Dale,
It turned out to be so easy to selectively eliminate the GL2(XM2) motor noise from the hoopoe clips that I'm going to experiment with noise reduction in Adobe Audition to eliminate wind noise from another clip which also includes birdsong. I have such a clip somewhere and I'll post the results here when I find the clip.

Brendan,

can't wait to hear how you make out!! I must say audition is my least used software and i must get to work with it!!!

First, a jittery handheld clip of bee-eaters burbling while a truck roars by ...
Second, the same clip slightly shortened & without the sound of the truck ...

Another example of noise editing with Adobe Audition ...

First, handheld original video+audio clip of vulture glide
Second, same clip minus the wind

there aren't any hoopoes in colorado, but i shot one in bhutan and saw several on my trip. the one i managed to shoot is included in my UWOL #3 short. fascinating bird, really unique. he wasn't singing at the time, so i didn't get to hear him, so i'm thrilled to get to hear this song clip, to get to know hoopoe better.

and brendan, you're morphing into quite the techno-geek! it's awesome.

Yeah, some techno-geek I am ! I can't even find the link to your green tara Meryem and while I'm figuring out how to see your hoopoe and myriad other delights I could reveal that tara is anglicised (like many English words) from an Irish word for Eminence (usually topographic) like a hilltop ... Tara, 40 miles north-west of Dublin was the hilltop location of the court of High King of Ireland in ancient times ... I could go on, but there's not a frame of video evidence to back-up my story and people do want their stories in pictures. Waiting to see yours ...

Gotcha Meryem. Loved it. Been thereabouts, only 1000 miles away, alpine flower hunting. Marvellous rhododendrons and climbing plants where you were. Your hoopoe responded nicely to manual focus. Chanting and prayer wheels and flags all about focus too.

You recalled for me how shocked I was in 1994 to see women on their knees hammering stones into potholes ... what an awful way to exploit belief in reincarnation. Thank you for reminding me of my capacity to be inhumane while their wilderness seemed to welcome your Bhutanese.

not to hijack your thread, but the women-with-babies road crews were a bit stunning to my senses.

in many ways, i had a very fortunate trip. i was invited to shoot a lot of off-limits-to-Westerners footage, most of which can't be displayed online without disrespecting the culture. and doesn't fit the theme!

now back to our regularly scheduled hoopoe!

Brendan,

You know I never believed in reincarnation, but in my prior life i did.

Joking aside, Until one sees how much of the rest of the world lives, it really can't be truly comprehended. Pictures wont create the emotion and empathy first hand experience will.

I was set back seeing small children(4 years old or so) living in cardboard boxes at the dump just to survive!! Breaks the heart. You can see where they need to believe the next life will be better!!!

certainly a documentary on the Sad and the poor covering the dark corners of our planet could be a 24 hour channel of its own!!