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Earth Sanctuary - Interview with Frances Wood and Chuck Pettis
Peaceful ... we need more of that!
© Chuck Pettis
Author and naturalist, Frances Wood, and BirdNote founder, Chris Peterson, recently paid a visit to Earth Sanctuary, on Whidbey Island, WA. Chuck Pettis has created this place, where birds feel welcome. And why? Chuck says, "We're losing biodiversity. This is a way of taking personal responsibility for diversity and a love of life. Even a backyard can attract a lot of birds. It's good for people to look at birds and hear birds; makes them feel good and peaceful. We need more of that." This Cinnamon Teal has found a refuge at Earth Sanctuary for the moment.
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Earth Sanctuary – Interview with Chuck Pettis and Frances Wood
Creating a Peaceful Place for Birds and People
Interviewed and written by Chris Peterson
This is BirdNote!
[Dawn Chorus at Earth Sanctuary]
We’ve come at dawn on a spring day to a place called Earth Sanctuary on Washington’s Whidbey Island. We’re here with Chuck Pettis, the creator of the sanctuary, and Frances Wood, an expert birder, to hear the dawn chorus of bird song:
G1T8 Wood: Do you hear that one over here that’s going tweet tweet tweet before it starts the rest of its song? [Song Sparrow] That’s the Song Sparrow. Pettis: ‘Yes.”
Wood: That’s the Song Sparrow. Pettis: I see them all over the place…You can get pretty close to them…. [Song Sparrow]. Wood: There you go. [American Robin]…The robins are just singing on top of each other…[Spotted Towhee] There’s that buzzy towhee [Spotted Towhee]...that guy…
G1T9 Pettis: Why are birds so much more active in the early morning…?
Wood: At this time of year, they’re attracting a mate and defending a territory, so that’s the first thing they need to do when they get up … it’s the males, mainly...
Why is Chuck creating a place where birds feel welcome?
G1T16 Pettis: We’re losing biodiversity… and this is a way of taking personal responsibility for diversity and a love of life…You can do a habitat in your backyard… because even a backyard can attract a lot of birds… G1T17 ….It’s good for people to look at birds and hear birds, makes them feel good and peaceful. We need more of that.
There’s more to this story at birdnote.org.
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Recording of dawn song 4/26/11 at Earth Sanctuary by C. Peterson.
Featured bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York; Song Sparrow, American Robin, and Spotted Towhee recorded by G.A. Keller.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2011 Tune In to Nature.org June 2011 Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# pettisc-02-2011-06-11
Sights & Sounds
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This blog is the first in a series about the ways that members of the BirdNote comm