Birds and Baseball

At the crack of the bat, a Blue Jay flies toward first and glides around the base. Deep in left field, an Oriole pounces on the ball. He wings the ball toward second, where a fellow Oriole snares it on a hop - just as the swift Blue Jay slides toward the base in a cloud of red dust. Ahh, summer baseball!

See below to take a look at a real Blue Jay and an authentic Baltimore Oriole, taken by photographer Pat Hemlepp. And thanks to Ken Gibson for this Northern Cardinal.

BirdNote^®

Birds and Baseball

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!
[Baseball crowd noise, peanut vendors in the background, crack of bat on ball]
At the crack of the bat, a Blue Jay [Blue Jay calling] fairly flies toward first base. The Blue Jay glides around first [Blue Jay calling], heading for second base. Deep in left field near the foul pole, an Oriole [Baltimore Oriole song] pounces on the ball. He wings the ball toward second, where a fellow Oriole [Baltimore Oriole song] snares it on a hop – just as the swift Blue Jay [Blue Jay calling] slides toward the base in a cloud of red dust.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the heartland, nine Cardinals [Northern Cardinal song] are routing a like number of carnivorous mammals – Cubs or Tigers [roaring], or perhaps a school of prodigious fish – Marlins or Rays [theme from “Jaws”].
In July, baseball and the “boys of summer” reign supreme in the sports headlines. Brightly colored birds adorn the caps of the Toronto Blue Jays, [Blue Jay] the Baltimore Orioles, [Baltimore Oriole] and the St. Louis Cardinals. [Northern Cardinal]
For BirdNote, I’m Rocky Rizz!
[Baseball crowd noise, peanut vendors in the background, crack of bat on ball]
###
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Blue Jay recorded by G.A. Keller. Baltimore Oriole song recorded by W.W.H. Gunn. Northern Cardinal song recorded by G.A. Keller.
[theme from “Jaws”].
Ambient recordings by John Kessler Productions.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org July 2018 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# 072406bballKPLU baseball-01b