Season 546...can we revisit Season 54?

[Voran]

Thought you would get a kick out of this if you have not seen one. We had an imprinted one in our program for a bit (an inattentive handler let it escape through 3 doors, all of which should have been closed). Anyway- Leucisctic Raven, one of the coolest birds I have ever seen.
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH

I love white ravens. So ethereal looking. Thanks for sharing.

 

[joo]

Did another one for this week.
My cover is quite boring, but I would like to share the original really.

(I forgot to say- it just stopped raining when I recorded this, and the birds were out singing. I think the loudest ones were the mynahs..we have lots of them here.)

 

[TCK]

This has to be here and it ain’t yet- Steve played it last week and did a cracking job- he inspired us!
June Hymn.
Berni- she really sang out on this one mate.

 

[mountain goat]

didn't think i would be able to contribute this week -
in the chaos of setting up a new home and the internet
is not properly working yet: been surviving on a daily ration of
about 30 mins browsing UU at super slow speed. i have missed not being around -
this week has been nothing but pure joy to read from a distance, and had
i been able i would have posted a gazillion songs as i'm quite partial to
our feathered friends myself. anyway, this just happened and i have no idea how,
but thank you internet god: a traditional song twisted into my own shape
via pete seeger via folk of generations past. thank you Dave (and everyone)
for this week and for being pretty much the best host ever

 

[LimousinLil]

didn't think i would be able to contribute this week -
in the chaos of setting up a new home and the internet
is not properly working yet: been surviving on a daily ration of
about 30 mins browsing UU at super slow speed. i have missed not being around -
this week has been nothing but pure joy to read from a distance, and had
i been able i would have posted a gazillion songs as i'm quite partial to
our feathered friends myself. anyway, this just happened and i have no idea how,
but thank you internet god: a traditional song twisted into my own shape
via pete seeger via folk of generations past. thank you Dave (and everyone)
for this week and for being pretty much the best host ever

As a connoisseur of "super slow speed" Internet, Jon, I feel your pain! (Mine is now a lot improved and I don't doubt yours will be soon.) Good to see you were able to put up a song regardless and that you are safely installed in the new place.

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

I have a biscuit tin bari uke that I thought really had to be here this week, so I wrote a little song for it and the season...

"Red Robin Blues"

 

[Voran]

Lyrics:

It seemed so simple on the outside
She twisted her arms close to her ribcage
Her eyes flashed blue and grey, then they were yellow and gold

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once she was a young woman, now a great eagle

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once she was a young woman, now a great eagle

It works like this: you core out the bone marrow
Men and women must shed weight to fly
Honeycomb limbs distort and become wings

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once she was a young woman, now a great eagle

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once she was a young woman, now a great eagle

She wheeled and shrieked in the sky, dared him to follow
The golden eagle must mate, and spawn her fledgelings
He clenched his fist, and his pupils flared wide, then he soared

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once he was a young man, now a great eagle

And the shape-changer took flight from the bell tower
Once he was a young man, now a great eagle

 

[CeeJay]

Did another one for this week.
My cover is quite boring, but I would like to share the original really.

(I forgot to say- it just stopped raining when I recorded this, and the birds were out singing. I think the loudest ones were the mynahs..we have lots of them here.)

I remeber the mynahs, we had one that learned to imitate our telephone, much to the annoyance of me mum and dad.It also learned to do the whistle that my dad used to whistle Judy ,much to the bemusement of the poor dog !!

 

[joo]

I remeber the mynahs, we had one that learned to imitate our telephone, much to the annoyance of me mum and dad.It also learned to do the whistle that my dad used to whistle Judy ,much to the bemusement of the poor dog !!

Hahaha! I can imagine!
Yeah, my mum told me that the mynahs used to be popular pets because of their amazing singing or imitation talent!
They are amusing the watch too!

 

[LSamuels]

I saw Dave's post just before leaving for vacation last Sunday and grabbed the first bird-related, already-printed single-page sheet music I thought of--- something that has been on my "songs to learn" list for a while. It's Bashanah Haba'ah, an Israeli pop song from 1970 (lyrics: Ehud Manor, music: Nurit Hirsch) that I grew up singing at summer camp; I'm singing the original Hebrew version here, but the song became popular around the world, and there have been versions in English (one recorded by Steve and Eydie) and a few other languages as well. As far as I know, none of the English versions capture the beautiful details--- or the birds--- in the original lyrics at all. Here's a good translation, from https://opensiddur.org/prayers/coll...h-habaah-next-year-a-poem-by-ehud-manor-1968/, with the two bird references in bold:

Next year
We’ll sit on the porch
And count migrating birds.
Children on vacation
Will play tag
Between the house and the fields.

You will yet see, you will yet see
How good it will be
Next year. (2x)

Red grapes
Will ripen till the evening
And will be served chilled to the table.
And languid winds
Will carry to the crossroads
Old newspapers and a cloud.

You will yet see…

Next year
We will spread out our hands
Towards the radiant light.
A white heron
Like a light will spread her wings
And within them the sun will rise.

You will yet see…

This recording is not as polished as I would like, but with it I am sending wishes for a better year for the birds and the rest of us. Dave, thank you for hosting! And now I am looking forward to listening to the nine pages of bird songs that I missed while I was away!

 

[CeeJay]

Hahaha! I can imagine!
Yeah, my mum told me that the mynahs used to be popular pets because of their amazing singing or imitation talent!
They are amusing the watch too!

