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The Slice: This could be your big beak
Music director Eckart Preu explained.
The orchestra plans to perform Ottorino Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” in September. That piece originally incorporated the recorded sound of a bird’s song.
Preu’s idea is to find some local person or persons who can sing or whistle like a songbird and have him or her appear onstage with the orchestra.
Respighi made use of a recorded nightingale back in 1924. But Preu said the Spokane Symphony would welcome anyone who can make any sort of pleasing bird sounds.
He knows stage fright could be an issue for some. But the right volunteer just might discover a warm, welcoming environment at the first rehearsal.
I have a few more details. So if you are interested, please contact The Slice.
A bird story of a different nature: “A robin’s nest was right outside our back door, and when our Australian shepherd (and whatever) would go out the back door, he’d get dive-bombed,” wrote Sharon Fike.
But that family dog, Trooper, never regarded the robins as enemies.
“A new baby bird flopped its way into a shrub, then into the corner of the yard. Trooper retrieved the baby and brought (gummed) it back.”
Fike scolded the dog. “But I think now he felt he should bring it home. I never saw the bird again, so hopefully it made it.”
And still remembers being retrieved.
More on the appetites of coastal seagulls: Dick Barney was grilling steaks on the deck of a timeshare condo on the Oregon Coast when he turned to engage in conversation. In that moment, a seagull swooped in and swiped one of the steaks.
Dick and the others watched in astonishment as the gull took the meat down to the rocks below and fought over it with other birds, some of whom probably complained that they had ordered their steak well-done.
Kenneth Treadwell’s wife had enjoyed one bite of a corn dog at the Seattle waterfront when a gull grabbed and swallowed the whole thing, stick and all, in one big gulp.
“I often wondered if that seagull survived the day,” he wrote.
Today’s Slice question: What have people thrown at you from moving cars when you were out running, walking or riding your bike?
Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Kleone Deehr wasn’t sure what to make of it upon seeing an STA bus with “Merry Christmas” on its electronic reader board earlier this week.