Local Botanical Illustrator Receives International Award by Jennifer Lann
Marlboro resident and botanical illustrator Bobbi Angell received the prestigious Jill Smythies Award this May from the Linnean Society of London. Bobbi is the first American to receive this award, established in 1986 for “published illustrations, such as drawings or paintings, in aid of plant identification, with an emphasis on botanical accuracy and the accurate portrayal of diagnostic characteristics.”
Two of Bobbi’s colleagues from the New York Botanical Garden nominated her work: Dr. Jacquelyn Kallunki, Associate Director and Curator at the Herbarium, and Susan Fraser, Director of the Mertz Library. Bobbi works primarily from home, with occasional trips to New York to discuss projects with colleagues. Bobbi has provided scientific illustrations for botanists of not only the New York Botanical Garden, but also the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, and other academic institutions since 1978. These illustrations focus on tropical plants of the Caribbean and Central and South America, including many new to science. Over the course of her career, she has thus far illustrated over 2,000 botanical species, from the common to uncommon, published in academic texts such as Flowering Plants of the Neotropics (Princeton University Press, 2003).
You already may have seen some of Bobbi’s illustrations of more familiar plants in the New York Times Garden Q&A column, authored by Leslie Land, in each Thursday’s House and Home section since 1995. Hundreds of the column’s illustrations can be found in the compilations, 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers (Workman, 2003) and The Gardener’s Essential Companion (Simon & Schuster, 2000). She has illustrated vegetables for the popular John Scheepers Kitchen Garden seed catalog and their colorful seed packets. Although she works primarily in pen and ink, the Center for Plant Conservation commissioned Bobbi to create 75 watercolor portraits of the US National Collection of Endangered Plants. In September, Bobbi’s illustrations of both flora and fauna will be available in the book Sippewissett: Or, Life in a Swamp Marsh (Chelsea Green, 2006), by Vermont author Tim Traver.
The American Society of Botanical Artists made note of Bobbi’s receipt of the Jill Smythies award with an article that celebrates the quality of her work:
“In addition to being accurately and meticulously executed, her drawings have always displayed an artfulness that transcends strictly scientific rendering. Even though working from the barest of materials in conditions from which others might shrink, Bobbi transforms these raw materials into vital and graceful renderings. She brings them to life, and preserves them for generations to come, delineated and beautifully conveyed.”
For more information about Bobbi and her work, you can visit her elegant website at www.bobbiangell.com
Travel Birds by Lani Wright
I am a person who notices the comings and goings of birds. When I hear one singing, I stop and listen to it with the attention of a concertgoer. I am also a traveler. Put these two things together and it comes as no surprise that my list of favorite places is strongly linked with a list of favorite birding moments. I didn’t go trekking in Khumbu to see birds per se. I didn’t carry a bird guide to Nepal or even heft a pair of binoculars. But once I was there, I spent many a happy morning following the colorful flocks of ground birds, the danphe and the Himalayan snow cock, and admiring their bright plumage.
I go to places which inspire me, which fill me with a wild, electric longing, and once I’m there in that strange and wondrous place, I do what I do with my spare time at home. I walk. I explore inviting byways. I look at the plants, the clouds. I keep an eye on the sun’s daily migration across the sky. And I notice the everyday coming and going of birds. I keep an ear out for their songs. The birds always show up. They are everywhere.
So as the flamingoes, avocets, and yellow shanks in the saltpans were part of the weave of the Greek island of Lesvos, the enormous lammergeyer, which bombed my head, was part of the village of Bragga on the Anapurna Circuit. Every place that wormed its way into my heart to stay has its birds somewhere in the picture.
Some of these are forever in the sky, like the great flocks of Himalayan snow pigeons that startled up and shawled around in a circle with their white bellies white against the deep blue sky at precisely the same moment. Or the coal-black choughs that rose from the ground in their screaming flocks and stand out in my photos like great black splats of paint.
