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This blog features music and video by the Melbourne Florida based artist known as Mark King.
www.highontechnology.tech is a blog about recording, sound and gear. You'll find insightful information and a fun look at sound based on over 60+ years of Mark's professional experience.
www.markkingradio.com is where you can listen to high quality streams of Mark King music, hosted on the Sound Cloud platform and all 100% commercial and advertisement FREE, (no ads or interruptions).
CONTACT: All Mark King web sites and blogs share a common email address on the High on Technology site. Rest assured, if you use this your address will never be shared, spammed or contacted again (unless you specifically request a reply). We always welcome your kind and courteous comments and suggestions.
ABOUT MARK KING VIDEO (where you are currently)
Who doesn't love lava lamps or wild birds doing bird stuff? I created these videos using live, improvised musical adventures for the sound tracks and long video shots of wild birds relaxing. We've had Lava Lamps around the studio for years but they keep wearing out. The lava in modern ones stops undulating when they get to be around a year old. So to preserve the tranquil peace these lamps are capable of providing I recorded a couple of our favorite Lava Lights and set them to music - Lava peace On-Demand and zero maintenance or cost.
MORE VIDEOS COMING
War of the Worlds is not tranquil but it was fun to produce. I will be making more videos, we have lots of creative ideas in the works.
Peacocks, Ducks, and other critters
The birds and animals featured in Mark King Videos were all recorded on our farm in Melbourne, the pond is out behind the recording studio. All around us is construction (apartment buildings, power distribution, grocery stores, parking lots, etc) we have this little bit of heaven where we offer animals a respite from all the chaos and destruction of their natural habitat. Wild Peafowl (Peacocks and Peahens) live in the trees behind our home. On a typical day over a dozen peafowl visit us looking for treats and kindness. It's not uncommon to look out in the chicken world and see four or five peafowl napping.
Did you know, male Peacocks (the ones with the giant beautiful tail feathers) pull out all those magnificent tail feathers every summer, typically starting in June and all gone by July. Every year the boys grow all new tail feathers in December and January so they can woo the ladies throughout the Spring season.
Peacock Displays - Peacocks put their tail feathers up in a beautiful fan display, but why? There are two reasons for the display, they are trying to attract a female peahen OR they are attempting to intimidate an invader. Sometimes young peacocks display around other males who judge the display, it's as if they're asking each other "how do I look?" before they go out looking for girls.
FOUR OR FIVE KINDS OF WILD DUCKS
There are several breeds of wild ducks that come and relax here. Muscovy, Wood Ducks, Brown Florida Mottled Ducks, Black Belly Whistling Ducks (we call them Peep'a Peeps because of their song). When we're really lucky (typically in the Spring) we are also visited by migrating Merganser ducks.
STORKS
It's always a good day when an American Stork visits. They are surprisingly unafraid of us (Mary and I) if we don't try to get too close to them.
CHICKENS
We love chickens and have over 100 of them on our farm. We don't eat them, we don't sell them and we don't sell eggs. The chickens are our friends and pets we try to keep safe. We let the chickens out of their coops at first sunup and during the day the chickens free range around the farm. At night they go back to their respective home and bed down just before the sun goes dark for the night.
We always had wild birds visiting but since we adopted the chickens back in March of 2021 we now have A LOT of wild birds visiting. It is almost as if the chickens tell the wild birds "these two humans are ok, don't trust the others but these two are good and won't kill you".
HERONS
There are several breeds of Herons and Egrets that visit on any given day. There is a large "Great Blue Heron" we call Huey that visits almost every day. For such a big bird he is a scaredy cat around humans, we never try to get close to him or he will honk and fly away. There is a small Tri-Color Heron who fishes in our pond daily.
ANHINGA (usually a female, we call her Anna)
These are really weird birds, they fly underwater and catch fish. They surface with their catch and swallow it whole, sometimes 10 fish or more in a single fishing trip. After she fills up she perches on a floating island with her wings out, she shakes them and poses in the bright sun trying to dry off so she can fly again (she can't fly with wet feathers).
SNAKES
Black Racer and Florida Water Snakes are common around the area but all the birds keep the snakes out of sight. Peacocks love to eat snakes, they swallow them like spaghetti, whole, slurping them down. Since all the birds came to our farm we rarely see snakes (even the poisonous varieties like the second most deadly snake in the world, the Coral Snake). We saw a couple of Coral Snakes here back in 2015 but the bird population put an end to them hanging around here (which we are totally ok with).
RACCOONS
There are a lot of these cute furry beasts around Florida. Raccoons really get a bad reputation for carrying Rabies. When a raccoon comes around during the daylight hours it is because she has babies back in a nest (somewhere). Momma raccoons nurse their babies all night and forage for food all day (while babies sleep), which leaves them tired and short tempered (not happy to see humans). Raccoons have a very vicious bite, even the young ones. We've encountered them many times trying to eat the food we put out for chickens during the daytime. A young raccoon can easily bite through a thick leather welding glove - think about that HARD if you're considering grabbing one.
Raccoons also have amazing long and sharp claws, this is what allows them to run up a tree like it's nothing. They are cute as can be but we just admire them from afar.
INJURED ANIMALS
We are extra nice to the injured animals that show up here looking for something to eat. It is heart breaking to see a little character with a broken leg or wing or a limb missing. There is one Ibis that has been coming here since 2020, she has a broken wing but can still fly in spite of her impediment. Her healthy brothers and sisters don't need us but providing her with wild bird seed and other treats has kept that little bird alive.
Our Rule for Wild Animals: Never approach or try to grab a wounded animal. The only time we grabbed an injured anima and took it to the licensed rehab shelter (and donated money to help maintain the little bird) we called the next day and were told they put the little owl to sleep. Their doctor determined he was too far gone.
