Landmark Conservation Legislation in Canada

Canada has set an extraordinary example to the world. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recently set aside 55 million acres of land – half the size of the province – as permanent conservation land.

I did not read about this in the U.S. media and, shockingly, could find nothing about it in the usual news sources. I first heard of it on the Massbird listserv on which a member quoted Scott Weidensaul’s report of it, which she saw on the carolinabirds listserv.

You can hear about it straight from the source by watching this video:

Scott Weidensaul kindly provided me with a link to his original account of the landmark legislation at his blog. It is a beautiful story. And if you haven't read any of Scott's books, check them out!

Meanwhile, U.S. President George Bush lifts the ban on offshore oil drilling, and the U.S. Department of the Interior opened up 2.6 million acres in Alaska for oil exploration. Although there is no hope for significant conservation measures under this current administration, one can dream that improvements will occur in the next.

For a treasure trove of wonderful information on birds of the boreal regions, with suggestions on how you can help, visit the Boreal Songbird Initiative website. The site also provides a link for writing a thank-you letter to Premier McGuinty. I wrote to him and hope you will too. Thanks to his vision, millions of avian voices will continue to ring out from the far North for years and years to come.

Bird gives clue to location of Springfield.

At the very end of the new Simpsons Movie, a single bird song is audible. That bird is the Bobolink Dolichonyx oryzivorus, a member of the blackbird family that has sometimes been called skunkbird because of its contrasting light and dark plumage. The bird is a long-distance migrant, traveling from its wintering grounds in southern South America all the way to the northern United States and southern Canada where it breeds. If the Simpsons Movie is set during the breeding season rather than spring or fall, it’s possible that we can narrow down the number of possible Springfields by over fifty percent.

Click here to hear an exclusive MCM Voices news report about this important clue to the location of America’s favorite family.

Bobolink – photo courtesy USFWS

Breeding distribution of the Bobolink

A Producer a Day ....

I visited a producer yesterday of whose existence I’ve been aware since almost the first day I started in the voice-over business, a bit over a year ago. His company is situated a scant dozen miles from me but we had never met. In addition to doing voice-over and production, he can duplicate CDs, which is what finally brought us together as I needed to duplicate and print my newish demo CDs and did not want to get an entire 100 this time. This producer, whom I will call Mr. R. to protect the innocent, has a beautiful studio amongst woods and rolling hills. His indoor environment exudes wicked feng shui – as soon as I walked in the door I felt relaxed, as if I could jolly well knit up the raveled sleeve of care without eight of the dreamless (oh dear, Shakespeare and P. G. Wodehouse in the same breath – there should be a law). We spent a very pleasant half hour chatting about the industry – he has been in the business for 20 years – and I left with a great feeling about Mr. R. He has created an intensely professional studio, complete with ISDN, in a serene setting where he can do exactly what he needs to do and then step out his door and take a walk in the woods. I paused by those woods as I drove away, just to listen – a solitary chickadee sang, but in about a week the songs of hermit thrushes and warblers will ring from those trees.

I love the voice-over business. My reasons for loving the voice-over business are many and are material for later blogs, but I do enjoy it tremendously. The downside of the biz, at least the way I do it, living in a beautiful region outside of a large metropolitan area, is that I can do everything from home and not see people. Not even people like Mr. R., who are so nearby. There are scads of producers within 2 miles of my home and I’ve only met a few of them. And that’s my bad.

Back in my days as a biologist I saw my immediate colleagues every day, got invited to give seminars at other colleges, universities and museums, and every year there were the annual meetings to look forward to. The opportunities in the business world are just as great; one just has to figure out where they are. That’s my new goal: to see people every week. To exchange energy. Wonder if therapists talk about this at their meetings these days – isolation-induced pyschosis in telecommuters.

Funny goal, huh? To see people. Simple. But important. Hold me to it, okay?

Avian Voice-over

The voices I'm hearing today are avian - it's really spring and the eastern phoebes have returned to Massachusetts. Red-winged blackbirds have been here for over a month, but the phoebes are the first truly insectivorous species to come back. I brag sometimes about being able to imitate bird sounds, but honestly, it's pretty hard to imitate a flycatcher's voice with verisimilitude. I keep trying though.

So, I'm enjoying this taste of the new season. Sounds of American robins, blackbirds, titmice, chickadees, downy, hairy, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers - the kinglets, juncos and white-throated sparrows are still here or passing through - and it won't be long before the waves of warblers add their many and varied voices to Nature's multi-track mix. And the frogs - boy do we have frogs around here. Haven't heard 'em yet though. No rush.