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News
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These are some of the articles
featuring Hoot Owl Productions and Robert W. Baldwin.
Laura
Erickson's (For The Birds) Review of "A Loon Story"
July
31, 2007
A Loon Story
How would you like to sit in comfort while watching a
pair of nesting loons? They don't know you're even
there, so without disturbing them in the least you can
see up close and personal exactly how they lumber up
onto the nest and settle down on the eggs, how they
lurch up and reach down with their beak to turn the
eggs, how they pant or sit quietly or shuffle around,
and how, when their mate approaches to take over, they
slide back down into the water. You can watch them
swimming along in the shallow water near the nest, their
head submerged and neck moving subtly as they search the
water for fish. You can see the pair as one swims and
one sits patiently during a fierce thunderstorm, even as
they're pelted by hail. And you can watch how they deal,
surprisingly gently, with the ever increasing numbers of
painted turtles that climb up to the nest for sunning.
An entire nesting season was filmed and edited by Robert
Baldwin for the DVD, "A Loon Story." Normally I do not
like watching nature on TV or even in the movies. It's
too easy in our age of short attention spans to edit out
the quiet moments when birds are simply being themselves
and not doing anything dramatic. I'm particularly
dismayed when I notice a nature program on TV—even
National Geographic specials now stick in over-the-top
musical soundtracks that soup up the action, and based
on the shows I've seen, you'd think all animals do is
stalk, kill, and chomp down, minute after minute of
every day. All this quick drama is bad enough, but
sometimes what natural sounds they use don't match the
video. I don't know which is the more tragic reason—that
the producers don't know the difference, or that they
presume their listeners won't.
But Robert Baldwin's Loon Story is different. Many of
the scenes are long, drawn out glimpses of the loons not
doing anything dramatic—just living their lives. And the
sound is directly from the scenes as filmed. When the
baby loon hatches, you get to watch it first peeking out
from under its mother, and see how exactly it creeps
under her wing from the side and climbs onto her back.
You get to see its first swim, and its first taste of a
tiny fish—and, after it drops it and one of its parents
fishes it out of the water again, its second taste.
You also get to spend a bit of time with the loon
family's neighbors. There's the Great Blue Heron who
strikes at, catches, and swallows a large crappie or
sunfish of some kind. The Song Sparrow who sings his
heart out in the background much of the time. The
Red-winged Blackbird who occasionally lights on the nest
to search for bugs. The dragonfly taking a break from
catching mosquitoes to light on a sedge. And a host of
painted turtles who you start thinking of as part of the
family.
This is a cosmically good DVD—the kind of thing I wish
they'd put on TV sets in restaurants instead of talking
heads when you can't hear the sound anyway. It's
beautifully produced, with no narration whatsoever,
letting the loons and nature do the talking. I recommend
A Loon Story highly.
--
Laura Erickson
www.lauraerickson.com
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