Apps

Bird ID Challenge

April 20, 2019 By Zola Zeester 7 Comments

How many birds can you identify? Maybe you could use a little help?

A couple of years ago, the National Audubon Society made available the Audubon Bird Guide App, a mobile field guide for North America loaded with 821 species, photos, descriptions, and bird call recordings as well as migration maps and a bird locater. Doesn’t matter what your birding skill level, this Bird Guide App is fun and a first-rate resource and learning tool. Best of all–it’s FREE. Thank you NAS!

Our On2In2™ friend and bird lover, Nancy (@nk03262) recommends these digital tools for birding beginners and beyond:

Merlin Bird ID app (it’s FREE) – helps in identifying birds you see in North America and Europe. All you do is answer a few basic questions or take a photo of the bird, and it provides a list of possible matches.

eBird – a free online program and mobile app that allows birders to watch, search and record sightings in real time. Read → How to Use eBird, by Noah Strycker (January 1, 2015)

Birdseye Finding Guide app (it’s FREE) – real-time info on what birds are nearby or in a specific location

Sibley eGuide to Birds app ($ fee to download) – a digital field guide for North American birds that allows you to compare two bird species images, maps, and sounds

Want to improve your Bird ID skills? Nancy also recommends the Feeder Birds Course offered by Cornell Lab Bird Academy. It’s a self-paced, online course to help you learn how to identify the birds in your backyard and understand their behavior at feeders, and includes custom practice tools, instructional videos, and quizzes (all available through your web browser, no downloads required and nothing is shipped, $59.99).

Interested in bird photography? Paul Bannick, a professional photographer and Audubon Magazine photo award winner, says birds are “fascinating and challenging subjects” (i.e., there’s no app for that), and he offers advice and a few pointers in this article “10 Tips for Photographing Birds“.

If you want to see birds, you must have birds in your heart.John Burroughs (1837-1921)

Bird migration in the fall and spring is a perfect time to get out the binoculars* and explore, and with more than 700 bird species, US national parks are prime birding locations. Check out the National Parks Conservation Association recommended best spots for fall bird watching HERE, and have some fun with your bird guide app. From December 14 through January 5 each year, tens of thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas brave snow, wind, and rain to take part in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. You can join the fun or follow the bird count results (check it out → here) Starting in January, listen for the mockingbirds as they begin to sing throughout your neighborhood.

Birding Festivals – There are birding festivals at National Wildlife Refuge areas (home to more than 700 species of birds) around the US and throughout the calendar year. It’s the perfect place to see and learn more about your favorite birds, or get a first look introduction to a species you don’t know.

🎅🏻 Christmas Bird Count – Every year from mid-December to early January, thousands of bird lovers head outside to tally bird species. Led by the National Audubon Society, it’s one of the longest running bird monitoring projects in the world, and the data collected helps researchers gauge how bird species will adapt to climate change and highlights shifting bird population trends. The best part is you don’t need to be an experienced birder or even have binoculars to join the fun.

Noah Strycker traveled across 41 countries and all 7 continents in 365 days with a backpack and binoculars, eventually spotting 6,042 species (the biggest birding year on record), and he wrote about his many adventures in the book Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World. Recommended as a “wonderful” read by On2In2™ friend @nk03262

Submit your bird identifications via a comment to this article (see below ‘Leave a comment’). Sorry, there are no prizes available for this bird ID challenge (no answers either), only the joy of eBirding. And, please share your birding adventures and photos with us! [To comment on any On2In2™ article, you must first sign up as an “Engage” member. No worries, it’s easy…Click this link]

Watch hummingbirds in action and tips on how to feed them

Give your backyard birds a cozy winter home and ‘Nancy’s Bird Butter’ for extra nutrition

During the mid 19th century, John Audubon spent more than 10 years observing and painting birds, then years more creating and publishing his legendary series of illustrations The Birds of America. You can view and download all the works of art from the original publication here at ⇒ Birds of America

We’d love to hear from you! If you’d like to comment on this post, join the conversation, or share your inspiration, and you have not yet registered as an On2In2™ playmaker, please sign up via the ‘Engage page’. Don’t worry, it’s pretty quick and easy.

*If you purchase binoculars or a book via an Amazon link within this page, Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.

