Now this attractive and well informed Maine couple are bringing their bird watching skills to television. These programs are carefully designed to offer something for every birder, from novice to expert. I recently reviewed the first program and enjoyed it very much. The Stokes adapt quickly to this difficult medium and I expect that the couple's interactions will improve as they relax in this new role. A tabloid format, the contemporary response to our ever diminishing attention spans, is established immediately.
Bird houses is the topic of their first segment.
I found this the least satisfying part of the production. A great deal of information, all of it accurate and to the point, is packed into this brief introduction, but experienced birders will know all this and beginners will be overwhelmed. The rest of this first program more than makes up for this false start. Unfortunately I could not hear the field sparrow-like song of the olive sparrow on the tape I viewed. The identification segment about laughing gulls focuses on a major complication that must be overcome when local birders try to pick individual species out of the thousands of gulls along the Niagara River each winter.