Ocean Songs for Kids

Northern Elephant Seals gather at their land rookery as Birdsong sings “Pinniped Parade”!

Dear Friends,

    Today’s featured animal is the Northern Elephant Seal. Friends of the Elephant Seal, a non-profit organization in San Simeon, CA (USA), writes on their website: “The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, is an extraordinary marine mammal. It spends eight to ten months a year in the open ocean, diving 1000 to 5800 feet deep for periods of fifteen minutes to two hours, and migrating thousands of miles, twice a year, to its land-based rookery for birthing, breeding, molting, and rest.”

I had the pleasure of meeting these elephant seals last month at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery during 
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Watch Twin Gray Whale Calves with their mother!

My Dear Friends and Whale Lovers,

I recently watched this video by Dolphin Safari and want to share it with you while the California Gray Whales are still migrating from the cold seas of Alaska to the warm lagoons of Baja, Mexico. The sight of this mother whale and her twin calves (along with the sounds of their breathing) brought tears to my eyes, reminding me of how much I love these animals. I am a very fortunate coastal Californian who has the opportunity each winter and spring to observe the gray whales in their annual migration of 12,000 miles or more. Just this past weekend, I saw two gray whales while I was taking a morning walk at Main Beach in Laguna Beach, CA. They were heading south, so I know that some of the whales are still on their way to the lagoons. 
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Watch “KEEP THE OCEAN CLEAN” – our kids’ music video about protecting the ocean and its animals!

Listen to what the dolphins, whales, sharks, sea turtles, octopus and other ocean creatures have to say about how we can keep the ocean clean!

Love ocean creatures? Watch more of our ocean animal music videos about dolphins, octopus, gray whales, blue whales, pinnipeds, and orcas.

Read “What the Octopus Knows” by Sy Montgomery and watch our music video “Oxford the Octopus”

Dear Octopus and Mollusk Lovers,

I’m excited to share with you a fascinating article about octopuses and their unique ways of being, written by one of my favorite journalists and naturalists, Sy Montgomery and published in the LA Times online.

Below are excerpts from Sy’s article, “WHAT THE OCTOPUS KNOWS”. When you are finished reading, let your octopus awe continue as you sing along with our all time favorite octopus song video, OXFORD THE OCTOPUS! The more I learn about this amazing creature, the more I am convinced that we are sharing our world with countless intelligent animals from whom we have much to learn!

with love and an eight-armed hug,
Birdsong

From “WHAT THE OCTOPUS KNOWS” by Sy Montgomery:
“IT CAN CHANGE COLOR and shape. It can taste with its skin. It has a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake and ink like an old-fashioned pen,

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Watch our PINNIPED PARADE music video and learn about seals, sea lions and walruses.

 Hello my ocean-loving friends!

 “Come to the Pinniped Parade with me! There’ll be beautiful fin-footed friends to see!”  Learn about pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), their characteristics, behaviors and sounds in our fun, educational, sing-a-long video for kids, “PINNIPED PARADE”.  This animal song video has real pinniped sounds, photos from NOAA and my song of the same name. I invite you to sing, bark, burp, growl and march along with us!  

“PINNIPED PARADE” is one of the songs on our CD IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs for Kids and is one of my favorite animal songs  to dance to. ENJOY!

With lots of noisy ocean animal sounds,

Birdsong

Watch “HERE WE GO” – our sea turtle song video for kids of all ages!

Hello friends!

“Here we go, go, go! Wish us luck, luck, luck!” sing the newly hatched sea turtles in this fun and educational sing-a-long video for kids of all ages. Watch it and you will learn about the amazing life of baby sea turtles, the kinds of food they like to eat, and how they find their way to the ocean in the middle of the night. This video features my song “HERE WE GO” with beautiful photos of sea turtles as well as the song lyrics so that you can read and sing along with me.  Also, if you watch carefully, you will see Dr. Marcie and me singing “HERE WE GO” with children in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye in Belize and Orange County, California.

“HERE WE GO” is a favorite of our fans and is on our CD IF I WERE A FISH and other Ocean Songs for Kids. (A download of this song is my gift to you when join our email list!) Teachers and Parents, check out this song’s interactive companion lesson for grades K-2.

Here we go!

Birdsong

Read “The Kids’ Times” by NOAA and learn more about the blue whale!

Read “The Kids’ Times: Blue Whale”  by NOAA.

Like the blue whale as much as we do? Watch our music video,
“SO BIG! BLUE WHALE!”, and sing your heart out with us 🙂

Birdsong meets Killer Whales! Watch our new kids video featuring our song, “ORCAS”.

Dear Whale and Dolphin Lovers,      Hurray!  I met the Orcas (aka killer whales)!  In a recent trip to the U.S. San Juan Islands, Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders had the privilege of encountering the Southern Resident Orcas that are featured in my song “ORCAS” from our CD EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED and Other Animal Songs for Kids.  Imagine my delight when we sighted “Doublestuf” (JPod-34), an orca who is named in my song! We also met local educators, captains and researchers who are advocates of these beautiful and intelligent creatures and inspired us with their stories and dedication. They encouraged us to sign a petition to help save these orcas.      Needless to say, I feel more connected than ever to these animals; and I now have a new music video to share with you. This video weaves together my orca song with beautiful photos taken by my new friend, Captain James Maya, by NOAA and by me. Lyrics are included in the video, so watch and sing along with me with me as we celebrate the Orcas of the Salish Sea. With love, Birdsong

 

Watch Humpback Whale thank its rescuers!

Learn more about humpback whales in our kids song, “Humpback Whale Song”, from our CD IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs for Kids.

Learn about echolocation in “CLICKETY-CLACK”, our animal song video about dolphins.

Hello to all my dolphin-loving fans! 

I first posted this animal song video in 2009, and it has so far been the most-watched music video on our Birdsong and the Eco-Wonders YouTube channel. This song video for kids has photos of dolphins (thanks to NOAA), the song “Clickety-Clack” from our CD IF I WERE A FISH and Other Ocean Songs for Kids, and the lyrics to the song so that you can sing along with me. 

I got my idea for this 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 then bounces back to the dolphin and makes a picture of the object in the dolphin’s mind. This is called “echolocation.”  The echoing sound and the picture it creates helps dolphins find food, other dolphins to play with, and boats and objects in the sea. As I learned about this, I kept hearing the words “clickety-clack” in my head, and before I knew it i was creating this song. 
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