Active Wolves

In winters past, I have often written about hearing the wolves howling out on the ice.  I have always wished for a decent way to capture the sounds, to share it here with all of you.  Many nights, Greg and I would wake up and hear them, then scramble to start the video recorder or the camera, since we don't own any audio recording equipment.  We have so many bits and bobs of little video scraps, dark as night, with limited sound quality.  Never could we come close to what we actually heard.  Until now.

I found a small microphone recently that fits into the headphone jack of my iPod.  It looks like a regular microphone, complete with a foam cover; it's just a miniature version.  It is made by a company called Amp Ridge, and I bought it through the website PhotoJoJo, which is an awesome place to find all sorts of cool tools and gadgets for your iPod or iPhone camera.  I took a chance that this might be just the ticket I need to record the wolves.

My opportunity came two nights ago.  While Greg and I were eating dinner, we heard the wolves singing.  We stepped out the door, and to our delight, they were just down in front...the sound was coming from that close!  It was amazing!  This video is what I was able to record, and it is just a small slice of their performance.

Because it is a camera, and not an audio recorder, you have to endure the black screen.  But close your eyes and picture a pack of wolves out on the ice, singing their songs.

After they stopped, I proceeded to cook dinner.  Greg decided to go down to the ice, just to check things out.  He came back about ten minutes later to report that it was an awesome and eerie experience.  He couldn't see anything ahead of him, but he could distinctly hear the beat of the paws, as the wolves were running past him further out on the ice.  There were dozens of footfalls.  It was difficult to judge how far away they were, but it sounded as though some were headed to Canada, and some were just wandering around.  They returned later in the evening, and howled some more.  It was like our own personal performance.

I feel doubly lucky, for getting to hear the wolves, and for finally being able to share it here.  When I listen to this, I feel like I could just loop it over and over, and never get tired of it.  They are amazing animals.