Bird Land

Wherever you live, you live in Bird Land. Isn’t it glorious to hear bird song every morning and evening? I learned today that the Portland City Council unanimously passed New England’s first bird safe building ordinance, with great work on behalf of Maine Audubon’s Bird Safe initiative, a statewide collaborative to document bird strikes during peak migration. If you find a dead bird on the sidewalk, take a picture and send it to birdstrike@maineaudubon.org. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife estimate that somewhere between 388 million and 988 million birds die from building collisions. Glass is the problem. The reflections confuse birds. There are solutions, though!

Since moving to Maine, I have learned so much more about my habitat and the species I share it with. As an illustrator, drawing birds comes with wonder, research, and insights. This was my first book jacket for author Mary Atkinson, about a girl who discovers an owl one summer visiting her grandparents.

cover illustration ©Jamie Hogan

Cormorants are possibly my favorite birds to spy on the back shore of Peaks Island, hanging their wings out to dry. I designed this t-shirt for PeaksFest many years ago. It’s happening again this very weekend, woot!

Peaks Fest t-shirt design © Jamie Hogan

I grew up near Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, and loons remain a favorite as well, their haunting warble is so distinctive. A loon appears early in my book, Skywatcher.

Illustration detail from Skywatcher © Jamie Hogan

I learned much about the intelligence of crows working on Winter Crows by Rae Chalmers.

cover of Winter Crows by Rae Chalmers, illustrations © Jamie Hogan

Learning all about chickadees, the little acrobats that dart to our feeder all year round, was a fun challenge when working on this non-fiction picture book. Author Jennifer Jacobson and I won a Lupine Honor for Oh, Chickadee! and what a sweet moment that was.

cover of Oh, Chickadee! illustration © Jamie Hogan

We shared our rough dummy with Nick Lund at Maine Audubon to check on the accuracy of text and drawings. It proved very helpful, since we are not experts or even devoted birders, to be honest.

What a delightful surprise when Maine Audubon approached me about being an art advisor for a student intern last winter. I  met weekly with Emerson Frost, a junior in Illustration during their spring semester at Maine College of Art & Design.

I truly met my match in Emerson, who is a dedicated birder, much more knowledgeable than I am about birds, and whose detailed paintings impressed everyone! When we had our first in-person meeting at the Portland Public Library, Emerson had nearly completed several paintings of loons, each one a different season and age. Bravo!

Loon paintings by Emerson Frost at the Portland Public Library, photo © Jamie Hogan

You can read more about Emerson’s internship HERE.

We met virtually sometimes, but during their spring break, I visited Emerson’s studio in the Illustration Department at MECAD.

Birdy skeleton in Emerson’s studio, photo ©Jamie Hogan

We headed to Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm in Falmouth for some bird sketching together. There’s plenty of taxidermy there and drawing together is a fun way to catch up. I also saw Emerson’s wonderful sketchbook full of birdy wonders.

sketchbook pages © Emerson Frost

We both drew a barred owl.

a barred owl sketch by Emerson Frost

barred owl sketch by Jamie Hogan

The farm has terrific trails so we wandered to the shores of the Presumpscot River beneath tall sumac on a gorgeous March day.

Emerson Frost at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth, Maine

During another meeting, I visited MECAD while Emerson’s Merit work was on display that included some of the internship work and another project for the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

Emerson Frost’s installation for the Merit Show at Maine College of Art & Design

The last paragraph of their artist statement reads: Birds have been an incredibly important part of my life, as they are in many people’s lives, and though they are often overlooked in discussions about the effects of climate change, they’re in immediate danger. If nothing is done soon, we will see many species go extinct in our lifetimes, something that is preventable through direct action, and especially through supporting organizations like those mentioned above. In my work I hope to highlight how amazing birds are, to bring awareness to the plights facing these animals, and show that they are worth protecting.

Kudos, Emerson!

During the last month of the semester, Emerson turned to painting insects and plants found in the marshes that support bird life. Look at the incredible detail! Emerson is also a fan of bugs:)

Emerson Frost at Portland Public Library with their paintings of marsh insects    photo © Jamie Hogan

I invited Emerson to visit me on Peaks Island, which is something of a bird sanctuary. At least Patty Wainwright, a devoted birder who blogs for the Peaks Island Land Preserve, thinks so. She has spotted well over 100 species here.

We picked a sunny day in early May after Emerson’s semester was done.

Emerson Frost spies an osprey on Peaks Island, photo © Jamie Hogan

We hung out at Picnic Point near the edge of low tide where duck families were bobbing in the waves. We walked to Battery Steele where we heard red-winged blackbirds and spotted a yellow warbler. We sketched on the beach where a pair of osprey flew right over our heads. Emerson enjoys the lineage between dinosaurs and birds.

sketches by Emerson Frost on Peaks Island

I sketched the nearby TEIA and the gulls that visit the dock.

Sketch by Jamie Hogan

Try this sometime, it is remarkably relaxing! Slow looking at nature feeds the soul, whether you have a pencil or not.

Emerson saw my cluttered studio and then caught the ferry home with their little dog, Moxie.

Jamie Hogan, Emerson Frost, and Moxie on Peaks Island photo © Marty Braun

After Emerson got home, I received a list of all the birds we had seen or heard:

– common eiders, surf scoters, long tailed ducks

– common loons

– double crested cormorants

– ring billed, herring, and great black backed gulls

– great egret

– ospreys and a red tailed hawk

– red bellied and downy woodpeckers

– eastern phoebe

– American crows

– black capped chickadees, house finches, gold finches

– gray catbirds and a northern mockingbird

– robin

– song sparrows

– red winged blackbirds and common grackles

– northern cardinal

– yellow warblers

That’s 28 species and overall 100 plus individual birds, since many of them flock together:)

Many thanks to Maine Audubon and Maine College of Art & Design for this memorable opportunity to mentor such a talented and caring artist as Emerson Frost. We had some birdy fun. Get out there, wild ones, and you can, too!