Environmental sounds

Woke up this morning to the sound of a halyard hitting the flagpost outside the Post Office across the road. It reminded me of the clinking of boats in Rozelle Bay. But the most distinctive sounds at night are the Amtrak horns, blaring their chord over every level crossing possibly a mile or two away on the track that lines the bay from Emeryville to Jack London Square. This reminds me of the line in Richard Nixon's acceptance speech at the Miami Nominating Convention in 1968 about the boy who heard the distant train whistles in the night and dreamed of faraway places.
But it's not always night sounds. As we crossed Powell Street in the city yesterday I heard the sound of invisible iron chains scraping along the cement beneath the tracks and realised there is a sound that goes with trolley cars. I hear birds of course by day but would not have a clue about their accompanying plumage. And that's the way I'd want it. I saw some birds take off today and the trilling of their wings reminded me of Top-knot Pigeons. The smell of wattle or Sweet Pittosporum I can handle but Australian birds here would really make me think the world had been turned upside down.
By the way, do you know that 'The World Turned Upside Down' was the tune played by Cornwallis's fife band when his army surrendered to Washington at Yorktown?