Birdsong’s Blog

Watch “THE FLOWERS HAVE GONE WILD!” – a kids song video about wildflowers and their pollinators

Greetings my dear fans and friends!

I’ve been taking photos and videos of wildflowers and pollinators since I first wrote the song, “The Flowers Have Gone Wild” several springs ago.  I’m very excited to share the best of them with you in this 3 minute music video featuring “The Flowers Have Gone Wild” from our CD EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and Other Animal Songs for Kids. You will watch bees, beetles, ants, and bird pollinators in this video, and many kinds of beautiful wildflowers from the western United States. Each framed flower and splash of color reminds me of how much I love writing these songs and how much I love singing them with you. I hope you enjoy this video. Please share it with your family and friends.
May these flowers fill your hearts with the colors and sounds of the outdoor world!

With lots of love,
Birdsong

Teachers and Parents – Check out this video’s interactive companion lesson for grades K-2.

Watch our animal song video, “SO BIG! BLUE WHALE”- a tribute to the largest animal on the planet.

Dear Friends,
     I’m so excited to share my animal song video about the world’s BIGGEST animal, the blue whale.  “SO BIG! BLUE WHALE!” includes footage from my very fortunate sightings of blue whales off the coast of Southern California, U.S. This video also contains  concert highlights and song lyrics so that you can read or sing along. Help me pay musical tribute to the largest animal on the planet by watching and singing along to “So Big! Blue Whale!” from our with love CD IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs for Kids”. This song is one of a growing collection of whale songs and other animal songs for kids by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders. Enjoy!

With love,

Birdsong

Watch our kids song video about a very clever invertebrate – “OXFORD THE OCTOPUS”

Teachers and Parents:
We’ve created an interactive companion lesson that features this video and helps children dive deeper into the song’s content. Lesson includes questions, activities, crafts, song lyrics and resources for additional learning. This lesson meets CCSS in English/Language Arts and Next generation Science.

Watch our Butterfly Song Video for Kids, “I ALMOST KISSED A BUTTERFLY”

Dear Friends,

I was walking down a trail one day and, before I knew it, I was writing the song, “I ALMOST KISSED A BUTTERFLY”. This song is one of my favorites and is featured in this animal song video by the same name. This video mixes our live performance with the soundtrack from our CD “Everything is Connected and Other Animal Songs for Kids”.  It also includes the song lyrics so that you can sing along with us; and it ends with some fun questions about butterflies and caterpillars.

This song is based on a true story of my encounter with a butterfly while hiking at Crystal Cove State Park in southern California, USA. You can hear the story of this encounter  and the original rough recording of “I ALMOST KISSED A BUTTERFLY” on a previous blog post. I love singing this song and find it to be a wonderful way to celebrate these very interesting insects. Look for caterpillars and butterflies the next time you are outside! If you see a butterfly, please blow it a kiss for me.

– Birdsong

Listen to my new butterfly song for kids. It’s called: “I Almost Kissed a Butterfly.”

Hello everyone.

I’ve written a new animal song called I Almost Kissed a Butterfly.  I started writing it after seeing a beautiful butterfly while I was taking a walk.  Most of my animal songs are about an animal I have met or an animal I find interesting.  I think that butterflies are beautiful creatures and whenever I see them I feel happy inside.  My feeling of happiness and my love for butterflies are what made me want to write a song about them.

 CLICK HERE TO LISTEN  to my new animal song for kids, “I Almost Kissed A Butterfly”  

If you have any ideas or fun facts about butterflies to add to the song, please send them to me at:  littleonesmusic@gmail.com

(UPDATE on 8-13-15: You can now find “I ALMOST KISSED A BUTTERFLY” on our Parents’ Choice®  Approved CD “EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and Other Animal Songs for Kids” and in our butterfly song video.

Thank you for listening!

Sincerely,

Birdsong

p.s  Here are the words, or “lyrics” to the chorus of “I Almost Kissed a Butterfly:”

It was a near miss but I almost kissed a butterfly.
It was a near miss but I almost kissed a butterfly.
It flew out of the sky above,
And I gave that butterfly some love.
It was a near miss but I almost kissed a butterfly.

A Message from Oxford the Octopus

KEEP THE OCEAN CLEAN!

Coloring pages,  a message from Oxford the Octopus,  and a short song about keeping the ocean clean (at the very end).

READ OXFORD’S  MESSAGE:

Dear Friends,

Did you know there is a section of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of the continental United States that is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? My friends at the Surfrider Foundation say that “100 million tons of plastic” swirl in that patch. There is so much plastic in the water that it outnumbers zooplankton by six to one! The bad news is that this plastic ends up in the stomachs of my friends, the marine birds and ocean animals. In fact, one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals around the world die each year due from swallowing or getting tangled in plastic.

