Birds and Birdsong

My grandma used to dream that she was a bird - and in her most recurring dream, she would fly over cornfields to an abandoned barn, sitting lonely in the fall sun. It always sounded like a desolate dream, to me -- but she experienced it joyfully. She told me she would love to be able to fly like a bird.

We'd spend hours looking at picture books of birds, tracing them with pencil and tracing paper - and watching them from her front porch window. And, when she died, I gained possession of two gorgeous green glass birds - cardinals, I think, from the crest on their heads - which I have in my bedroom, and like to think of as grandma and grandpa watching over me.

So, I know she would love this new book by Dr. Miyoko Chu, a professor in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. I heard her interviewed on a terrific Iowa Public Radio program earlier this week. Its a pop-up book of birds in their natural habitat, with audio of their native songs! Did you know that some birds can actually harmonize with themselves???? Listen in .....