Birdsong is one of those so-familiar sounds, sometimes we don’t even hear it. But with the advent of the pandemic, and the quieting of once very busy and very noisy streets, those dulcet chirps got a little easier to hear for us and, crucially, for the birds themselves. According to researchers who study white-crowned sparrows in and around San Francisco, increasing noise pollution has forced the birds to sing louder, less effective songs, hampering their communications with rivals and mates. This can lead to more stress, speed aging, disrupt metabolisms and get in the way of birds hearing their young chicks or warnings from other birds. It may even decrease bird diversity in cities. But once the scientists began studying the impacts of the covid-induced quiet, they found that it allowed the sparrows to recover “the acoustic quality of songs sung decades ago.” This suggests that the more flexible a species can be, the better able they are to adjust to changing environments. And it reinforces the importance of the quiet. A covid silver lining we’d be happy to see continue.

In other news, if you were looking for a little motivation on the environmental activism front, check out this Q&A with Erin Brockovich – the real one, not the Julia Roberts version. Her latest book, “Superman's Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It,” was published in August. Here she talks about the problems of poor water quality in this country and how essential it is for all of us to get involved locally to enact real solutions. We can no longer wait for the federal government, she says, it’s up to us. And it’s not a lot harder than making a phone call, really. We can all do that, right?