Vaux Flores - Manuel Antonio, 5 AM, nearly 20 years after my last encounter

As an artist working with sounds that tend to be science adjacent, one phenomenon that I’m continually intrigued by is the concept of the dawn chorus – both with regard to the ornithological sense of the term, as well as the electromagnetic – not to mention the various confluences that the two may engender. In the case of the former, while not a birder, or at least not one as devoted as numerous colleagues, the avian dawn chorus is an interesting measurement of the ecological health of a region – simply put, barring some exceptions, more birds equals a healthier ecosystem – and on several occasions, one can track a noticeable difference in activity as human development encroaches farther and farther into the few remaining wild spots left on this planet. With that in mind, I find myself continually compelled to document these moments of birdsong whenever I can, which, in this case, typically manifests as an early morning activity (possibly triggered by my own personal response to the electromagnetic dawn chorus) that I typically start my day with while on holiday in the tropics.