QRVO1 On The Road

  T  ITA TGA M TAJ ETTDE  TM E E O U ETA EM ET T T O T TT M E T T T A N E E E E TA TT T E IW ET  N IEEV LI EW EVTE EN EI E T/  I TE T K E T T EO E MTT T E TTA A EEMETMI N S E  E T  I T T E  N TETT T T   E ETN E E T    E    T      N  R I0MF UNEBZTK ST  EQMEJ S TK M M C D M A I IN  E O R E3 E  I EVE ANMNEAB E EYM  TM DIT TT ETT TTT ETT E A E I MNR R T A M T E E T ARTMTTNET I T T T E  EE A T TNTT5 O A I SM N A TTTA TE E   E  T E 5EE ET E E T T     5 E     T   DSENNEHT ESI I TE E I IT  E E DT T        T  T TA ED  TD T S T A E  N E T E T TI N Z  EM TTA ITE EM E YE N T  IOI MA    M T E  E   A N N  E T T N T GE T S T G  T T      E TT F M W M R T EEE G AS  ETET EN 0 T   OYAUTNE MA T  EEMM E  I R OE  E TTT ND I TTN TT O I T E EO E T  M     KTET TE E TE  E 

29 hours across the Baltic Sea to Travemünde, sharing a cabin with a silent old Finn who liked to clandestinely smoke his pipe in the bathroom. QRVO1 is slowly waving goodbye to this expedition. Investigation, however, will go on. 

M can stand for minus, magnetic, month or medium economy discount. Maybe for meal as well... I am waiting for another sign, a hint that would direct me further and let me know more exactly what this bird is referring to, but all it's interested in is food…

Finally he decides that it just makes more sense to spend a small amount here rather than a bigger one over there. Maybe it's some kind of nordic romanticism that makes me get Lapin Kulta, the golden beer of Lapland, as they call it…

Paldiski beach, about 1km south of the industrial harbour. Lots of cormorants around. Hard to say what their messages are. Very few utterances, sort of covered by the noises from the port.

Some road signs

Latvijas national bird is with me…

One night and half a day at Puise Cape, opposite side of Muhu Island. Plenty of house martins around. Very chaotic coding. Mainly E’s, I’s, S’s and H’s, as far as I can decipher this jumble. Now and again an A as well. Having a look at my list of abbreviation acronyms, the content of their animated conversation can have to do with A (di-dah) for attack, class-a airspaces, asphalt, alert areas, ampere or adults. E (dit) for echo, the east, an even altitude or an emergency. I (di-dit) for island, (fuel) injection or for infants. S (di-di-dit) for the south, straight-in (landing), sensitivity or for summer time. H (di-di-di-dit) for hotel, economy class, heavy (items) or a high level. Not to mention all the possible combinations like IA (di-dit di-dah) for intermediate altitude or AH (di-dah di-di-di-dit) for an artificial horizon… Quite disturbing all this. I’ll need to slow down the recordings to see what’s really there…

Cycling around Matsalu National Park coming across hundreds of cranes again. The first time they were on their way into the swamp to go perform their nocturnal concert, the following day they were helping themselves in the fields, a bit further up north.

Right in front of me, two white wagtails are crossing the road number 31 next to Tammiku. The first one: Di-dit di-di-dit. I, S. The second one reverses the message to S and I.  I stands for island, S for south. Whatever way you put it, it seems to be a pretty good idea.

There were quite a lot of mosquitos around, and since I was risking to spoil the sound recordings with my attempts to chase them away, I left the recorder on a stump and stepped back. Later on - the cranes were taking a break for some time - I listened back to one of the previous recordings. It was pitch dark. Immersed into the eerie singing of the cranes, I suddenly heard some wood cracking on my left. "There must be someone moving over there, or even worse: SOMETHING", it flashed across my alarmed mind. It only took about a second to realise that the noise I was hearing was actually the recording of myself walking away from the recorder… Only a second, but, oh, what a terrible one!

Some Vivienne Westwwod Oat Flakes in the morning and off - leaving the swamp and going back to Riga.

Made it out to record the cranes in the swamp. Only a blurry photo of the birds but several hours of beautiful sound recordings. All this thanks to Davis and this guy I met on the spot, a character almost as if he had jumped right out of a Tarkovski movie. Grey beart, slow movements, serious eyes, not smiling very often but when he did it was real. He was out there to collect mushrooms and to go fishing and lead me onto a narrow bit of land in the middle of the swamp. Weaving with our arms and saying ‘Krah Krah’ we both could be sure what we were talking about. Several flocks of cranes coming in around sunset. Unbelievable sounds. Lots of T’s (one long signal), E’s (short ones), A’s (short - long), some N’s (long - short) as well as a whole variety of musical intervals and long carrying echoes. I’ll have quite a bit of homework to sort this out further. Here’s a link to an extract: www.soundcloud.com/andreas-oskar-hirsch/cranes

Some regular freedom ducks on Ķīšezers lake next to the zoo. Not talking very much, but I am able to decipher the letters E, I and D. At several points, these three letters come in a row and thus spell 'Eid', the German word for 'oath'. An oath of freedom? An oath of companionship and solidarity? I would love to think so. Definitely not an oath of office. 

Owls in the zoo of Riga. Looking at me as if from another dimension. Complete silence in the midst of everything going on around: Other animals sending out their signals, people walking by, talking and laughing. Almost as if this silence was some kind of comment. In order to obtain a better overview, a northern hawk-owl sticks its head through the grid of the aviary and is contemplating things from above. Zoos are strange places.