Moving Pictures

We've added some new talent to the roster here at Bird Watcher's Digest—staff members Wendy, Kyle, and Dawn. And this is opening up some new possibilities for us as we collectively figure out the various ways to apply our skills, expertise, and energies to the best possible use.

I'm not sure that video is one of the "best possible uses" but we made the video below recently and, if nothing else, we had a lot of fun doing it.

 

The goal of the video was to help people to better understand the various ways they can enjoy their Bird Watcher's Digest subscription in our many print and digital options. We were especially targeting folks who received a new computer, smart phone, or digital tablet/reader as a holiday gift.
I think we accomplished this goal (and the numbers actually bear this out, which we're thrilled about) but we're not expecting HBO to come calling anytime soon—unless they are planning a mini-series on birding, in which case we're all-in!

I'm looking forward to working with these fun, talented BWD people in 2014, and beyond.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go! Marty Scorsese is calling and you don't keep Marty waiting.

Wishing you and yours a happy, birdy New Year.

eBWD: An Award and Video Guide

A screen-shot showing the new issue of eBWD. Click to watch a video!

This just in! Well, OK, it happened back around Halloween...

The digital edition of Bird Watcher's Digest (the magazine for which I humbly work as editor) has been awarded a Silver Award from the 2010 Digital Magazine Awards! Everyone here at the offices of BWD is buzzing with excitement over this award, so I just had to share it here on BOTB.

We've produced six issues of eBWD thus far and each one has helped us refine our thinking and offerings for the digital realm. One thing has remained constant: All subscribers to the print edition of Bird Watcher's Digest automatically get free access to our digital edition.
That's correct, amigo. If you subscribe to the print edition of BWD, you get access to eBWD as part of the deal. Feeling the urge? Subscribe now!

As we'd hoped, we have lots of people subscribing solely to eBWD, the digital-only edition. Increasingly readers want to receive their favorite content in some digital medium, and we're happy to oblige.

If you have not yet checked out our "award-winning digital edition" (it's neat to be able to say that) please do so. Some of the features that set our digital edition apart from a print magazine include:

• videos of featured bird species
• bird sounds and songs embedded into text links
• recordings of select authors reading their articles
• hot links throughout the content and advertisements for immediate exploration

This screen shot shows some of the navigation options in eBWD.

But why read about eBWD when you can:

A: Go there yourself and sample some of the pages.

and/or

B: Watch a video in which I and (several of my well-dressed colleagues here at BWD) take you on a tour of eBWD. Here it is:



And remember it's not too late to get a BWD subscription as a holiday gift for that special someone who loves watching birds.

Summer Nature Video Highlights

This summer I've spent a bit of time shooting high-definition video. I am a rank beginner and learning as I go, but it's been an incredibly fun new hobby.

So here is a handful of five-second snippets from the hours of video I've shot (most of which is undeniably deletable). I am saving a few choice clips for later sharing here and elsewhere, though it's tempting to let it all out at once.

I think my dream job would be to be the person who gets to film those "Charles Kuralt nature moments." No voice over, no on-screen graphics—just the imagery and natural sounds of some amazing phenomena: birds, animals, plants, or landscape. I remember his segments so clearly from the CBS Sunday Morning television show.

I hope you like my little montage of clips. There's lots more to come. Thanks for watching.