Flaming Red Procession of the Species

Twenty-eight Pigeon Guillemots—adults and young birds—flew, paddles, billed, dipped, and flocked through downtown Olympia last weekend at the annual Procession of the Species parade. And, as with the wild guillemots in the Salish Sea, there was at least one birder aiming binoculars at these flaming-red seabirds.

The twenty-eight participants are volunteers with the Salish Sea Guillemot Network, a community-science project focused on collecting data on the Pigeon Guillemots during their summer breeding season when they come to the shores of the Salish Sea to nest. Though we have studied these birds for more than a decade, it was surprisingly challenging for us bi-peds to choreograph our guillemot moves as we paraded through the streets of downtown. I think we got the message across that we were birds. We overheard people in the crowd identifying us as Pigeon Guillemots, but also as ninjas and red-legged bird known as Oystercatchers.

The raucous auks in the streets of Olympia for the Procession of the Species.

This is the first year Pigeon Guillemots have been represented in the Procession, which has been an much-loved and crowd-drawing event in downtown Olympia since 1995. For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it’s a non-motorized, no-signs, no-banners, no-singing, human-powered parade featuring music, dance, and so much creativity. A huge papier-mache sun leads the parade, with costumed participants organized into four groups corresponding to Earth’s four elements—earth, air, fire, water. It’s a spectacular spectacle that embraces all life forms from the microscopic fungal network to the blue whale.

The Pigeon Guillemot may not be a household word in every house, but now this seabird has some street cred.

A Twofer Launch for the Guillies!

This month marked there return of the Pigeon Guillemots from their wintering grounds to the nearshore waters of the Salish Sea as they prepare for their breeding season. And with this welcome event, copies of The Bird with the Flaming Red Feet were released in flocks to bookstores and online retailers. You can order copies from Mountaineers Books/Skipstone Press or your favorite indie bookstore.

The April 15 book launch party in Olympia suggests that there is a healthy appetite for stories about seabirds, “one-bird birding,” birding for birds, community science, deep connections to place, “Flaming Red Wine,” “Wing Patch White,” and very small plates loaded with appetizers, desserts, and prey items (Swedish fish). Thank you to the ~200 people who filed their taxes (or extensions) to find their way to Olympia Ballroom to celebrate the Pigeon Guillemot and its people.

And with the launch of the book came the launch of the uncommonly catchy song written by my brother, Jonathan Mudd, a musician based in South Carolina. Jonathan spent a morning with me on the beach where I collect data on the Pigeon Guillemots during their summer breeding season. And then he read a draft of my manuscript of my book. He totally got it. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music. The song reflects so perfectly my experience of watching the guillemots over the past thirteen summers, of following my curiosity, of deeply connecting to place, and of feeling the spin of the earth as is it moves through the seasons on '“guillemot time.” Read and enjoy the lyrics here (beware the ear worm!)

In this song, my brother plays guitars and sings vocals. Andy Luthringer is on bass, Jon Spurney plays piano and organ, Mark Williams is on solo guitar. And Eli Smith did the mixing. I’m calling it “alcid rock.” I think you will love it.

And then my brother outdid himself and made a music video combing this song with photos and videos of Pigeon Guillemots in the Pacific Northwest. The photos and videos were provided through the generosity of my fellow guillemot surveyors in Puget Sound, Washington and along Oregon’s central coast. You can watch the YouTube video here to sense the wild exuberance of this uncommonly common seabird.

Now…go forth and find your guillemot.

A Star for the Guillemots

This lovely review is from Booklist, which is a trade review magazine run by the American Library Association. Booklist reaches many librarians, booksellers, and other publishing industry professionals. A starred review denotes a work judged to be outstanding in its genre. NOTE: unlike movie, restaurant, and hotel reviews, one star is the maximum number of stars awarded by Booklist.

As the author of The Bird with Flaming Red Feet, it’s heartening for me to read a review by someone who really gets my book and goals of the community science project at the center of it. My story of the Pigeon Guillemot reflects at least two complete overhauls of my original concept and outline, which was deemed by my fabulous editors at Mountaineers Books/Skipstone to be a bit too “heady.” I took this as a compliment and also realized that some grounding was essential. I needed to bring readers onto the Puget Sound beach with me for our weekly surveys of the guillemots. This gave me the opportunity to describe field work, data collection, and all the good things that came from those one-hour surveys of our teams of “guillemoteers” as I like to call us. I poured many of those stories into the final version of my book. I was so pleased to read that the “…genuine fun, thrills, and joy…” of studying the Pigeon Guillemots was palpable by the Booklist reveiwer.

