Bill of the Birds

On the morning of September 11, 2009, my camera captured a young male Blackburnian warbler launching into flight from our side-yard sycamore tree.

Roseate spoonbill.

• I have to be close to the bird.
• The bird has to be relaxed and not moving very fast or very far.
• The bird's head and eye(s) need to be visible.
  
• The light needs to be good (not too bright/too dark) with the sun behind me and the bird in front of me.
• I have to have the right lens on my camera.
• The compact flash card inside the camera has to have some space on it.
• The camera's batteries have to be charged.

Roseate spoonbill.

Last Friday, as part of his 10th birthday celebration extravaganza, we took Liam and his sister Phoebe, and two of their Columbus pals, to the Columbus Zoo. Liam really wanted to see the gorillas, though he assured me that the bison was still his favorite animal.

So, after checking out several of the other animal exhibits (broken up into continental themes: Asia, Africa, North America, etc) we headed over to the Gorilla House to visit the relatives. The gorillas at the Columbus zoo are western lowland gorillas.

What happened next was pretty cool.

We were looking through the thick glass enclosure at a humongous male silver-backed gorilla. It was eating some tiny seeds it was picking up off the floor. Liam was fascinated to be so close to such a huge animal. Adult male western lowland gorillas can weigh almost 500 pounds and stand 6-feet tall. They are called "silver-backeds" because the hair on their backs goes silver as they age?at about 12 years old. Males younger than 12 years have all black hair.

I couldn't resist taking some pictures of Liam watching the male eating.
And then the male turned to look at Liam...

And the two shared a moment of quiet, mutual contemplation....

I was so proud of Liam for staying in the moment and for realizing how special it was to be looked at by a mature male gorilla.

The only thing Liam said was "Man, this gorilla really likes looking at me!"

Liam even canted his head to the side, aping the great ape's head position.


We humans have something like 98% similarity in our DNA to that of western lowland gorillas. And yet, gorillas are endangered wherever they occur due to deforestation, bush-meat hunting, and persecution. While it's not as special to see gorillas in a zoo as it would be to see them in the wild, places like the Columbus Zoo help to educate (and fascinate) the public about these incredible animals. And the Columbus Zoo generously funds a variety of gorilla research and conservation programs in countries where these wondrous animals are struggling to sustain their populations.

If you have not yet been to the see the gorillas at the Columbus Zoo, I'd highly recommend a visit. Take the kids. Take the neighbors. Take your friends. But definitely take yourself. By the way, 2009 is the Year of the Gorilla at the zoo.

As we were leaving the gorillas, Liam waved goodbye to his new pal. And then he said "Waal, I think that giant man gorilla knew it was my birthday and that's why we had a special connection!"

Who was I to argue with that?

I've been spending some time lately in GarageBand, the nifty recording software that comes with all Mac computers. It's what I usually use to create my podcast episodes for "This Birding Life." Messing around with sound recording software and equipment is something that I really enjoy?in fact I wish I could do it more often. Way back in the early 1980s, before I went to college, I nearly went to an intensive recording workshop program instead. Why? Because I loved the recording process?recording tracks, layering on effects, building songs out of ideas. And because the recording school looked cool in its advertisements in the back of Rolling Stone.

These days I have to fit the podcast recording and building in among a plethora of other tasks demanding my time. But I still like it when I get to do it. I get into a sort of Zen-like zone with the recording and episode editing.

Recording the original material is the easiest part. I guess I find it really easy to talk to people?my subjects often tell me that I "give good interview." The real work starts with the editing. This is where good software comes in super handy. Once I listen through an entire unedited interview, I go back to the beginning and do an edit pass. Among the things I'm looking to fix are volume anomalies, bits of mis-speak, and extraneous noises (don't make me list them here, please).

After I have a rough audio edit done, I go back through to listen for image cues. If the person speaking mentions something worth illustrating, I jot it down along with a time stamp. Later, once I've acquired the necessary images, I place them in the proper spot in the audio timeline so everything matches up.

Then it's time for a final listen-though to make sure there are no blips, buzzes, jumps, pops, snaps, umms, burps, or other body noises. And once these dragons are all slain, its time to pop the whole thing into my Easy Bake Oven, turn the temperature knob to "podcast" and wait.

I always make two versions of each episode: a plain audio (MP3, with no images) and an enhanced audio (M4a) which has the embedded images. These are uploaded to the Podcast Central server by seasonally-employed podcast elves, and to iTunes by the fabulously tech-savvy Katherine the Good Witch of the Web. And we are officially podcasting to the world.


In 2008, in honor of the centennial of Roger Tory Peterson's birth, and in conjunction with the new Peterson Field Guide to the Birds of North America, I, along with the multi-talented Jeffrey A. Gordon, produced a series of video podcasts. These are available for free from the Peterson Guides site. They cover a variety of species profiles, some bird family overviews, a few tutorials on bird identification, and a couple of biographical sketches of the great RTP himself.


Notice I said video podcasts. These were created in Final Cut, a video editing software that is both wonderful and dauntingly powerful. These podcasts act just like any enhanced audio podcast, except that they can contain video clips, and a variety of more movie-like effects, such as pans, zooms, fades, and so on.



Some day I want to move "This Birding Life" over to video podcast format simply because it's so much more like watching a movie as opposed to watching a slideshow. Besides, many of us now have the capability to watch video over our mobile devices and smart phones.

All I need is time. So if you've got any to spare, send it my way, will you, please?

Well, it's time to record some voice-overs for my next episode of TBL. This next one's about The Big Sit! It should be done and available in a few days. Check-in back here and I'll let you know when it's up.

Until then, please lean close to the microphone and speak slowly and clearly.....

It's been a weekend cavalcade of activities to celebrate Liam's 10th birthday. One of which was a Friday trip to the Columbus Zoo. Here's the birthday boy rasslin' with a tiger sculpture.

Today, the actual birthday, we're having his choice of food (cheeseburgers, sweet potato fries, salad with pesto-ranch dressing, and chocolate cake with orange icing). The family is converging here at the farm, so we're bustling around in preparation.

Of the many things I admire about my son?his brains, his artistic ability, his curiosity, his ability to make us laugh?it's his inherent sweetness that I love most of all.

Every so often, when taking photographs, you get a head-on shot of a bird. Most of these images are fairly weird-looking, and often, they are unusable for publishing because they do not show the key field marks necessary for visual recognition.

Some of them are usable, however. I use this one (of a Carib grackle from Trinidad) to intimidate my kids into cleaning their rooms. I know, brilliant, right?

Here's how: Simply hang a poster-sized version of this image (shown below) on the wall, and pipe in the audio track from "The Birds."

Like Billy Dee Williams used to say about Colt 45 Malt Liquor: "Works every time!"

I found this sign outside a fire department compound on the island of Tobago in the West Indies.
Too many rules take all the joy out of living!