Hello,
I found your email address on your blog... and I found your blog because I've been searching bird song in Thailand for about two hours and I narrowed my search to trying to order Tony Ball's CD from a company in Holland that won't accept my Thai address and my French bank info... who could blame them. Somewhere in the Tony Ball google search your blog was quoted because you bought volumes one and two -- as it turns out, after actually going out with him as a guide!
I just want volume 1... and it feels like it SHOULD be easy to get since I'm IN Thailand!
I am NOT a birder. . . [She provided some personal information - an American living in Thailand who'd lived in Europe.]
You can't help but notice the birds here -- and I have seen at least one magnificent one that I can't find a picture of on line. But what is driving me crazy is that I am surrounded by their calls all morning and all evening but I can never find the one that's making a distinctive sound -- so I can't match sight and sound.
I don't want to study ALL birds -- I just want to know who's in my neighborhood... and I want to do that by sound.
That seemed simple until I started googling this morning!
Can you please help by sending me contact info for Tony Ball?
(When I go to his site, all that kind of info is in Thai!)
Thanks in advance,
EM
Google makes it possible for EM living in Chiang Mai, Thailand to find me in Anchorage, Alaska to help her get in touch with Tony Ball, back in Chiang Mai. So I contacted Tony and emailed her back with his email address and a link I made to a post about ten common birds in Chiang Mai. It also let me revisit our wonderful Saturday morning birding with Tony Ball.
I got a second email:
Just got an email cc from Tony that she's going to come by and get her CD and they'll plan a birding walk in her neighborhood. And I love the drongos with those long tails with the feathers at the end. You can hear them and the koel on the video here. And it took forever to get that picture of the drongo flying. Living on the 5th floor surrounded by tree tops helped.
Oh I am so SO excited! There he is! Yes, of course Tony Ball is exciting too, but I mean "my" magnificent and heretofore nameless bird is number 2 on your blog list! A Racket-Tailed Drongo!
Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo
And that fat one with the rust-colored wings is a Greater Coucal?My computer (like me) is old and slow and can't download the latest Flash whatever, so I can't see your video... but because I had the names now, I could go to youtube, and there I found the sound I've been looking for!There must be a very large and very lonely Asian Male Koel in the neighborhood because you can hear that mating call on all three "soys".I love that most of my "mysteries" are already solved AND that I am now able to consult the bird expert directly!I can't thank you enough!God willing and the creek don't rise I will be able to "book" Tony for a walk around my neighborhood -- I'll be sure to send you a report on that!I'll send a separate email to Tony Ball -- I'm really looking forward to meeting him!Best regards,
That is a beautiful story about the cross-pollination and connections that can occur on the in googling world of the internet.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could ID some of the birds I hear in my yard here in Palmer.
You have more readers in Thailand..Me for example. I enjoy your posts. I am not a "birder" other than to sit on my porch with a cold beer & watch the birds flying among the trees. Some months ago birds made a nest in the lower branches of a tree. laid eggs which hatched. My wife & I put up a small net to protect he hatchlings from our army of dogs & cats.
ReplyDeleteCheers from Huay Yai.
Anon - Palmer - your comment got blocked by the spam catcher and had to be released. There are Alaska bird call CD's available and you might try the Alaska Audubon Society, to find out about birders in Palmer who might help you.
ReplyDeleteCraig, thanks for saying hello and letting me know you're out there and checking in now and then.