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The Lost Bird Project
"Forgetting is another kind of extinction"
© The Lost Bird Project
In a forest on Martha’s Vineyard, a Heath Hen struts through the brush. Columbus, Ohio, harbors a Passenger Pigeon. In Okeechobee, Florida, you can find a Carolina Parakeet. A Great Auk scans the Atlantic Ocean from atop a rock on Fogo Island, Newfoundland. A sea-going Labrador Duck rests near the Chemung River in New York. How is this possible? Each of these species is extinct. Sculptor Todd McGrain has created a large bronze sculpture of each of the five lost birds and placed it in a location related to the bird’s decline, or where it might have been seen last. He’s done so because, as he says, “…forgetting is another kind of extinction.”
BirdNote®
The Lost Bird Project
Featuring the Work of Sculptor Todd McGrain
Written by Chris Peterson
This is BirdNote.
[Music from “Flocks a Mile Wide” composed for The Lost Bird Project]
In a forest on Martha’s Vineyard, a Heath Hen struts through the brush. Columbus, Ohio, harbors a Passenger Pigeon. In Okeechobee Florida, you can find a Carolina Parakeet. A Great Auk scans the Atlantic Ocean from atop a rock on Fogo Island, Newfoundland. A sea-going Lab-rador Duck rests near the Chemung River in New York.
How is this possible? Every one of these species is extinct.
All are “Lost Birds.”
The Carolina Parakeet once inhabited forests in the eastern United States, as well as wooded river bottoms of the Great Plains. Then, as swamps were drained and forests became fields and orchards, the parakeets turned to grain and seeds. Farmers saw them as serious pests, and began to shoot them in great numbers.
Sculptor Todd McGrain has created a large bronze sculpture of each of the five lost birds and placed it in a location related to the bird’s decline, or where it might have been seen last. He’s done so because, as he says, “…forgetting is another kind of extinction.” The sculptures are…“a testament to what we’ve lost…a reminder to preserve what we have left.”
For more details on the documentary, The Lost Bird Project, visit BirdNote.org
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Music from “Flocks a Mile Wide” composed for The Lost Bird Project by Christopher Tin. Performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by James Fitzpatrick for Tadlow Music. Used with permission from Lost Bird Project.
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 September 2014 Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# lostbirdproject-01-2013-04-19 lostbirdproject-01b
Chris Peterson
Writer