The Bird with the Flaming Red Feet will be winging its way onto bookshelves, online booksellers, and e-readers later this month. The official launch date is April 7th. Please visit my events page to find an event near you—mostly in Western Washington to start. Don’t expect the standard author book reading (i.e., introduction, reading of a few passages, Q&A, and book signing). I’m hoping to mix things up a bit and honor the spirit of the Pigeon Guillemot with some “genuine fun”

THE YEAR OF THE AUK

Is is something in the air? Possibly, but more likely something in the water—salty water. The family of seabirds known as auks, or alcids, are having a bit of a heyday in the publishing world. For those of you unfamiliar with this varied and fascinating family of birds, it includes twenty-four species including the most familiar puffins as well as auklets, dovekie, razorbill, murres, murrelets, and guillemots. They are the web-footed, surface-diving seabirds of the Northern Hemisphere.

Whidbey Island writer and artists Frances Wood has just published a blank, spiral-bound journal with her watercolor portraits of the guillemots on the covers (above). Frances is a co-founded of the Salish Sea Guillemot Network, which is how I found my way to these wonderful seabirds. France’s art is as lively and charming as the guillemots themselves. And just think—fifty blank pages for you to weave a tale of your favorite seabird or begin your Spring journal or field sketches of your feathered friends. Order your copy of this blank journal here. See Frances's watercolor aviary of other birds here.

Yes, a bird with flaming red feet can improve a Grateful Dead album cover.

Also from Whidbey Island, Govinda and Matt Holtby have published a delightfully quirky and authoritative book that takes a look at 40 Grateful Dead songs, and pairs them with 40 Washington State birds, plus encores. They have managed to carve the connection between birders and deadheads. The book is filled with fun facts, unusual facts, and interesting facts about the bird and or the song that it is paired up with. Our grateful guillemot (prominently featured on the book’s cover, below) is cleverly paired with the song “Cassidy,” “Ah—child of the boundless seas.”

This book is a fundraiser for two non-profits: LittleBIGFest, and Whidbey Audubon Society. LittleBIGFest is a nonprofit organization based on Whidbey Island. They are dedicated to supporting regional musicians and artists and creating scholarship opportunities for local students. They produce annual festivals and events featuring local, national and international musicians and artists. Whidbey Audubon Society founded the Salish Sea Guillemot Network, a community science program for surveying our beloved Pigeon Guillemots. Govinda is a long-time Pigeon Guillemot surveyor on Whidbey Island. This is a must read for Deadheads, birders, music lovers, admirers of creatives like Govinda and Matt. Order copies of Govinda and Matt’s book here.

A new natural history of two more auks (auklets and puffins) due out in March from University of Washington Press.

Seattle-based biologist and writer Eric Wagner has a new book coming out in March 2026—Seabirds as Sentinels: Auklets, Puffins, Shearwaters and the View from Destruction Island (above). This small, rugged island off the Washington State outer coast is the site of a long-term research project to study the thousands of Rhinoceros Auklets—an alcid the comes to land to nest each summer. It’s deep earthen burrows and nocturnal nesting habits make it a formidable challenge, an exercise in stamina, and a source of wonder for Eric and his colleagues.

I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Eric’s book and endorsing it with these words: "With his trademark honesty and passion for his subject, Eric Wagner has left no stone unturned or question unasked in this timely and deeply informative natural history. With the seabirds front and center, this narrative also brings into intimate focus large-scale ecological processes, ocean dynamics, cultural and maritime history, and—most importantly—the vital work of the many scientists studying seabirds in the field and in a time of uncertainty."

You can order copies here. Eric and I will be speaking together about our featured seabirds at The University of Washington’s Burke Museum in Seattle on May 6, 2026. More details on my events page.

Gone but not forgotten, the Great Auk lives on in Tim Birkhead’s new book.

It wasn’t a suite of environmental pressures, but human greed—a “destructive obsession”- as one reviewer wrote—that drives the narrative of The Great Auk (Bloomsbury 2025). Written by biologist and prolific author, Tim Birkhead, this beautifully written and definite natural history account tells of the largest member of the auk family, the extinct Great Auk. This flightless bird, measuring some three feet in height, was once abundant across the North Atlantic Ocean and nested in colonies of hundreds of thousands of birds. By 1844, the last of its kind was killed on the coast of Iceland. Birkhead weaves a gripping tale, a tragic one, of the demise of this bird with his surprising and personal story of its afterlife. Purchase The Great Auk through your local indie bookstore via Bookshop here.