Turtle with plastic bag. Photo: Melbourne Zoo

Plastic is made from petroleum and it lasts almost forever. Every piece of plastic ever made is still in existence. That’s why it’s so important to me that all people try to greatly reduce their use of plastics, especially plastics we use only once and throw away.  You can make a difference and help protect the ocean, beaches and my friends who live in the sea. Here are some things that you and your families can do:

1. Use reusable bottles for water and other drinks. (By using just one reusable bottle, you will keep 167 single-use plastic bottles from entering the environment.

2. Bring cloth or reusable bags to the grocery store to carry your things. (For each reusable bag you use, it will save approximately 400 plastics from being used).

3. Reuse or recycle the plastic bags you already have. (For every thirteen plastic bags you don’t use, you will save enough petroleum to drive a car one mile).

4. Learn more and share ideas with others on how to reduce plastic use.

5. Don’t litter. Ever. (But you knew that already)

6. Download and color my Eco-Wonder certificate

7. Sing along to my song “Oxford the Octopus”

8. Still want to color? Download another coloring page of mine!

Thank you for helping to keep the ocean clean.  After all, the ocean is my home.

Sincerely,

Oxford the Octopus

p.s. To find out more about how to keep the ocean clean for all  ocean animals, listen to to the first two verses and chorus of our song “Keep the Ocean Clean”  from the CD “IF I WERE A FISH an Other Ocean Songs for Kids” by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders. Just click on the words below:

Song Sample: “Keep the Ocean Clean” first two  verses and chorus from CD “IF I WERE A FISH and other Ocean Songs for Kids” by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders. It has lots of suggestions about how to keep the ocean clean for ocean animals and for all of us. 

A Drawing of Sea Creatures by Jaden, a fan of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders

A picture of sea life drawn by Jaden, a five year old fan of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders

This is Jaden’s drawing of sea creatures sent to us by Jaden’s mom.  Jaden is a fan of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders and gave his permission for us to post this on our website and blog.

This is what Jaden’s mom says about the drawing:

“My son Jaden drew these sea creatures while listening to Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders singing “IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs For Kids” (his favorite CD!). I thought I would send it to you so you could see the art that your music inspired. There’s an octopus, sharks, dolpin, fish, sea turtle, sea otter, walrus, and whale (with kelp) – can you find them all?”  — Angela W.   (www.meltingpotmoms.org)

We love kids songs and art about about ocean animals, especially kids’ drawings.  Please send us your art or drawings about animals if you’d like others to see it on our Blog.  You can send your drawings of ocean animals (or any animals)  to Birdsong at: littleonesmusic@gmail.com.

Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders say hello to a gray whale.

In the this photo

Birdsong and Dr. Marcie say hello to a gray whale. How lucky are we?

Birdsong and Dr. Marcie will never forget this moment when they were greeted by a gray whale in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja Mexico during a trip with our friends from Baja Discovery.

This was a very special moment for us. We really wanted to see a whale so we kept singing our kids’ song “Migration” until a baby gray whale and its mother heard us and came right up to our boat. “Migration, Migration, my, my, my how far those gray whales go!” we sang. And that gray whale looked us right in the eyes!

“Migration” is one of the first songs recorded by Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders and is on our CD “IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs for Kids.” When Birdsong first heard about these amazing whales and their long migration every year, she knew she wanted to write a kids’ song about the gray whale. Birdsong often sees the gray whales off the coast of southern California where she lives. They make the longest migration of any mammal alive! How lucky are we to have had the chance to be so close to a baby gray whale?  We hope he or she liked our song “Migration!”

Do you have any special memories of seeing a whale?

Watch our Gray Whale song video for kids, “MIGRATION”

Dear Friends,

The gray whales have arrived in the lagoons of Baja, Mexico and they have having their babies! This is always such an exciting time of year for us at Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders. In 2007, we were lucky enough to visit the gray whales in the San Ignacio lagoon in Mexico. The mothers and baby whales came right up to our boats, poked their heads out of the water and let us touch them. (We even snuck in a kiss or two!) It was very exciting and the whales so beautiful. Thank you, gray whales, for making contact with us. We will remember you forever!

I hope you enjoy our gray whale song video for kids, “MIGRATION”. It includes beautiful photos of the gray whales taken by our friend Guy Loucks, performance footage of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders (taken by our friend Michelle Spieker) and beautiful singing by our friend and fan, Ella.

A whale of a hug to you,

Birdsong

Welcome to the Blog of Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders, where kids, animals and music come together, one fun song at a time.

We are very excited about our blog.  Here we will post songs, videos, photos and interesting facts about some of our favorite animals. We’ll even post songs that we are still working on and ask for your comments or suggestions.

We’re really interested in hearing from you. You probably know some cool things about the animals we are singing about. Maybe you have a comment, drawing or photo to share.  Maybe you have an idea about what we can do to protect a particular animal or how we can help protect the Earth. Or maybe you just want to read, listen or watch. That’s cool too.

Our first video will include  photos and a song about the California Gray Whale. It’s called “MIGRATION.”  This whale is so amazing. It was close to extinction twice but, because of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the gray whale is now protected and its population is growing. Stay tuned for our animal song video, “MIGRATION” in our next blog post.