It used to give me cabin fever to keep my windows closed for months in the winter or during hot spells in summer when you need the air conditioning to think straight. I always thought that I was missing the fresh air. But it turns out it was the sounds I really craved–especially bird songs and animal chatter, distant thunder and okay maybe even the hum of a lawn mower in the summer if it was far away and not next door.
Two years ago I bought this little speaker and microphone (no affiliation), and since then I’ve never felt cooped up in the house again. No matter what time of year, day or night, I can listen to the birds and other sounds in my neighborhood. I can hear the wind, the patter of raindrops, woodpeckers tapping on neighborhood trees, owls hooting at night, and Sandhill Cranes and geese flying high above our house during spring and fall migration.
The speaker comes with an attached 6-foot cord with a tiny microphone at the end. You can dangle it between your window and screen. It’s still pliable enough that you can gently close the window over it so you can listen to outside sounds with your window closed.
The little speaker uses A/C power, and it has a simple on/off switch with a volume control.
Last year I could hear those adorable turkey poults warbling and cooing from halfway across the neighbors’ yard before they waddled into our yard. That gave me enough time to run outside and toss some seed on the ground for them before they saw me and got scared away.
In the spring I hear migrating warblers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks through my speaker. That gives me the heads up to get outside with my binoculars to try to find them hiding in the surrounding oaks:
And when I hear the first Baltimore Oriole sing in May, I know it’s time to put some grape jelly and orange slices on the platform feeder.
I have to turn the speaker off when my neighbor uses a blower, trimmer or lawn mower. And more than once I’ve shot two feet in the air when a Blue Jay landed in a shrub near the microphone and let out a shriek that could wake the dead—even without amplification. But otherwise I love being able to listen to the sounds in my neighborhood even when all my windows are closed up tight.