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 »
Finley Poses with her Homemade Pirate Peg Leg
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!
Parents' Choice Gold Award for DVD
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.
Wild Shorts is a new series of wildlife shorts by us at Sisbro Studios. Basically we just thought it would be fun to post a short animal-related clip each week, along with some facts about that animal. In our first installment, The Snowman Thief, a very clever pine marten (a member of the weasel family) shows its skills as a thief after meeting a snowman. This footage was shot by Carl Sams while filming for the wildlife movie First Snow in the Woods. Pine martens live mostly in the northern regions of North America, and are usually active when the sun is low or after dark. Pine martens are very good hunters and are so curious that you can lure one out of its den by making a series of mouse-like squeaks.
We’d like to thank Bertha Holt Elementary in Eugene, Oregon for having us out for an awesome day. What a great school for an author visit! We shared our book A Pirate’s Quest, and the students and staff dressed the part. Nearly all the staff were clad in their finest pirate regalia. We even had entire classes show up wearing their own hand-made pirate hats. Of all our author visits around the country, this school ranks up with some of the best-dressed we’ve ever seen. Then a student asked for an autograph, but he didn’t want us to sign a piece of paper. He wanted us to sign his pirate hook. And so we wrote on the gray plastic curve, and we had our first official hook signing. Thanks for a great day!
Pirate clad staff of Bertha Holt Elementary during our author visit
Pirate clad students of Bertha Holt Elementary during our author visit
