A poor choice of background sounds for a scene taking place in the California desert (Common loon by John Cassady)

I am sure that everyone is enthralled with learning how the mind of the blogger works- what are the steps that lead to a given post. Well today (Saturday March 6), I started out on a post about red-tailed hawks, three of which came to my attention this week in interesting circumstances. As I began a little research, I learned that their calls are used in movies more than any other raptor, regardless of which bird is actually being shown on screen (imagine an avian Mel Blanc or Gilbert Gottfried). In sharing that tidbit with Cindy, she reminded me that tomorrow was the Academy Awards night and I ought to do a post on birds and movies. Voila!

The more you know about a subject the more critical you can be of popular portrayals of it. I liked the movie “The Verdict” very much except for one thing: Paul Newman rejects a large settlement offer without consulting his clients! He may be doing it for principles but the poor shmoes he is trying to help might well have preferred the principal. He should have been disciplined if not disbarred.

Most of my beefs though have been natural history related. Michael Cimino made one acclaimed movie called “The Deer Hunter”, an examination of the effects that the Vietnam War had on some of its participants. It is filled with grim imagery and heart wrenching scenes. My companion was in tears. Then the screen flashes to some of the protagonists hunting deer above snowline in the mountains of Pennsylvania (a red flag right there). All of a sudden there appears a magnificent buck- lovely picture. Except that the deer is a European roe deer, not a native white-tailed. I was wrenched from the movie-induced melancholy and flung into animation: “But it is a roe deer! It is a roe deer!” (As for my friend, let us just say she was courteous.)

One of the best movies I have seen in recent years was the poorly distributed and bleak “The Dead Girl” (2006). (Not be confused with “Dead Girl”, released two years later.) Directed by Karen Moncreiff, it received a little attention over the past month or two when leading lady Brittany Murphy moved from being a dead girl in reel life to a dead girl in real life, such as it is.  Anyway, two socially inept young people wind up the evening in the California desert where they are serenaded by the calls of common loons! Given the overall feel of the film, the creepiness of certain native owls would have worked much better artistically, as well.

PBS some years ago aired a magisterial production on the history of the Jewish people, backed by the dulcet tones of Abba Eban. A dhow plying the waters of the upper Nile- wait can that be? Yep, there is a singing mourning warbler! And then there is an early scene in of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where the tropical jungle comes alive with the truly wacky sounds of the willow ptarmigan. I can also think of numerous occasions of cockatoos appearing in South America and macaws in Africa, and old world vultures showing up in the American west. And when an actual turkey vulture is shown soaring overhead, the sound is that of a red-tailed hawk. (Really, when was the last time you heard a turkey vulture?)

Cindy says that I ought to end this with a warning: Don’t accompany me to a movie that features characters out of doors. (Some of the movies we have enjoyed together include “My Dinner With Andre,” “Das Boot,” and “Saw.”) But please send me your favorite feathered film faux pas. I promise to share them.

Have a nice Oscar night.