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Sanctuary and Bird Sound - with Patti McLead
Check in and experience the "heal country!"
© Patti McLead
When Patti and Patrick McLead purchased land near the Edwards Plateau in Texas, they wanted to create a bed and breakfast that doubled as a bird sanctuary. They built cottages and created a meadow. When they put in a pond, birds were quick to respond. This Black-crested Titmouse is among the birds that benefit from the habitat at Songbird Meadows Bed and Breakfast. If you plan a visit, you might be lucky enough to see or hear Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and Greater Roadrunners.
BirdNote®
Sanctuary and Bird Sound – with Patti McLead
Interview by Nancy Rumbel
Written by Chris Peterson
This is BirdNote!
[Evening sounds of a Chuck-will’s-widow]
When Patti McLead [Mc-LEED] and her husband Patrick came to buy land near the Edwards Plateau in Texas, they heard no birds singing. Still, they wanted to create a bird sanctuary and a restful B & B. Their son had been killed in Iraq, and they needed a place to come to grips with their new life…
“When we sat here under this tree in the front yard, thinkin’ about the property – there was not…ONE…BIRD…CHIRP. Not one.”
They built cottages and created a meadow. When they put in a pond, birds and other wildlife were quick to respond.
“We’ve had the Black-bellied Whistling Duck…[Whistling Duck]…we have Western Scrub-jays [call of Western Scrub-jay], Northern Cardinals... mockingbirds…three kinds of titmice…[song of Black-crested Titmouse] …Carolina Chickadees…we have three wrens…[song of Carolina Wren]. We have Golden-fronted Woodpeckers [call of Golden-fronted Woodpecker]. We have roadrunners all the time. They’ll even come up and drink out of the birdbath, which is a hoot! [Call of Greater Roadrunner]
Today their place, Songbird Meadows, is alive with the sounds of birds. [Wing-beat and call of Black-chinned Hummingbird]
“Instead of the Hill Country, we do call it the ‘Heal Country.’ We’ve healed so much in the three years we’ve been here.” [Call of Chuck-will’s widow]
There’s more at birdnote.org.
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Calls of Chuck-will’s Widows [105213] recorded by G.A. Keller; calls of Black-bellied Whistling Duck [58943] by P. Schwartz; call of (and ambient drawn from) Black-crested Titmouse [105593] by G.A. Keller; song of Carolina Wren [128907] by G. Vyn; call of Golden-fronted Woodpecker [103349] by M.D. Medler; call of Greater Roadrunner [8283] by A.A. Allen; and wing beat and call of Black-chinned Hummingbird [109095] by G.A. Keller
Call of Western Scrub-jay recorded by Martyn Stewart of naturesound.org
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org July 2016 Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# songbirdmeadows-01-2014-07-24songbirdmeadows-01JK as “Texas B&B”
Sights & Sounds
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This blog is the first in a series about the ways that members of the BirdNote comm