Thursday, January 24, 2013

Watch DOLPHIN DINNER - An animal video about dolphins by National Geographic


Dear Friends,
     This is a fun National Geographic kids' video about dolphins. Here you will see a pod of dolphins using their sounds to locate large schools of anchovies. After locating the fish, they then use dolphin teamwork to catch the anchovies for dinner. Echolation and cooperation are the names of the game in this educational kids video. You can watch more National Geographic kids videos at National Geographic Kids Online. You can also watch my animal song video about dolphins and echolocation, called Clickety-Clack, in a previous blog post. In this video you will find dolphin photos by NOAA and the lyrics of the song so that you can sing along. Clickety-Clack is the first song on my CD IF I WERE A FISH and other Ocean Songs for Kids  by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders®. This CD also includes songs about sea turtles, whales, kelp forests, pinnipeds, sea otters and my friend "Oxford the Octopus"
    Dolphins are one of many animals that use echolocation. Others include bats, whales, shrews and flying squirrels. I love seeing dolphins off the coast of California where I live. The sight of them inspires a playful feeling in my heart and always puts a smile on my face. I would love to hear about animals that make you smile. In the meantime,  I hope you enjoy these dolphin videos.
-Birdsong
Singer/Songwriter
Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders


The first edition of this post was first published on www.animalsongsforkids.com - Saturday, July 09, 2011 


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Watch CLICKETY-CLACK - Animal Song Video about dolphins and echolocation


Dear Friends,
This video for kids has photos of dolphins (thanks to NOAA), our dolphin song "Clickety-Clack" and the lyrics so that you can sing along. I love seeing dolphins off the coast of California where I live. I hope you enjoy our video for kids as much as I enjoyed making it. You can watch more animal song videos on our Birdsong TV Website. 




I got my idea for my animal song "Clickety-Clack" when I learned that dolphins make clicking and clacking sounds to communicate with each other and to find objects in the ocean. This is how it works: They make a sound and the sound quickly travels through the water. When the sound hits an object in the sea, the sound bounces back to the dolphin and makes a picture of the object in the dolphin's mind. This is called echolocation. The echoing sound helps dolphins find food, other dolphins to play with, and boats and objects in the sea. When I first learned about dolphin echolocation, the first words that popped into my head were "Click", "Clack" and "Clickety-Clack". I wrote the words down in my song notebook and know that I wanted to use them in my kids' song about dolphin echolocation. "Clickety-Clack" is my first animal song for kids on the CD "IF I WERE A FISH and other Ocean Songs for Kids"  by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders.  I hope you enjoy it.
    Do you know what other animals use echolocation?
 -Birdsong


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Watch this video of "Worm Poop Song"

Watch and listen to this sound clip of "Worm Poop Song" 
by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders. 
This song is included in our new  CD, 




Dear Friends,


As the worms were hard at work in the ground, we too worked hard to get the "poops" in '"Worm Poop Song" in perfect harmony. If worms could laugh I think they would find our tribute to them quite comical! This was a fun song to write and record.  Children, teachers and parents love to sing along, wiggle like a worm and sing "poop". It takes the everyone just a few seconds to realize that it's okay to say poop...and then off they go singing with gusto: POOP! POOP! And how can we not sing it? Worm poop is very important to the health of our plants and ecosystems. 

Special thanks to our back-up singers, Tyler F. and "The Girls" (Sue Bredice, Beth Fitchet Wood, Carolyn Miller) . . . and to the teachers at Anneliese's School in Laguna Beach, CA who recommended that I include the word 'poop' when they heard I was writing a song about worms :) And, as always, thanks to our fans and to worms around the world for inspiring this song.  I hope you enjoy this sample of "Worm Poop Song". You can hear this and all of our animal songs for kids on our Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders site.  There you can also watch our animal song videos about dolphins, whales, wolves, tide pools, sea turtles, orcas and more on Birdsong TV.

Sincerely,
Birdsong
Singer/Songwriter
Creator of: 

Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Happy New Year Message from Birdsong and Wolf Atka


                                                      
Dear Friends,
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
Just like Ambassador Wolf Atka, I have something to howl about this New Year.  After spending most of 2012 in the recording studio working on my new CD, "EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and Other Animal Songs for Kids",   I am proud to announce that it is now finished and released for all to hear!  I couldn't have done it without the help of my talented producer, James Coffey of Blue Vision Music and my recording engineer friends Art Brueggeman and Randy Rusk at Omega Music Productions. I hope that you enjoy listening to my animal songs as much as I enjoyed researching, writing and singing them!
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED  includes twelve original kids' songs about the connections between animals, plants and their habitats. I learned a great deal as I wrote songs about wolves, worms, wildflowers and their pollinators, butterflies, caterpillars, geese, gorillas, orcas, adaptation and more. I had an especially good time writing my songs "Bella the Gorilla", "Worm Poop Song" and "Honk! Honk!" 
While working on"Bella the Gorilla", I learned about what gorillas eat, how they communicate with each other and that they have emotions like you and me. While writing "Honk! Honk!", I learned about geese cooperation and how they take turns leading the flock on their long migration. And writing my song about worms taught me a great deal about these hard-working creatures and their important role in our ecosystem. You can listen to samples of these fun, educational songs for kids on our Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders website.
  
In future blog entries, I'll be sharing song lyrics, photos and videos of the animals featured in my new CD "EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and Other Animal Songs for Kids", as well as songs from my first CD, IF I WERE A FISH and Other Animal Songs for KidsTogether, we can learn so much about animals, plants and nature's "great big web of life." So let's go outside this weekend and see what animals, plants or other interesting things we might discover. And when you come in from the outdoors, perhaps you can play a Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders CD and sing and dance along to my animal songs for kids! 
Happy New Year!
-Birdsong
Singer/Songwriter
Creator of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders
Birdsong TV 
YouTube Video by Wolf Conservation Center