Diptych #24: Birdemic

This week, I learned what an ornithologist is.

Jun 13, 2022

In the hot summer of 2020, I helped my best friend and her grandma move some furniture from the basement of a historic home in my hometown. The owner of the house had many, many interesting things in their basement, but when some records caught my eye, they were quick to tell me they were willing to make me a deal on them.

Often when I come across records, especially now that I’ve been collecting for 7+ years, I have an idea of what I’ll find based on location. A dusty cardboard box in the basement of a turn-of-the-century home usually means country / western 78’s or gospel. What I found was a surprise and MUCH more interesting, to me, at least.

That’s where I found these two compilation records of bird songs. I didn’t know what they were or what I would do with them. I just knew that this was an interesting find, and I would at least get my $1 worth of entertainment out of both of them. I certainly enjoyed them more than the Air Supply LP’s I bought along with them.

Well, I put them in a new record crate, and later that week, a close friend gave me some more records, and these bird song LP’s got pushed to the back. I sort of forgot about them until a few weeks ago.

After spending over an hour wandering the depths of The Bargain Hunters Antique and Flea Market Mall one recent afternoon, I came across a new media booth that I hadn’t come across before. Mostly DVDs and common tapes, but this is where I found three tapes all about how to get birds to hang out with you.

I immediately remembered those records that I’d buried behind a pile of local religious and Australian soft-rock albums, and I knew it was time to share them!

A Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern and Central North America

First up is a companion piece to one of the most important works in the field of ornithology, The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America. This record is meant to be played as the listener leafs through their own Field Guide to hear the songs of the birds pictured. And of course, I’ve managed to track down the revised edition of the book as a PDF, in case any of my readers would like to thumb through virtually.

American Bird Songs Vol. 1

While this record isn’t intended to be used with any accompanying materials, the two hosts name drop each bird, and I’ve found that using the search function on the PDF above and finding the corresponding page really effective. I also really like this part where one of the hosts says “Yellow headed black birds must have frogs in their throats.”

This being the second edition, and released in 1955, a mere seven years after the first ever LP was pressed, means the first edition was on 78’s. While this record does have it’s cracks and pops, for it’s age I think it sounds wonderful, and the bird songs are very clear detailed. The equipment used to produce this was very primitive to what is available now, it’s really amazing to think about.

Three Hours of Bird Information

1998 | Runtime 50 Minutes

In this exquisite video, Don and Lillian Stokes show how to bring the magic of beautiful songbirds to your property by creating your own birdwatching paradise. In an entertaining and easy to follow format, the Stokeses give vital information on attracting the greatest number of bird species.

1989 | Runtime 60 Minutes

George Harrison, author of the classic book, The Backyard Bird Watcher, presents an uncommon video adventure with the common birds of the backyard --spring and summer. Willow Creek Press Introduction by: Roger Tory Peterson.

1989 | Runtime 60 Minutes

George Harrison, author of the classic book, The Backyard Bird Watcher, presents an uncommon video adventure with the common birds of the backyard --winter into spring. Willow Creek Press Introduction by: Roger Tory Peterson.

A Surprise Guest

Now I may have buried the lead a little here, but on both of the Birds of the Backyard videos, you may notice the description reads: “…Introduction by: Roger Tory Peterson.” And YES that is the exact Peterson who wrote THE definitive field guide on birds! He gives a special introduction, unique to each video!

I had no idea that all of this media was linked, but from what I’ve been able to research about Peterson, he was one of the most prolific ornithologists and illustrators in the world, so it’s no wonder why his name popped up on multiple forms of media all about birds.

&... Now for Something Completely Different

1997 | Runtime 21 minutes - Extended Play (EP) Recording Mode

Extreme Dinosaurs is an American animated series from 1997 based on a 1996 toy line from Mattel. This show is a spin-off of Street Sharks (where they first appeared as the Dinovengers).

Well, I suppose since birds are dinosaurs, it’s not completely different.

I came across this VHS in with a bunch of cassette tapes a guy on Facebook Marketplace was just trying to get rid of. It doesn’t have a sleeve, so it’s hard to imagine what the retail packaging looked like for such a poor quality tape, but this show seems nearly forgotten.

I’ve managed to find a Youtube playlist containing this episode and four others, which are higher quality than this transfer I made of an EP recorded tape, but this playlist contains only widescreen-stretched versions. To my eye, the un-stretched, lower quality and static of the transfer looks better, but if you’d like to check out some more episodes, this is a good place to start.

And in true irony, this show about dinosaurs was a bomb, as far as I can tell. I remember Street Sharks, the show this is a spin-off of. It was on tv many Saturday mornings, along with a host of other mediocre shows build to directly advertise new toy properties to me, but I can’t say that I remember Extreme Dinosaurs. This episode was pretty good though! Let me know in the comments if you have any recollection of this show airing on TV.

Thanks so much for checking out this edition of Diptych Newsletter. I keep Youtube Playlists of the all the wonderful media I find. You can check out the Video Archive here, and the Audio Archive here. As always, if you have any questions or comments you can get at me here or here or leave a comment below this post

See you soon.

—Forrest