All bird photos in this “Bird ID Challenge” article were sourced from Unsplash, CC0
Feature photo is courtesy of Ray Hennessy/Unsplash, CC0

Chess Championships

February 19, 2019 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

It’s the ultimate strategy board game played by millions of people, with origins going back to the 6th Century in Eastern India. From there, the game spread east and west along the Silk Road trade route, and evolved into an organized, contemporary “mind sport” with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses governed by the Federation Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) as well as thousands of tournaments, matches, and festivals held each year for players at every level throughout the world. In the early 1990’s, online play with opponents around the globe became possible via connection to internet chess servers, e.g. Quick Guide to Free Internet Chess Server .

How To Play Chess ⇐ US Chess Federation guide to the basics: rules, setting up and moving pieces, and scoring
Chess Play & Learn App ( Free w/ in-app purchases Android and iOS) Watch and play, practice tactics, solve puzzles, participate in tournaments, read articles, and watch Grandmaster video lectures and lessons to help develop skills.
SHOP HERE – Chess Sets *Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission for a purchase you make via the link here to Amazon. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.

WATCH LIVE & FREE On2In2™

Watch the best players battle for big prize money! The 2019 Champions Showdown: The Kings is an exhibition event featuring five individual match contests: Hikaru Nakamura vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Fabiano Caruana vs. Pentala Harikrishna, Wesley So vs. David Navara, Leinier Dominguez vs. Veselin Topalov and Sam Shankland vs. Richard Rapport. If you missed the live stream broadcast, there’s still time to watch video recordings of the matches. Just click/tap the “Watch Again” button or select from the video posts located on the media player below ↓

On Monday, November 26, World Champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway and American challenger Fabiano Caruana drew Game 12 of their 2018 World Chess Championship title match, leaving the score tied at the end of regulation; therefore, the drama continued with a series of tie-breaker games to determine the champion.

If you missed the 2018 World Chess Championship tie breaker games (Carlsen v Caruana), here’s a recap and analysis video.

The 2018 US Championship and Women’s Championship (April 17 – 30) are elite national chess championship events, featuring the strongest men and women chess players in America as they battle for coveted US Champion titles, world championship qualifying, and almost $300,000 in prize money. Separating men and women chess players in championship competition seems rather bazaar in the 21st century as men and women have competed at top levels since the late 1980’s, but the issue remains controversial [A Gender Divide in the Ultimate Sport of the Mind by Sean Phillips (August 15, 2010)]

If you missed the live stream broadcast of the US Championship and Women’s Championship, there’s still time to watch video recordings. Just click/tap the “Watch Again” button or select from the video posts located on the media player below. View pairings and results here ⇒ Men Women [Note: April 24 is a rest day. There was a Women’s Championship playoff on April 30]

We’d love to hear from you! If you’d like to comment on this article, join the conversation, or share your inspiration, and you have not yet registered as an On2In2™ playmaker, please sign up via the ‘Engage page’. Don’t worry, it’s pretty quick and easy (unless you’re a robot).

Feature photo is courtesy of Pixaby/Pexels CC0

Birdsong Melody

February 6, 2019 By Zola Zeester Leave a Comment

A mockingbird sang from a crabapple tree.
A mermaid replied from the depths of the sea,
And the message of both was the same as I send
Of happiness and joy to you without end.
—Bobbie, April 16, 1941*

The Northern Mockingbird is the only mockingbird species commonly found in North America, and is well known for its skillful mimicking of sounds and calls and large, diverse repertoire of songs as well as its intelligence and fierce protective instincts. Males and females look alike, and both sing; however, the male mockingbird is more vocal, starting up in late January/February and continuing into summer in order to attract mates and establish its territory.

The mockingbird has also influenced American culture, appearing in books, songs, lullabies, poetry, folklore, and mythology as a symbol of intelligence, protection, communication, innocence and generosity.

Jarbas Agnelli, a multimedia artist and founder of AD Studio in São Paulo, Brazil, uses film, photography, illustrations and music to create ideas. When he ran across a photo of birds perched on wires in a newspaper, he was curious to hear the melody created by the birds in the image, and composed the song “Birds on the Wires” using the exact position of the birds on wires as musical notes. So clever—just like a mockingbird, and beautiful. Listen and enjoy here.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/3973794″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

The “Birds on the Wires” video visually illustrates Agnelli’s remarkable graphic score, and has been viewed millions of times online and exhibited at the Guggenheim museums in New York, Berlin, Bilbao and Venice.

If you’ve ever had the experience of waking up to the musical sounds of birdsong, you know there’s no better way to start the day. Dawn Chorus, a free alarm phone app, makes it possible to create that perfect moment in nature and wake each morning (or, after a Sunday afternoon nap) to the peaceful sounds of birds. App features include customization of 20 different birdsong (with bird info & photos), snooze, and phone shake to stop. Available at the Apple App Store and Google Play.

