The Keynote Address

This year’s keynote speaker for Bird Fest was Derek Sheffield, who is a poet, naturalist, and English professor at Wenatchee Valley College. He spoke about humans’ most frequent interface with wildlife—our encounters with birds in both our natural and built environments. Birds, he noted, have led to wonder, inspiration, and art. By contrast, “There is no marmot festival,” he said.

Sheffield described his own awakening to nature, especially birds, when he lived in a cabin on a remote shoreline with no outside communications. There, he wrote his first notable poem, about Pigeon Guillemots. For Bird Fest, he recited or read a handful of works involving birds from notable poets: “For the Wren Trapped in the Cathedral” by Pattiann Rogers; “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver; and “Sparrow Envy” by Dr. Drew Lanham. “I would find haven in thorniest thickets,” Lanham wrote.

Sheffield then turned to the alarming loss of bird populations and species occurring right now due to habitat loss and plastic pollution. He played a brief, wordless video by Chris Jordan, creator of “Midway: Message from the Gyre,” revealing the contents of the stomachs of sea birds that have died from ingesting bits of plastic. Birds swallowed pieces from the size of tiny beads up to whole bottle caps.

Returning to lighter ideas, Sheffield noted how birders nickname birds like “LBJs” and “Butterbutts,” and refer to them as “somebodies” as though they were human. He recounted an argument between famous bird artist David Allen Sibley and Dr. Dan Stephens, who teaches ornithology at Wenatchee Valley College. Sibley thought he heard a MacGillivray’s Warbler. Dr. Stephens corrected him, “No, it’s a Nashville Warbler.” Dr. Stephens contends that birds have regional dialects and Sibley was just more familiar with East Coast birds.

Sheffield read “Ornithology Lesson” by Jan Wallace, a poem about the amazing breeding acrobatics of Bald Eagles. Then he recited a haiku, of sorts. A Japanese haiku is a short poem invoking nature and the seasons. It has come to mean a poem of 17 syllables in English. He quoted a haiku about the nuthatch: “Honk honk honk honk honk…” You can guess the rest.

The Art Class

Charlene Collins Freeman, an award-winning watercolor artist, taught a Zoom class on drawing and painting birds. She worked from emailed photographic models. She provided some good tips for this duffer:

• Start by drawing a light line from the outside of the bird’s thigh to capture its stance.
• Along that construction line, draw an oval for the body and a circle for the head, being careful to overlap the circle onto the oval appropriately to the model. Not all birds have long necks.
• Draw a light line from eye to beak to establish their relative placement. Sketch in the eye, but DON’T MAKE THE EYE TOO BIG.
• Draw a light line from the first construction line through the tail to indicate its length and direction.
• Sketch in the bird. Erase construction lines.
• Notice that a bird’s legs are not straight toothpicks. Not only are they canted front to back, they are splayed from side to side.
• As you paint, leave unpainted a white highlight in the bird’s eye. Add it later with something besides watercolor if you mess it up.
• Use a wet brush and damp paper for smooth-looking surfaces and a dry brush on dry paper for rougher looking textures.
• It’s nice to have the colors in the bird picked up in the background; that’s natural, too. The little buggers can be cryptic.

Because each color needed to dry before the next was added, the class didn’t terminate with the two-hour Zoom meeting. Freeman will send the class participants an electronic link that will be good for a year to follow her completing her demonstrations.

I’m no Sibley, but I had fun.