How do science writers and illustrators collect the data, information, and stories that inform their art? Join three Pacific Northwest artists — two writers and one illustrator — to learn how they distill their research on our local seabirds into engaging stories and compelling illustrations. Science journalist Sarah DeWeert will moderation a conversation between . Madison Mayfield, a science illustrator, taxidermist, and Assistant Collections Manager of the Burke Museum’s ornithology collection. You’ll find out how author and community scientist, Maria Mudd Ruth, turned data — and a lack of data— into her new book on the Pigeon Guillemot, The Bird with Flaming Red Feet. Eric Wagner, author and professional scientist, will share secrets for collecting and interpreting data on nocturnal Rhinoceros Auklets for his new book, Seabirds as Sentinels. Guillemots, auklets, and other seabird specimens will be on display for a close-up look courtesy of the Burke Museum's ornithology collection. Q&A plus book sales and signing, too! For tickets to this special event, go here.

The Joys of One-Bird Birding Whidbey Audubon members are no strangers to Pigeon Guillemots. Since 2003, these lively, charming seabirds have gained a wide and devoted following on the island as the focal species of the Salish Sea Guillemot Network. There are now 250 volunteer community scientists in this ever-expanding network of “guillemoteers” and Maria is one of them. Though her first encounters with the guillemots on Puget Sound were centered on data collection, Maria’s hour-long surveys led to a curiosity-fueled, multi-year exploration of the guillemots and the lives they live beyond the data sheets. Maria’s new book The Bird with the Flaming Red Feet is informed by her thirteen years among the guillemots on an inlet near her home in Olympia. Her slide presentation is a celebration of the Pigeon Guillemot, the Salish Sea Network, community science, and the joys of “one-bird birding.” Q&A, followed by book sales and signing.

Join me at this second of two talks hosted by the Tahoma Bird Alliance (the first on April 11). I’ll be offering a slideshow presentation about my new book, The Bird with Flaming Red Feet: Seasons with an Uncommonly Common Seabird (Mountaineers Books/Skipstone Press). My book is part natural history of the exuberantly charming Pigeon Guillemot and the successful, long-running community science program focused on these birds in the Salish Sea. This is will be a 40-minute presentation with time afterward for Q&A and books sales and signing.

Whether you’re a birder or not, you’ll be charmed by a lively and charismatic Pigeon Guillemot. These Pacific coast seabirds are common, easy to spot, and fun to watch close-up from shore, though they are often overlooked by birders seeking more elusive and rarer life-list birds (such as their more famous cousins, the puffins). Pigeon Guillemots have unique and fascinating stories to tell about being a seabird and about the workings of our shared environment. And, lucky for us, they tell them loud and clear. Since 2013, Maria has been watching and listening to the guillemots nesting on Puget Sound near Olympia as a volunteer community scientist with the Salish Sea Guillemot Network.  Q&A plus book sales and signing.

Join author Maria Mudd Ruth as she shares what she’s learned about the guillemots, about “one-bird birding,” and the community of “guillemoteers” devoted to this marvelous seabird.

Join me in a lively conversation with fellow Pacific Northwest “bird author” Marina Richie. Marina is an award-winning nature writer living in Bend, Oregon. Her new book, Feathered Forest: Aloft with Birds in Ancient Trees will be hot off the press (and includes a chapter on the Marbled Murrelet). Her previous book, Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher, received the 2024 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. We’ll explore the common themes in her books and my books, Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet and my latest The Bird With Flaming Red Feet.