Remix Birdsong, Win Stuff

Do you hear music in birdsong?  Real music?

With the beginning of March meteorological spring has finally arrived, but biological spring, by which I mean the official beginning to birdsong, migration, and the considerations of creating the next generation, is already well underway across much of the continent. Living the southeast as I do, the dawn chorus has really ramped up in the last few days. Pine Warblers, my personal spring alarm, have just begun to sing out from the loblolly boughs with a vengeance. Tis the season for birders to really begin to pay attention to birdsong everywhere.

Studio 360, a public radio show produced by WYNC of New York, is offering an opportunity for those birders with a creative ear towards singing birds.  To signify the completion of Cornell Lab of Ornithology's long project to digitize the entire Macauley Library of natural sounds - a remarkable 150,000 items - not to mention the beginning of spring, Studio 360 is holding contest for those who can use and manipulate that library of sounds into something new. You have 13 species to choose from among some of the most iconic voices in North America. From the sweet descending notes of the Canyon Wren to the haunting Common Loon.  Rules are as follows:

• Create an original composition.
• You can use as many (or as few) of the bird songs as you’d like — you must incorporate at least one.
• Feel free to write your own tracks, and to manipulate the birds songs however you'd like.
• Submit as many remixes as you'd like.

More information is available at the Studio 360 site. The deadline is March 17 at 11:59 PM.