Mimic This, Mimic That

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What if they were tearing down your house, and all you could do was make the sounds of them tearing it down -- but make them perfectly?  That's what the Lyra Bird does.  It's as if it has a tape recorder built in it's throat.  You have to see it, umm, hear it, to believe it.  It mashes up all the sounds it hears together too, so one moment it is singing a song of a neighboring fowl and then a split second later it sounds like a camera shutter or a chain saw.  Can you say "whacky?"

Thanks Tod H.W.!

Birds Are Artistic Geniuses

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I used to think clouds were the top improvising artists out there.  These videos demonstrate otherwise.  I can't even conceive of the math formulas that were used to come up with these shapes.  And coordination and timing.

BBoing turned me onto this one this morning (stop it at the commercial unless you are into bungee jumping), and a quick YTube search found the next one below.
I don't have many regrets, but one is that I still have not hooked the video camera up to shoot out our window where I watch the birds' ballet every morning.  They dart and they swirl in organized clusters and seem to much prefer the cool air more than today's heat which keeps them still.  It's on my To Do list, so one day....