Wayback Machine: Nature Singer throws baby out with birdbath

  Sometimes you have to look deep to see it in yourself or someone else, but it's a pretty good bet that each of us has a talent or gift that makes us unique in our own little circles.structural steelSometimes the gift is useful, like a nice singing voice or the ability to draw. Sometimes it's not very useful. I can cross all my fingers in a fraction of a second,Vibrating screen faster, perhaps, than anyone else on the planet. But that trick impresses neither creditors nor critics. Sometimes we look heavenward with puzzlement in our faces and ask God why He chose to give us some certain ability we don't find particularly valuable, suggesting to the creator of the universe that perhaps He had erred in not giving us the ability to hit the breaking ball or sink a 50-foot putt with regularity. But sometimes, with a lot of practice and good marketing, you can turn what others perceive as a puny talent into a lucrative career.Take Charles Kellogg, for example. You've probably never heard of him, but 100 years ago he was one of the biggest names on the vaudeville circuit, thanks to his singular gift: Kellogg could sing like a bird, any bird.His was not a Frankie Valli falsetto-type imitation or a piece of bird-call flimflam. Kellogg was born in 1868 in Susanville and grew up observing nature. As a child he discovered he could duplicate the sound of any bird, not by whistling, but by manipulating the muscles in his throat. With this unique talent he was able to explore octaves where no man had gone before. He called himself the "Nature Singer" and used his talent to earn a handsome living while spreading the word about wildlife and wilderness conservation. On April 9,Vibrating feeder 1914, he was booked to play Salinas.Fruit knifeFor an entire week before Kellogg's arrival, local newspapers trumpeted details of his amazing biography. He was trained as a classical musician, learning his trade at the keyboard of Ignace Jan Paderewski,Solar lightthe famed Polish composer/statesman. It was this classical training that turned Kellogg on to the wonderful world of vibrations. The more vibrations per second, he learned, the higher the pitch. So instead of straining his voice to hit notes no human could approach, he used his throat and vocal cords to manipulate the frequency of vibrations.