Twin sheet decorated with a polar bear and ways to slow global warming
This week I had the great fortune to teach a class called “Carnivores Around the World” for Portland Saturday Academy with 4th and 5th graders. How do you identify the skulls of Oregon carnivores versus herbivores? What are carnassial teeth? (Answer: a huge pair of teeth – the last premolar on top and first molar on the bottom – that meet to create incredible bite force) How do carnivores stalk their prey? Since carnivores are especially good at hiding, we also figured out how to look for signs of carnivores, including a scat scavenger hunt. Read more »
Listen to your ears, for your ears are always listening! Case in point: I was walking my friend’s dog the other morning around Mt. Tabor (Portland’s extinct volcano) when I heard a noise in the trees overhead. My ears told my brain I should try and find the noise for it was not unlike a nest of baby birds…so not unlike a nest of baby birds that it actually was a nest of baby birds. Nearly 20 feet above my head was a golf-ball sized hole in a maple tree, and coming from the hole were the desperate peeps of some hungry babies. After a minute or so, two incredibly red-headed birds arrived with beaks full of six-legged treats to try and squelch the peeping. I was shocked! I had never seen birds such as these! And I’ve seen a lot of birds, so how could this be? Logically, I deduced that this bird was completely new to science, so I promptly named it the lava-faced hole peeper. I spent the next two mornings filming the lava-faced hole peepers before consulting my Oregon bird guide. It was then that I learned of a bird called the red-breasted sapsucker. Oh well…I liked my name better.
How many tadpoles will this great blue heron eat in one minute? Take a gander, take a goose, take a guess . . . . then watch to see if you are right. Robert and I filmed this great blue heron in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, during a May spring day when the wetlands were flooded Read more »
The poster from the 2011 International Wildlife Film Festival. Art by Chris Robitaille
Well folks, with a happy song in my heart and a catchy melody in my spleen, it is my great pleasure to announce that First Snow in the Woods has won Best Original Music at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana!! What an honor, considering our competition was the best-of-the-best programming from the BBC, National Geographic and Animal Planet. I am totally thrilled to be recognized for our musical achievement. We have worked so hard to write music that is Read more »
Well folks, this may be one of my favorite fan photos of all time. Meet Finley, a 4 1/2 year old little girl who has been playing “pirate” for weeks, according to her mother. Finley is a huge fan of our underwater movie The Riddle in a Bottle – especially the pirate’s Peg Leg Song, in which a pirate sings about his quest to find a lost family heirloom peg leg. So how did Finley make her own peg leg? She wrapped bubble wrap around her leg, followed by a cardboard tube. I love it! We often get photos from young boys in swashbuckling, pirate-themed outfits, but we don’t often see young lasses in the midst of a seaworthy adventure. It’s sort of a princess meets pirate look. Ahoy to Finley!
We just found out that First Snow in the Woods: The Movie has won a 2011 Parent’s Choice Gold Award for DVDs. According to Parent’s Choice reviewer Gina Catanzarite, the movie is “quite an accomplishment thanks to spectacular visuals and brilliant editing.” To see the full review, click here. Read more »
It is with great joy that we present The Great White Shark Tribute Song from our new project The Shark Riddle! If you were going to create a song about the great white shark’s role in the ecosystem, about how it is needed for a healthy food chain, who better to sing the song than . . . . a sea lion? Why not have a marine mammal sing about its own role in the food chain? Get ready for a song that I believe is one of our best . . . and I hope you find yourself cheering for the great white shark! The high definition underwater shark footage was filmed by the talented cameramen from the Save Our Seas Foundation. Much of the sea lion footage was filmed by Robert along the Oregon coast. Read more »
A welcome Sisbro board, with waving pirate flag at Jacob Wismer Elementary
Here’s a joke: What does a computer call its dad? Read the answer below, from a 3rd grade student, in this blog post.
We just had the most amazing time performing author visits at Jacob Wismer Elementary in Beaverton, Oregon! It began with an extraordinary school welcome, complete with a hand-painted Sisbro pirate flag in the entry way of the school. Then we proceeded to do four assemblies. When the first group (of third and fourth graders) arrived bright and early at 8:30am, most of them were wearing pirate hats, and some kids even sported eye patches. The students were so well-prepared for our visit that it made our job easy. The third grade even presented us with a banner they made (see below). Read more »
In this week’s Wild Short, watch what happens when a millipede crosses paths with a toad. Rob filmed this shooting footage for the wildlife film Lost in the Woods. One of the toad’s most impressive skills is the ability to eat a meal in less than 1/10th of a second and look completely expressionless about it.
Here’s another installment from our new blog series, Wild Shorts. This slithery snowflake moray is hunting in shallow tide pools for a tasty crab or fish to eat. Snowflake eels are common in the tropical shallows of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Rob Sams filmed this one in Kona, Hawaii while working on the wildlife film The Riddle in a Bottle. This is often one of the favorite characters from the whole film.
