After They Left

Time went back to a moment during a late afternoon hiking in the middle of October of 2020. It was just before sunset, and I’m on my way back to the beginning of the trail in a valley. I’m always not being a fast walker when I’m walking in nature, fortunately, there were no other people left in the park which allowed me to enjoy everything around me at a very slow pace. I minded every step to avoid making any loud sounds disturbing the birds when crushing withered grass and dried fallen leaves on the ground. Suddenly, another crushing sound appeared on my right side, following a slight quivering of branches and leaves. It was not close to me on the trail and I could tell it was from somewhere also that not far away from me, somewhere halfway up the hills. So I stopped. I turned my head to the right, and suddenly, a buck came into my sight at a glimpse. It was a young buck all by himself about 100 meters away from me. His antlers were not so complicated yet. I turned my body all towards him to get a better view. It was rare for me to watch a buck on a regular afternoon with a four-minute drive from home. He noticed, stopped his steps, and turned his head to me. Our sights met.

For nearly one minute we were staring at each other. I hold my breath, my mind went blank only left the connection between the buck and myself. We were both standing still. He wasn’t making any sounds and I stayed quiet. It was me and him looking into the eyes in the same space of nature. Hummingbirds were waving their wings vigorously from one small tree to another, holding still near to their preferred branches. One scrub-jay called from the hill behinds me, another scrub-jay called back from far left, then another called from the side of the hill where the buck was at. A sound of caw happened shortly from the tree right next to me and a big black raven flew off to the direction of where the trail started then quickly disappeared. Bugs were coming out from the ground getting prepared for their long night, knocking on the ground with their tough shells. Some other small animals I couldn’t tell were crushing and shaking the brushes close to my front. The buck turned back his head, and slowly moved into a little leafy tree and slightly covered his body from me. Silent still.

I couldn’t tell what the buck was thinking when he was looking at me but I knew we were listening to not exactly but similar things. Could he be talking in another way that I couldn’t hear? Was it a warning from the buck or a simple greeting? The imagination that happened to both of us might be the only communication. The language by him transferred from the soundscape during the time we were staring. Every sound seemed initiated by the buck. He conveyed his messages by the wind, with other creatures passing his calling, and let it finally reached me.

Earlier this year, a virus speared all over the world and caused a pandemic to the human world. People packed their storages and moved back to their family houses. This sudden change to city people left empty spaces for city animals, and it might bring relief to them for finally being able to sink back into a more natural space than ever. However, for most of the city animals, the city seems to be the place they are born in and city sounds have already been built into their living system. Birds live in the city are changing their songs and adjusting their pitch to meet with their living soundscape, some could be less responsive to songs and lead to fewer mating opportunities. An immediate loss of a great number of sounds that happened in an area might bring them surprises. During the moment in After They Left, some testing calls begin at first. Alerts from birds at different locations start communicating the changes in their territories. Some hummingbirds start coming out from their nest, wandering around tall branches. Several bugs crawling to the surface, rolling up little rocks. Squirrels run across dry grasses jumping and climbing up to different trees. Some big ravens calling to gather around then fly away one after another. They are making more calls, the calls that spread far more away than they used to, and attract calls from the birds they barely reached before. It is the beginning of the march of the lives, a more beautiful world to them.

Oct 2020