Opening Program and Keynote Speakers

Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Title of Presentation:  "Mud Matters"

Synopsis:   Mudflats are prime habitat for a wealth of life, and the Eastern Shore hosts some of the most extensive and pristine mudflats on the Coast of North America.   See some of the things a pair who like to crawl around on their knees and play in the mud have witnessed out on the flats during two years of filming and recording through the seasons here on the Shore near their home.  This presentation will feature alluring, slow motion, eye-level close-up cinematography of many denizens of the flats, especially the birds, as they go about their day.  

Guest Speakers: Michael Male and Judy Fieth have made programs for National Geographic, PBS, BirdSight, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.   They've also filmed segments for several of the ground-breaking series that David Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit have produced -  "Planet Earth," "The Life of Birds," "The Life of Mammals," "Blue Planet," "Journey of Life," "Life in Cold Blood, and "Life."  

Michael was nominated for an Emmy in 2009 for his cinematography on the PBS NATURE program "Crash : a Tale of Two Species."   In 2010 Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology added clips from our library of bird footage to the "Birds of North America" online project.  Michael spent two months in the Arctic this summer with a nest of Snowy Owls for a production for the NATURE series on PBS.

Michael and Judy's labor of love is the "Watching" series of DVDs for birders. "Warblers," "Warblers WEST," "Sparrows," and "Waders" are finished and they're hard at work on "Watching Waterfowl," "Watching Shorebirds," "Backyard Birds" and "Birds for Kids."