Feature Sound: Haunting Refrains (Humpback whale)

Humpback whale. Photo © Tom Kieckhefer.

Miles' trumpet brewing
Sketches of echoing
Elephant wails
Through the depths
Howling lone wolf calls
Reeking in the mystery
Of a cow's moo-o-o
Reverberating
Bird cries
Harmoniously enveloped
In sopranoish choral chants....
.....longings.......
......sustained haunting refrains
Sung by the humpback whale
Diving, rolling and swimming
Through its subterranean jungle

Humpback whale songs can be typically heard in their winter breeding grounds (e.g., Hawaii), but this recording of a humpback whale singing was actually taken in one of their feeding grounds on Cordell Bank Canyon, off the coast of San Francisco, CA. The echoes you hear are from their sounds bouncing off the canyon walls. Sound ©Thomas R. Kieckhefer. Released under Creative Commons License, non-commercial attribution.