How to watch Fluddles
New documentary now available for streaming on Vimeo.
What is a fluddle? Eric Secker wrote this on the Illinois Birders Exchanging Thoughts message board in 2021 (and TWiB had a lengthy post soon after):
Jim Frazier used the term since at least 1995 here in Illinois during his time running the DuPage Rare Bird Alert hotline.
It’s a word that is still fairly limited to Illinois.
It’s generally used to describe a flooded area, often in reference to a flooded farm field. It’s too big to be a puddle, but not a pond or lake, and generally more shallow. They are generally temporary, but some exist year-round. If it’s permanent and a lot of vegetation starts to grow up, it might cross over into being called a marsh or wetland. The term tends to be used in areas where their presence is unintended, unwanted, or indirectly results from other activities or management. In natural areas like woodlands, they are more likely to be naturally occurring vernal ponds/pools or wetlands.
As Greg Neise says simply in “Fluddles” the film, “A fluddle’s just a big puddle.”
What’s extraordinary about fluddles is how much life these (mostly small) puddles harbor. Then there are all the benefits of these wetlands, for cleaning water and reducing flooding, topics delved into in the film.
“Fluddles,” my 40-minute documentary first shown in November 2023, is now available for viewing whenever you’d like. You can rent or buy it to watch on your device by clicking below. There’s much more to these small watery areas than you might think.
Press coverage for “Fluddles”
Nature in Chicagoland: “Fluddles” a must-see documentary
Chicago Sun-Times: Viewing fluddles as a word and a film on conservation
Want to see some other films?
*Thanks to for recently including “fluddle” in her newsletter, New To Me Phrases. It really is a unique term!
**When your done watching “Fluddles,” check out Bill Davison’s stellar newsletter, , which provides extremely well-written and well-researched stories about birds.
Jim Frazier here. My wife, Kate Frazier, came up with the word. At the time, we were having fun with sniglets. I started using the term when I was doing the DBC hotline. And it just stuck. But Kate deserves credit.
Kate Frazier chiming in. I originally coined the word "fluddle" in a piece I wrote for Drummings, the DuPage Birding Club newsletter. I've long since deleted the file, but it would probably have been written circa 1993. The DBC used to maintain a hard copy newsletter archive, but I doubt it was ever converted to microfilm. You'll just have to take my word for it. :-)