April 21, 2014

“When do the birds start arriving?” asks the friendly older gentleman. “First two weeks of May?”

It is about 6:30 PM on April 21^st. The sun is low in the sky, filtering through the giant trees behind me. I’ve been waiting for this moment for eight days, ever since I filmed a Great Blue Heron fishing from the east side of the pond, and noticed how the not-yet-bloomed Magnolia on the western shore might frame the stunning Willow trees on the eastern side.

I’ve brought my digital motion picture camera, an inclinometer (a device for predicting the position of the sun at certain times of the day) app, and a digital audio recorder. My camera is filming the scene while four sensitive microphones are recording sounds. Crouched in a rather undignified position, peering through the viewfinder, with headphones in my ears, I hadn’t noticed the elderly gentleman coming up behind me. He and his wife have mistaken me for a birder. Disturbed from my nature worship, I smile as I turn and say: “They are all around us. Just listen”.

-Roberto Mighty

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Roberto Mighty is Mount Auburn’s first artist-in-residence. A new media filmmaker, photographer, and sound designer, Mighty will be documenting the conservation of the Amos Binney monument and creating a short film about the project and the monument’s history as part of our IMLS grant. Follow along with his progress by clicking the ‘Artist in Residence’ tag at the bottom of this post.