear the Black-headed Grosbeak. Instantly, that places it in the likely realm of May or June.

The sound of the cottonwood trees is another hint. In May, the leaves are young and pliant. By June they are big and broad, clattering in the breezes. Here is an excellent video on the sound of Cottonwood leaves.

Even in winter cottonwood leaves continue have their own sound—underfoot. Where other leaves—maples for example—now have the consistency of tissue paper on the moist ground, cottonwoods scrape against each other like coated cardstock valentines. Scrunch, scrunch. Scriff, skrich.

I think that’s it for this one. Cottonwoods Suite is available on all streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple, Tidal, Amazon, YouTube…) Friday, December 6th. I hope you can spend some quiet time with it.