觀鳥去，展開想象的翅膀

Melissa Block （Host）： Here’s an idea for trying to 1）pry your kid away from the iPod or the 2）Hannah Montana video： How about going outside and trying to find birds？ And that’s a proposal from Bill Thompson， who’s here with us today at Huntley Meadows Park in Virginia. And I’ve brought a young birder with me today， my daughter Chloe.

Bill （Bird Watcher）： Chloe， come here and see if this 3）scope is the right height for you. We may need to go a little lower. You see a bird in there？

Chloe： Yeah.

Bill： What color is it？

Chloe： Black and red.

Bill： Where’s the red？

Chloe： Like， on its wings.

Bill： Right. You know what that is？ It’s a male 4）red-wing blackbird. There， he just sang. He goes， “Conkery.”Melissa： How hard a sell， Bill， is it for you to convince your kids’ friends that birding might be fun， isn’t totally uncool？ How to， how to pry them out of the house？

Bill： Well， it’s…the first thing is just to get them out of the house. And it’s not hard once you’ve got birds to look at to spark a kid’s imagination， because， you know， birds have these qualities that we as humans completely admire. They’re beautifully colored， in many cases. They make amazing noises. And they can do something that we’ve only been able to do in the last hundred years， which is fly.

Melissa： We got a big bird flying overhead.

Bill： Oh， yeah！ Do you hear all the red-wings doing that whistle call？ That’s a warning. That’s a warning call. I believe it’s a young 5）red-shouldered hawk. So they’re warning everybody else， “Hey， there’s a hawk！”

Melissa： What’s that？

Bill： That’s a 6）phoebe. That’s the bird that we named our daughter Phoebe after.

Melissa： Back on that…that’s kind of a plain little bird. Bill： It is. It’s a 7）drab little bird， but， you know， they’re one of the first insect-eating birds that you start seeing in the spring， so it’s a real happy bird. And they’re really energetic. They’re always flicking their tail and singing， you know， “Phoebe.”

Melissa： Do you worry about kids losing touch with nature， and not getting outside so much？

Bill： I do. And we all have our 8）attention spans just cut down to a fraction， and it’s harder and harder to find time to do anything that takes time. I think the concern is that with all the stuff that gets pushed at us every day， you know， and cell phones and iPods and the Internet， I mean， we just…our brains are filling up and we don’t get that relaxing release that nature gives us. After all， we’re animals just like anything else， and this is our natural habitat. You know， our natural habitat isn’t sitting in a 9）cubicle.

Melissa： And then the trick is how do you get a kid， who’s used to fast action everything， to slow down and wait for what might be a long time before something shows up that’s interesting.

Bill： That’s true， but one thing we’ve done with our son Liam， who’s not really much a bird watcher yet. He’s eight. He leads the trip. We say， “Liam， you’re the 10）scout. You chart the path， and tell us what you see.” He loves that， because then he’s got a job to do， and he’s…he can self-pilot.

Melissa： Put him in charge.

Bill： Yeah. What I found really works well is to have the kid do as Chloe’s done now， write down the birds when they see them and the date and maybe the place. And then they’ve always got that book of memories for， for years to come. I’ve still got my book that I started in 1969.

Melissa： Really？

Bill： With my， you know， little 11）scrawly handwriting there about the first birds that I saw. And I， I love going back and looking at that.

梅麗莎·布洛克（主持人）：要把你家孩子從iPod或者漢娜·蒙塔娜視頻旁邊拽開，這兒有一個好點子：不如出外走走，看能不能發現幾只小鳥吧。這是比爾·湯普森的提議，今天他與我們一起來到位于美國弗吉尼亞州的亨特利濕地公園。我今天還帶來了一名小小觀鳥人——我的女兒克洛伊。

比爾（鳥類觀察家）：克洛伊，到這里來，看看這副望遠鏡的高度適不適合你。我們也許得再調低一點。你看見那邊有只鳥嗎？

克洛伊：看見了。

比爾：是什么顏色的？

克洛伊：黑色和紅色。

比爾：紅色在哪里？

克洛伊：呃，在翅膀上吧。

比爾：沒錯。你知道那是什么鳥嗎？那是一只雄性的紅翅黑鸝。你聽，它唱歌了，“康克利”。

梅麗莎：比爾，要說服你家孩子的小伙伴，告訴他們觀鳥也可以很有趣，并不是什么土里土氣的活計，這到底有多困難呢？如何……怎樣才能把他們從屋子里拽出來呢？

比爾：喔，那個……首先得將他們從屋子里帶出來。一旦讓他們觀察到鳥兒，要啟發小孩的想象力就不太困難了，因為你瞧，鳥類具有許多讓我們人類欽慕不已的特性。在大多數情況下，它們有著美麗的翎毛。它們的叫聲婉轉動聽。而且它們可以做到我們在最近一百年才實現的事情——那就是飛行。

梅麗莎：有一只大鳥從我們頭頂飛過去了。比爾：噢，沒錯！你們聽見所有的紅翅黑鸝都在發出尖銳的哨聲嗎？那是警告，是表示警告的叫聲。我想那是一只年輕的赤肩鷲。所以它們是在互相警告：“喂！有老鷹！”

梅麗莎：那是什么鳥？