Adventures at Wilder Farm

Next summer I’ll be teaching a three day field seminar at Yellowstone National Park! I’m so excited!! Not only do I get to go back to a place I love, but I’ll get to share a subject I’m passionate about — seeing nature through the eyes of an artist. The seminar will combine exploration of the park  with on-location watercolor painting as we follow in the footsteps of Thomas Moran, William Jackson, Ferdinand Hayden and the 1871 Hayden expedition. The workshop is offered through the non-profit Yellowstone Association Institute. Just staying at the Lamar Buffalo Ranch should be a treat, but exploring and sharing with others the sights of Yellowstone during the summer will be a blast!

Here’s the description of my field seminar:

Explore Yellowstone through the eyes of an artist. Thomas Moran’s field sketches from the 1871 Hayden Expedition played a vital role in the preservation of the park. View the paintings of Moran and other early explorers at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, and follow in their footsteps as you discover the pleasure of plein-air (open air) painting with watercolors. Through daily painting excursions, nightly lectures, and painting demonstrations, you’ll explore and learn the art history of Yellowstone. Enjoy three days of on-location painting that includes demonstrations, critiques and encouragement from your artist instructor. You may even get the opportunity to paint some of the same locations made famous by Moran.

If you’re interested in attending, please contact the Yellowstone Association Institute. All levels of painters are welcome!

Field Seminar: Moran Watercolor, August 10-13, 2010

Location: Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Yellowstone National Park

And here’s a video clip from the Yellowstone Association.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tD3Wcy2EnE[/youtube]

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Written by Dave.

We just heard some good news for Pennies for Elephants! It’s one of the winners of the 2009 New Hampshire Literary Awards. Here is the complete list of the award winners:

• Outstanding Work of Children’s Literature: Lita Judge, Pennies for Elephants and Joseph Monninger, Hippie Chick
• Outstanding Book of Fiction: James Patrick Kelly, The Wreck of the Godspeed
• Outstanding Book of Nonfiction: Mimi Schwartz, Good Neighbors, Bad Times
• The Jane Kenyon Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry: Mimi White, The Last Island
• Donald M. Murray Outstanding Journalism Award: John Walters, Collection of articles from Kearsarge Magazine and Upper Valley Life
• Lifetime Achievement Award: David Carroll

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Written by Dave.
Back in the 1960s and 70s Lita’s grandmother, Fran Hamerstrom, led a long term project on the captive breeding of golden eagles. The work produced the birth of Ithaca, the world’s first living eagle resulting from artificial insemination. Sadly, we just heard that Ithaca died several days ago at the age of 37. Here are a few pictures and a note from Jim Grier, the biologist who successfully hatched and raised Ithaca. Ithaca’s parents were Fran’s eagles, Chrys and Grendel.

Fran holding Ithaca, Jim Grier holding Ithaca’s parents — Chrys is on his right hand, Grendel is on the left hand (photo from Jim Grier).

Jim Grier flying Ithaca (photo from Jim Grier).

Fran with Chrys. The chick here is a surrogate redtail hawk (Hamerstrom photo).

Fran feeding a Golden Eagle (Hamerstrom photo).

ITHACA the Golden Eagle (1972-2009) (by Jim Grier)

Ithaca was hatched 13 May 1972 at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. He was named after the town of Ithaca, a Greek name which, according to a local librarian who I consulted at the time,  means “a rugged place suitable only for pasturing goats.” He had to be euthanized 29 September 2009 because of complications resulting from West Nile Virus.

It is sad that he encountered and suffered from the virus, that we lost him, and that he died so young (only 37 years old — he otherwise probably would have lived many more years and I expected that he would outlive me). As a biologist, however, I’m familiar with life (and death) and understand that it’s all in the nature of biology.

Ithaca resulted from an extracurricular project I conducted on captive breeding of eagles. (My primary, dissertation research at Cornell was on avian thermal regulation and physiology.) He was the second of three chicks that hatched in the project. The other two died prematurely. Ithaca [also almost died at the same time], but I discovered the problem in time while he was still alive and managed to rehabilitate him as a young chick. Cornell University produced a news release (click here) and the story was widely reported in the news at the time. National Wildlife magazine published an article on the work in the 1972 Oct-Nov issue, pages 44-45. The story was included in the latest editions of a book by Fran Hamerstrom, “An Eagle to the Sky” (Iowa State Univ Press, out of print). (Fran owned the two adult golden eagles that were Ithaca’s parents, see photo.)

Here is part of Lita’s reply to Jim: “It feels a little strange, kind of like losing a relative you haven’t seen for a long time, but who at one time was a big presence of your life. Ithaca was born not long after me, and growing up, I knew his birth was far more important to my grandmother than her first grandchild was — something I always accepted since Fran and you had worked so hard. I really appreciate you letting me know.”

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