Talking with the birds: Islander hosts BirdNote on NPR program
Published 6:18 pm Monday, November 24, 2008
Many of us — 150,000 from British Columbia to Chehalis, Wash., to be exact — hurry to our radios at 8:58 a.m. to catch the two-minute BirdNote program on KPLU 88.5 FM.
We learn how to talk to chickadees, how Stellar Jays mimic hawks and eagles to gain advantage in the neighborhood, how birds feather their nests, sleep with one eye open and change their tunes in urban territory. Six-hundred of such segments have been produced in the two-and-a-half years it has been on the air.
Its creator and executive producer is Mercer Island’s Chris Peterson, daughter of the Island’s late teacher Thero North. Peterson has had roots here since 1956 and graduated from MIHS in 1964. The former director of The Seattle Audubon Society said she draws her inspiration, in part, from the Island’s birds and nature surrounding Ellis Pond, near the family home.
“When you look closely, you begin to see what birds tell us about the large natural systems we all depend upon,” said Peterson. “BirdNote episodes are the little stories that add up to the big story of what’s going on in the environment.” She records some of the ambient sounds early in the morning from her Ellis Pond neighborhood, as well as from other places around the state.
It takes about 10 hours to make every two-minute show, she said. The facts are checked by a team of scientists to ensure accuracy. Sounds are also procured from the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University, the world’s largest collection of quality recordings of birds. Actor Frank Corrado narrates most segments.
Other Islanders on the 10-member BirdNote team are Todd Peterson, chief editor; Bob Sundstrom, lead writer, ornithologist and birding tour leader often at Luther Burbank Park; Frances Wood, contributing writer and Reporter bird columnist; and John Friends, on the board of TuneIntoNature.org, which produces BirdNote.
The team prepares to market the show to other public radio stations on the Pacific flyway.
“It’s time to take it national,” said Peterson. “If we have as much fun doing that as we have had making the shows for the Puget Sound area, we’re in for a really good time.”
Hear and see BirdNote at www.birdnote.org.
