Wonders on the Web

" Red-Throated Loon , Common Loon, Arctic Loon, 1906-1909,"

Louis Agassiz Fuertes

Our kids and grandkids have at their fingertips a wealth of knowledge beyond anything we could have imagined at their age (assuming we were born before or around 1980).  At the tender ages of three & four, they lay belly down on the floor or the couch kicking their legs at one end and punching "buttons" on an iPad at the other end, exploring the marvelous world of the Web.

They have access, for example, to the world of wildlife sounds contained in the audio and visual collection of the Macauley Library, Cornell University, which goes back to 1929.  The original focus of the collection was on bird sounds and behavior, but it now contains a much larger range of North American wildlife.  If you have five or ten minutes, it is fun to explore the sounds, photographs, and video clips contained in the archive.  Listen, for example, to the "state bird" of the North Country, the loon, (here).