This little beggar was a wild one LOL. That was what was so brilliant about it. Sat on the gutter and just did his stuff.

 

[elmann]

Ida - Sweet as apple cider, mentioning two birds

 

[Ms Bean]

I was visiting relatives earlier this week, and I took my new travel uke. The result is this short video recorded by my sister-in-law, of a traditional French song. I only brought one verse, as the main attraction of the video had the attention span of a bird, and she was fed up with my playing.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alouette_(song)

 

[elmann]

I have seen lots of reports to know, that in our country the number of birds decreased by an incredible amount over the last 150 years. 70% of now existing birds are on the red list, and from the other 30% exist only a third of the former population. The older I get, the more I'm impressed/shocked by this incredible variety we lost.
You can't appreciate enough that people like Dave stand up for (diversity of) birds live!

For this a folks and children song from the 15th century with around 20 birds. The melody changed over the centuries, and this one is common since the 19th century. Over the decades new lyrics appeared (I didn't include), with birds like kakadus, kolibris a.s.o. normal people didn't know in central Europe in former times.
To get some variation I changed the key every 2nd rhyme, and stepped from G to G.

 

[Canada Jim]

The tragic tale of MARTHA - John Herald

 

[Joko]

With less than 12 hours remaining in this wonderful week 546, please accept my submission. In 1958, this made it all the way up to #2 on the charts, the Everly Brothers' "Bird Dog"

 

[bird's eye view of my ukelele]

One more homemade-y, on the robin uke again...

"Crow (Tell Me What You See)"

 

[ksiegel]

Jumping in here, last minute...

I've been caring for my mom the last couple of weeks - she had a major reaction to a new medication, so after a week in the hospital, I'm at her house most of the time, other than the 8-4 M-F when we have a home health aide, so I can go to work (Already used up my Family Leave - we get a whole 5 days per year, starting July 1, and this was her second week-ling hospital stay since then...)

So I grabbed a uke, and a laptop I've never recorded on, and it doesn't have Movie Maker, the program I edit with, so here's one take, pretty much raw.

Enjoy!

 

[_mourningdove]

I hope things start to get better for the birds soon!

 

[TCK]

WOW- Sunday game was STRONG this week! You guys went for it and I love ya for doing that-


Joo- I did not think this was boring at all! Lovely tune, lovely performance, and I really digging all the birds in the background Thank You- Off to peep the original.


Jon- I figured you were busy, because I know you have forgotten more bird songs than I will ever know. Glad the internet gods smiled on us for a moment and we got this lovely old tune, so well performed. Thanks mate- hope you're settled soon

BEV- AHHHH- What a fun uke!!!! Incredible sound here, loving the slide here. Thanks so much for writing and performing this for us on such a cool instrument- did you build it?

Voran- Awesome- we got a Golden Eagle in the set! They are my favorite eagle I think, mostly because the other we have (the bald eagle of course) is not nearly the bird that folks think it is (it is a scavenger and a thief lol). Once found myself in a large field with four of them right there...best day ever. Thanks for writing and sharing this (and so many) songs with us this week.

Laurie- YAY!!!! You made it! I love the sentiment of this song (gotta have a little hope), and that it is done in Hebrew. I can barely manage English and I am always impressed when folks do songs in other languages. Excellent performance, thanks for bringing this one for the birds

Heinz- I love everything you do, and this is no exception. Not everyone will remember when this was a contest, or that you a winner the last time I did a bird week (season 54- ten years ago), but I do. When I saw your post I was hoping for another scorcher and you DELIVERED- Thank you!

Sabine- This will probably seem funny, but I remember learning this as a child. Never had any clue what it was about, but we sang it everywhere...I am so glad to find at 50 that I was singing about a bird Lovely performance in a beautiful setting...and that hen is magnificent! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your travels to play for us!

Heinz- Man I am sitting in tall cotton tonight! As I posted to Laurie, I love when folks do songs in languages that I don't know (thank you for the English translation), and this is such a charming tune! As always, so well performed. Thank you again. This is a great bird song.

Heinz- Oh man- I had no idea there was a song about Martha, and I have studied her and her species extensively. No need to apologize for bringing this delight. Excellent bring mate- thank you do much for introducing me to it. Love this one.

Joko- He's a birdddd. Classic bring here mate! Great stuff here Joko, another that had to be here. Thanks for playing it for us!

BEV- Lucky us, we get two on this fantastic instrument. And another self-penned song, excellent. Over the course of a summer, I hand feed hundreds of baby crows. I am like a giant crow mom most days. At first, many years ago, I considered them loud, messy and gross. Did not take long with them to realize how really cool (and really smart) they are. Now I ask to be with the crows when I get to the center, and they yell at me all day.

Kurt- Nothing wrong with a raw take- this is awesome! Thanks for taking the time and playing this great little tune for us. I hope your mom has a speedy recovery. So nice to hear from you this week my friend.

Chris- Ha- I just realized I have the same uke- love it. Really lovely cover of this song, one I was wondering if we would get. Thank you so much for playing it for us. I am hoping this virus passes soon as well.

OK, this ain't over yet, but it is late here. Maybe we will get a few more so I am going to hold off on my favorite closer for a while. Gotta turn in early for tomorrow I return to work after having summer off (going to be ROUGH waking up so early).