Genuine bird communication resists capture by checklist and phonetic paraphrase

Evidence

It is easy to classify the attitudes of these wildlings, for each wears his heart on his sleeve. But there is one refugee in Clandeboye whose mind I cannot read, for he tolerates no truck with human intruders. Let other birds spill easy confidence to upstarts in overalls, but not the western grebe! Stalk carefully as I will to the bordering reeds, all I get to see is a flash of silver as he sinks, soundless, into the bay. And then, from behind the reedy curtain of the far shore, he tinkles a little bell, warning all his kind of something. Of what? … I’ve never been able to guess, for there is some barrier between this bird and all mankind. One of my guests dismissed the grebe by checking off his name in the bird list, and jotting down a syllabic paraphrase of the tinkling bell: ‘crick-crick’ or some such inanity. The man failed to sense that here was something more than a bird-call, that here was a secret message, calling not for rendition in counterfeit syllables, but for translation and understanding. Alas, I was, and still am, as helpless to translate it or to understand it as he. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 565

Categorization

• XREF: Compliment to ch5 ‘subjective interpretation of animal calls can mislead even experienced observers’ and to the soundscape listening ethic — sounds carry meaning that resists reduction. — connects to: Attention to birdsong converts undifferentiated noise into discrete meaningful perceptions — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 63
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Attention to birdsong converts undifferentiated noise into discrete meaningful perceptions #expands (0.80) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 63