We've had great success with the nest box program this year, and we have a nest still going! It's not due to hatch out until mid-July.

posted: 9:46:05 PM  

I'm reluctant to criticize a film like Winged Migration, because any popularization of natural phenomena that does good box office is a good thing. And it's good to see some of bird life's greatest hits, like grebe courtship displays; it's instructive for me to see a lot of Eurasian species that I don't encounter in the field.

But I'm really concerned that non-naturalists will get a warped view of avian ecology. The only use of subtitling is to introduce species and give us an idea of the distances each migrates. The sparse voice-over narration is content-free, and leads us to believe that all species migrate to the Arctic. We see a cuckoo chick push a host egg out of the nest, with no explanation; we see various displays and outlandish vocalizations with no interpretation. The whole film degenerates into a series of music videos about "the whacky things those birds do."

The footage of birds in flight is dominated by Anseriformes (geese and their relatives), cranes, and other large birds—one surmises because birds of that order (1) fly during the day and (2) are most tolerant of the film-maker's equipment. Except for the bird parasitized by the cuckoo, there are no passerines (perching birds, of which the abundant songbirds make up the greatest number).

There's a lot of "Julia Child" natural history. A King Penguin is tending an egg, followed by a cut to a much larger chick attacked by skuas.

There's no question that there are some stunning images. The camera pans across an immense flock of Snow Geese in motion, until the frame is filled with white.

Just don't confuse this flick with a documentary.

posted: 9:32:52 PM