Donald Kroodsma, one of the world’s leading experts on bird songs, will be in Hancock and Peterborough on May 7 and 8, showing how he listens for, records and analyzes bird songs.
Kroodsma, author of the award-winning 2005 book, “The Singing Life of Birds,” will give a presentation at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock on Friday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. Kroodsma will show what he has learned during his 30-plus years of recording, collecting and analyzing bird songs throughout North America.
The next morning, Saturday, May 8, at Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm on Steele Road in Peterborough, Kroodsma will lead a field demonstration to show how he records and analyzes bird songs. Meeting at 7:30 a.m., participants will join Kroodsma with his recording equipment to capture the songs of local birds.
Afterwards, with the help of computer software, Kroodsma will dissect those songs to show how to better understand the patterns and vocalizations of various birds.
Kroodsma has been widely featured in national media about his research and writings on bird songs. A report on National Public Radio’s Radio Expeditions described how Kroodsma has traveled across the country on bicycle to record, collect and analyze bird songs along the way. “After some intense listening and study, Kroodsma concluded that, just as with people, where a bird learned a song is just as important as a bird's genealogy,” NPR’s report said. “He noticed in his travels that birds of the same species but in different states sang the same song, but with their own unique ‘accents.’”
Both events are free of charge and sponsored by the Harris Center and Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm. No registration is required.
For more information, call 525-3394 or visit www.harriscenter.org or www.peterboroughcohousing.org. |
