Oh hey, it's #PortfolioDay. I'm a natural science illustrator and exhibit graphic designer, with a special love for #birdart. Most of my work these days is for various park exhibits, but I'm always open to #sciart projects! 🌿🪶

No black-billed cuckoo, alas, but still a nice morning bird walk before it heats up today.

see a crab, post a crab! 🦀 (unfortunately, an invasive asian shore crab)

Life pie today! I went for a hike, not intending to bird, and stumbled upon a tree full of red crossbills (finally!). I didn’t have my camera, so you’ll just have to trust me that they’re in that tree…about 1 pixel tall.

I turned my interpretive-sign art into a sticker, for all of you out there who stop to read every historic marker and sign on trips…. littlebraincomics.etsy.com/listing/4516...

man I love #pleinair drawing season ☀️

Why are you like this? -allowed to roam the woods unsupervised as a child -read too much Gerald Durrell and James Herriot -raised by an environmental educator -NPR household -once got a pocket knife in my 'easter basket' -hippie parents too supportive, didn't talk me out of art school

new frontiers in #linocut: I am attempting visual textures. I’ve sworn to start NO reduction prints until I nail ink laydown and precision and paper choice in a single-color print. it’s… a learning process 😅 #printmaking #birdart 🪶

For my lovely wife, who tramped through a marsh with me today looking for a king rail, despite it being 44°F and blowing rain. We did not find the rail, but we sure did find deer ticks. 🥲 🪶

For my lovely wife, who tramped through a marsh with me today looking for a king rail, despite it being 44°F and blowing rain. We did not find the rail, but we sure did find deer ticks. 🥲 🪶

this is why I made a rule for myself that I can’t take more photos until I finish editing the last batch. This has resulted in… not bringing my camera with me very often, rather than more time spent editing, lol.

I got some very pleasant birding done last week. I ran away to the cape and saw a TON of spring migrants, lugged too many optics all the way to race point, watched the gannets diving, spotted a lifer iceland gull, flipped over a trapped horseshoe crab, and helped a painted turtle cross the road.

Something that really frustrates me about a certain type of new birder is the terminally engineer-brained "I have encountered something I do not understand. Clearly this is a tech problem external to me, how do I apply a tech solution?" mindset. 🪶

it looks like spring in my sketchbook even if it doesn’t feel like spring outside #naturejournaling #naturejournal #botanicalillustration #sciart

it looks like spring in my sketchbook even if it doesn’t feel like spring outside #naturejournaling #naturejournal #botanicalillustration #sciart

More printmaking up next. After a lot of playing with EZcut I wanted to do something more detailed, but man do these cheapo speedball carving tools not make it easy. 😵‍💫 I’m dreaming of pfeil…… #printmaking #linocut #botanicalartist

Realizing I should include the main things you should do to support native bees/other insects 1) Plant native plants 2) Don't use pesticides, and tell your friends and neighbors to stop using pesticides 3) Leave fallen leaves in the winter 4) Leave dead stems over winter for overwintering critters

Editing photos from Arizona today to distract myself from the blizzard 🥲. A Coati and a pair of Inca Doves (showing off those pretty rufous primaries) from sunrise at Madera Canyon. 🪶 #wildlifephotography

Some Arizona birding trip sketchbook pages. I’m trying to get into a daily sketchbook habit- drawing more being less worried about making each one perfect. 🪶 #birdart #sciart #naturejournal

arizona is very beautiful and we have seen MANY birds and photographed… a few of them. (but I have taken about a million pics of plants for inat.)

It’s been in the teens or below for weeks now, and the birds have been mostly puffed up and miserably huddled (when I’ve braved a -15 windchill to try to find them), but tomorrow we are going to AZ for a week of birding. I’m more hype for above freezing temps than I am for lifers.

Five classes I took in University: Color Theory Advanced Rendering For Scientific Illustration Anatomy for the Artist Medieval Art & Architecture British Portraiture also a perspective class I no longer remember the name of but that had us doing crazy geometry to perfectly place shadows.

