This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by the North Face, its new jacket, the Apex Flex GTX.

The Gore-Tex jacket so comfortable and well-made, it may very well change the way you think about the rain.

Today I want to think a little bit differently about the sound of rain

and not even the sound of rain itself, but the sounds the rain makes possible.

This is the sound of Sugarloaf State Park,

from a recording made by Bernie Kraus near Sonoma, California,

back in 2004.

You can hear the calls of Brewer's Sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, black-headed

grassbeaks, and deep in the background, there's a running stream. Here's the same park, same place, same time of day, recorded the same equipment,

the same settings in 2009 as California was entering a drought. Then the drought continued through 2014. By 2015 the sound of running

water was completely gone, and with it most of the bird song.

No sparrows, no grass beaks, just some tohees, junkos, white-breasted nut hatches.

In total, the drought reducedreduced bird-song at Sugar Loaf by a factor of five.

Bernie Kraus published a paper on ecoacoustics last year,

which included the data gathered at Sugarloaf.

But then, this winter, it started to rain.

In fact, this winter was so wet, and California is currently so green, that a few days ago I called him up to see if the birds were back.

But they weren't.

We don't know how long it will take them to return.

All we know is that if it keeps raining, they'll probably find

their way. And with the North Face's new jacket, the Apex Flex GTX, you'll be able to stay out

until they do. Hey everybody, before we get going here, I have a favor to ask.

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