Interview with Father Tom Pincelli

BirdNote^®

Interview with Father Tom Pincelli,
The Birding Priest of the Lower Rio Grande Valley

Arranged by Ellen Blackstone

This is BirdNote!
[Great Kiskadee calls behind the intro]
Today, we hear from Father Tom Pincelli — known to friends as Father Bird — from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, one of the premier birding spots in this country. This Great Kiskadee is a familiar bird of that area. [Great Kiskadee calls] Father Tom is a transplant.

I was born and raised in Connecticut, had a grandfather that loved the outdoors. Spent a lot of time with him, so I was always prone to trying to find some way to get out and about. [Sounds of waves and of Bonaparte’s Gull flock]
I had the Housatonic River out front, a backwater marsh to one side, and Long Island Sound to the other. [More waves, etc.]
My favorite bird? That’s a question people keep throwing at me. I always tell them, though, in all honesty, it’s the one that happens to be in my binoculars at that point in time. And I mean that sincerely. I like to spend time looking intently at birds. There is an innate beauty in each and every one of those species. Even a House Sparrow. Even a starling. [Squawk of starlings] It’s kind of fun to spend time observing not only their innate beauty, but also watching their behavior, their interrelations with other birds, and the rest. It’s an interesting hobby because you can take it to so many different levels. So I guess, yeh, my favorite bird would be the one I’m looking at at that particular moment.

 [Great Kiskadee calls]
The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival starts today. You may not be able to make it to this year’s festival, but come to our website, BirdNote.org, and see if you can find a festival near you. I’m Mary McCann.
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Call of the Great Kiskadee provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Bonaparte’s Gull call recorded by W.W.H. Gunn. Great Kiskadee recorded by G.A. Keller. Sounds of European Starling flock provided by: Martyn Stewart at Naturesound.org. Ambient track provided by Kessler Productions.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2013 Tune In to Nature.org     November 2013     Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# pincellit-01-2008-11-05           pincellit-01b