MORE ABOUT BIRDS → Birds of America Hummingbirds California Brown Pelican Bird ID Challenge

*The “a mockingbird sang” rhyme was written in my mother’s autograph book by her childhood friend.

Feature photo of mockingbird in pyracantha by Flickr user, Sandy Harris CC BY-NC 2.0

Digital Art

March 8, 2017 By Zola Zeester 1 Comment

“The advantage of digital is obvious: You don’t have to clean anything up”—Pat Scott

Digital art is a new media art category of art works that have been created or presented by the artist using some form of digital technology – these are the electronic tools, systems, and devices that generate, store or process data, such as computer programs, mobile devices, online games and applications.

The early days of digital art, at times called ‘computer art’ and ‘multimedia art’, can be traced back to the late 1960’s when engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer joined artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman to form a group called Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT) with a mission to promote collaborations between artists and engineers. The result was a series of innovative installations and performances using emerging technologies, and as technology evolved over the decades, so did the art.

Since those early EAT experimental days, digital technology has revolutionized the way art can be made, distributed, and viewed. Instead of traditional art materials such as paint, brush and canvas, artists can now paint with light, sound and pixels on a screen or multimedia projection, and the resulting creative works of art are simply amazing.

You’ve got to meet Pat Scott. She’s a talented, tech-savy digital artist, and BTW, Pat is 98 years old. All her life, she has created art, but after moving to an apartment in a retirement community, Pat became concerned her paints would make a mess. So, she decided to try something new–digital art. Now, Pat enjoys using Photoshop and apps to draw portraits and create greeting cards.

Watch as Pat tells her inspirational, joyful story of a life enriched with creativity and innovation in this short (3 minutes) documentary “Try Something New: Digital Artist Pat Scott” from Julie Caskey.

In Try Something New, Pat Scott mentions she was inspired after reading about David Hockney using digital technology to draw and paint, and looking at his iPhone Drawings, it’s clear the reason for that creative spark.

David Hockney (born in 1937) was an important contributor to the 1960’s pop art movement, and today, he’s considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. He began sketching flowers on his iPhone in 2009, and later on an iPad, experimenting with the variety of brush techniques and colors of a painting app, Brushes*. His ‘Fresh Flowers’ exhibit (2010-11) included 300 iPhone and iPad drawings viewed on mounted devices and projected screens. Later, Hockney included iPad landscape drawings in both the 2012 “A Bigger Picture” and 2013-14 “David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition” exhibits. Learn more about the artist and 200+ works of art via the Tate website. See a list of current and upcoming Hockney exhibits → here.

Continue the creative art inspiration by watching→ Art Works and Digital Arts video channels, On2In2™ collections of videos FREE to WATCH, On-Demand

*Editor’s notes:

It was fun experimenting with colors and brushes using digital art tool Brushes Redux app. — “My Yellow Boat” Zola’s first digital art sketch experiment

♦ The Brushes app (updated & renamed “Brushes Redux“) is designed specifically for iPhone and iPad, and can be downloaded free from the App Store. Inspired by Pat Scott, I gave the app a try, and discovered it’s really a lot of fun, and only a little imagination, not art or tech expertise, is needed to create a work of art. There are many other art drawing and painting apps available for Apple products via iTunes as well as android apps for smart phones and tablets via Google Play. So cool. Recommend you give one a try, too. You’ll also want a digital art brush/stylus for drawing on the screen of your phone or tablet. Amazon has a variety at prices starting at $10+ for you to check out here → SHOP Digital Art Brush Stylus (Zeester Media LLC may receive a small commission for a purchase you make via the Amazon SHOP link. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.)

Not ready to go digital? Try coloring books!
We’ve got freebies for fun here→ Art Therapy

The digital art feature photo is a still shot from the video “Try Something New: Digital Artist Pat Scott”

Apps

Bird ID Challenge

Chess Championships

Birdsong Melody

Digital Art

“The advantage of digital is obvious: You don’t have to clean anything up”—Pat Scott

MUCH 2 SEE

THINGS 2 DO

PLACES 2 GO

PEOPLE 2 MEET

FOOD & DRINKS

JUST LAUGHS

Apps

“The advantage of digital is obvious: You don’t have to clean anything up”—Pat Scott

Footer

MUCH 2 SEE

THINGS 2 DO

PLACES 2 GO

PEOPLE 2 MEET

FOOD & DRINKS

JUST LAUGHS