Conversations in Avian Art and Ornithology

The first half of November is dedicated to the Artist’s For Conservation Nature Art Festival held in Vancouver, BC.  The alarm is set for 4:30 am so we can leave the house by 5:30 am, which may guarantee a place on the 6:45 am ferry to Anacortes.  For the over-thinkers, we are most comfortable making the ferry line one hour early.  The whims and fancies of islander travel, not to mention the whims of visitor travel, make predicting when to get into the ferry line a job only for Nostradamus.  Therefore, we leave early and get to Orcas just before 6 am.  Our early arrival puts us in the first row, but during the summer or holidays, we may have found ourselves in the over-flow line at this time.  We have time to get another cup of coffee, some snacks, and a sack lunch for the road.  After landing in Anacortes, we get gas and head up to Vancouver.

The weekend weather is beautiful and Grouse Mountain is busy with visitors and hikers.  I participate in a group demonstrating our individual painting techniques.  Saturday night is a get together dinner and is a great time to socialize with my fellow AFC artists.  Trekking back from the Long House dinner was a winter wonderland.  The Grouse Mountain facility had a number of snow making machines activated to augment the fresh base of snow.  The night was clear, moon nearly full, and these large jets of water spraying out to form snow were beautiful. 

Monday, I guide a trip to Reifel Bird Conservation Area for the participating nature artists.  It is a cold, rainy day, but we see some very nice birds, like Snow Geese, Sandhill Crane, Mute and Trumpeter Swan, Black-crowned Night Heron, many ducks, and a Northern Shrike eating a chickadee.  To read a beautifully written run down on this fieldtrip, please go to Terry Woodall's blog.  Since the bird preserve is close to the US border, we make a beeline back to the States after the fieldtrip, and make an evening ferry back to Orcas Island.  Tuesday finds us both exhausted.  Yes, we were busy in Vancouver.  Yes, we changed to Day Light Standard Time, which set our clocks back an hour.  Yes, we not only forgot to change our clocks on Orcas back an hour, but we also forgot to change our alarm from 4:30 am to our normal 6:00 am.  So yes, we were up at 3:30 am and did not figure it out until it was too late.

The next weekend, we did not have to be on the mountain until mid afternoon, so we catch a later ferry.  The drive up to Vancouver is wet and windy, and as we get closer to the mountain, the clouds come down to meet us.  We wait in line for the gondola to come out of the fog to retrieve us for the trip up the mountain.  It arrives, but we must wait for a weather delay.  Lightning strikes are in the area, so the electric motors that lift the gondola up the hillside remain down until the storm passes.  It begins to hail and it is cold and damp, so we wait.  Sometime later, the fog begins to clear.  I can now see the top of the mountain, there should not be any lightening strikes now.  Let us go, I am late.  I do notice the trees on the high ridge are swaying dramatically, and we get another weather delay.  This time it is high winds. 

We are cold and have waited in line for more than an hour.  The wind settles down, and we start loading the gondola.  With this comes a stern warning, to proceed at our own risk.  The forecast calls for increased winds later in the day, which may strand us on the mountain.  It is after 3 pm and I have a lecture at 3:30 pm, I do not care what may or may not happen after that.  The lecture goes well, there wind does not deliver, and the rest of the weekend goes without a hitch.

I am more of an introvert than an extrovert, so I often volunteer to do things that others may find too stressful or burdensome.  It is easy for me to stay hidden in my studio, never coming out and never socializing.  This may be why I am so comfortable being an island girl; it is easy to forget the rest of the world exists.  I need to challenge myself to do things I would not usually do, such as giving art demonstrations or talking in front of the public.  I find that I am always better off to have done these tasks than to have stayed in my shell.  I always meet great people, experience new things, and grow as a person.  Next time a challenge comes your way, seriously consider doing it.  You may find the hidden benefits.  Until later, Kim