Got some good art time today! Lichen sketch at a #naturejournaling workshop by Mass Audubon, and then first try printing with my new little hand press. I have mixed feelings about easycut material (as opposed to traditional #linocut) but perhaps I need to adjust my expectations. #sciart #birdart

I’m so glad the pandemic brought more&younger people to birding but I do sometimes detect a twinge of hipster ‘liked it before it was cool’ in myself when people talk about when they started it’s not a GOOD impulse but it’s also hard not to feel when you’ve been birding longer than you can remember

Addendum to my previous post: also don’t do this shit: “Hey, I choose to leave food outdoors for wildlife but I don’t like which animals are eating it. How do I exercise control over the natural world so that I only get the cute animals instead of the species I find personally annoying.” 🪶

happy #NationalBirdDay! Here are the two types of winter birding in new england: weird duck and little brown guy on a brown plant.

My ebird 2025 wrapped: -27 lifers -213 total species -143 state species -72 checklists here’s to a birdy 2026! 🥂🐦‍⬛ happy new year!

Cannot wait to go fuckin birdwatching in 2026

If you claim to be an 'academic' or a 'researcher' or similar and your position is that you should not have to read things and/or write things and you would like the plagiarism machine to do that for you then please step aside and let someone who would like to work in the field have your job.

A very merry #christmasbirdcount to all who celebrate.

my hot take is that if you are in a community devoted to ecology (such as birding), you don't demand images or descriptions of natural predation are censored, you don't whine about big mean meanie hawks eating your pwecious widdle spawwows, and you don't villainize parasitic reproductive strategies

I'm sick today so instead of working I am laying on the couch, coughing pathetically, and tormenting myself by thinking about what birds I want to see next but currently am unable to (due to the aforementioned pathetic coughing)

For today's #BirdOfTheDay alternate theme, #SmallBirdsBigPersonality, we have this american tree sparrow giving me a cheeky look. I love photographing sparrows, they're never boring! 🪶 #birdphotography

I saw a very very lost scissor-tailed flycatcher today in MA. There's probably little hope for this poor guy to ever make it back where he belongs, so I feel lucky (and a little sad) to have seen him while he's still with us. 🪶

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you’ve seen in the wild: -crested caracara -elephant seal -priolo -pronghorn -spotted salamander

I've gotten so used to ebird in the past 5 years it's funny to look back on my old lists and see how dramatically changed how I bird, for better or worse. It has really influenced me to be more worried about numbers.

A bunch of little snow buntings at Parker River NWR this week. They're just about the cutest. 🪶 #birdphotography

lifer king eider! 🎉🪶 I’ve been chasing this duck for two years and I finally saw one, even if it took a trip to maine to do it! He’s so handsome!!! 🥹

Finally sat down and did some photo editing, some sunday sparrows for you. #birdphotography 🪶 #wildlifephotography

Saw the very lost brown booby 🪶 on Cape Cod (!!!) on my second try, but managed to mess up my shutter speed without noticing, so what I have is a variety of levels of blur and not a single nice shot. Ah, the joys of bird photography... 🫠

Spooky 🪶 list season (ebird taxonomy update) is upon is. The blessèd splitting has bestowed unto me a bonus vireo, through no effort of my own. 🙏 But the update continues, so there's a chance that the fearsome shadow of lumping may yet fall across my life list and tear a species from its bosom. 😱

I went for a birding hike this weekend and there were a ton of red-breasted nuthatches yank-yank-yanking at me the whole way. Love those little guys. 🪶🐡 #sciart #procreate

I went for a birding hike this weekend and there were a ton of red-breasted nuthatches yank-yank-yanking at me the whole way. Love those little guys. 🪶🐡 #sciart #procreate

Belated day 2 of #SciArtSeptember: Canopy. Some longleaf pines with recent fire scarring. 🐡🎨

Let’s go birding! Today’s goal: summer tanager in coastal NC. so far: Great horned owl, many MANY woodpeckers, herons galore, approx. 1 million mosquitos, some beautiful longleaf pines.

I always forget how formal Boston really is, since I wfh and mostly interact with other outdoorsy queers. Going to Back Bay on a weekday is like visiting another planet. One where every man is wearing slacks and a dress shirt and every woman is in a blazer and has makeup on.

All the animals you like to look at depend on all the animals you don’t

A photo you took that brings you inner peace 📷🌸

Gooood morning birders! Today we’re looking for a solitary sandpiper!