Others stick to the trees. The bellbirds, for instance, which filled my ears with their melodious song from dawn to dusk on all my South Island New Zealand hikes. In the Katmandu Valley, it was the blue cuckoo that filled the soundtrack. I’ll never forget the afternoon I was sitting on the side of the trail with my eyes shut listening to them and a little ragged boy came along. He passed me and then came back when his curiosity got the better of him. “What are you doing?” he wanted to know. “I’m listening to the cuckoos,” and I sang their little four-note descending call to him: “cuckoo, cuckoo.” He looked at me suspiciously, and raced away. I don’t think he believed me.
Freycinet National Park in Tasmania will always be remembered for the kookaburra, which startled me awake at dawn with their shouts of raucous laughter. And eastern Australia, with its tall eucalyptus trees full of gigantic white cockatoos as common there as the drab English sparrow here. Those cockatoos will be there forever waiting to be noticed by even the most unobservant, uninterested tour-bus tourist. Birds are like that, available for immediate consumption. Look up. Listen.
Another stand-out New Zealand bird was the large green-and-orange parrot, the kea: the smartest bird I’ve ever witnessed and perhaps the most playful. I watched them play games. One flew up high and dropped a small stone from its beak while the others, resting in the trees below or along the ridgeline of the camp hut, burst into the air and raced to catch it. Then that bird, the winner, flew high and dropped the stone.
The keas woke the hikers every morning by sliding down the metal roof of the hut. They seemed to enjoy this immensely, like kids in a park. To the hikers sleeping under it, this sounded like the pitter-patter of many little feet going up to the ridgeline, followed by the screeching downward slide. If you put your pack down for a minute, some nosy kea would be sticking its head into it, looking to steal your lunch. There were no flies on those birds.
Birds and place. Place and birds. They link up this way at home, too. I go to the Adirondack Mountains to hear the loons call across the lake at night. I go into the woods at dawn and dusk in June to hear the dueling thrushes compete for male vocalist of the year. You won’t see the astounding patterns and colors of ducks at your backyard feeder; you have to go to the river when the ice melts in March.
In Greece on the island of Lesvos, I looked out the bus window and saw flamingoes in Lake Manyara when I was barely of age. Later, I found others in the lakes of southern Chile and Argentina. You only have to know where to look and there they’ll be — wading around as elegant and art nouveau as a bright pink bird can possibly be. And if you’re like me, for the rest of your life you’ll never forget either the bird or the place.
Avian Influenza Update: Results of EU Surveillance in Wild Birds
Brussels, 31 May 2006 press release
From EUROPA, the European Union’s online press room
http://europa.eu/press_room/index_en.htm
The European Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for Avian Influenza in Weybridge have published the results of the surveillance for avian influenza in wild birds carried out in the EU over the past 10 months. The extensive epidemiological data was presented today at the FAO/OIE International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds, which is taking place in Rome this week. Although final figures are still being collected for February-May 2006, it is estimated that around 60 000 wild birds were tested for avian influenza in the EU during that period. This, combined with the 39 000 wild birds tested between July 2005-January 2006, means that almost 100 000 tests for the H5N1 virus have been carried out on wild birds over the past 10 months. Since February 2006, over 700 wild birds across 13 Member States have been found to be infected with the H5N1 “Asian strain” of avian influenza. However, a positive decline in the incidence of the disease in wild birds in Europe has also been noted over the past weeks.
Markos Kyprianou, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, said “Extensive surveillance for avian influenza in wild birds and poultry has been one of the key tools used by the EU to fend off the virus over the past months. It is a fundamental component in minimising the introduction and spread of this disease which poses a serious threat to animal and public health. The Commission and the Member States are continually working to improve the preventive measures already in place against avian influenza, so as to ensure that we have the tightest possible defences against it. We cannot let down our guard when it comes to avian influenza, as it is likely to remain a threat for Europe and the rest of the world for many months to come.”
Between February 2006 and 21 May 2006, 741 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (most of them confirmed as H5N1) have been detected in wild birds in 13 Member States – Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic and UK. There have been only four outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry in the EU, and all of these were swiftly eradicated following detection. No human case of the H5N1 virus has occurred in the EU.
There is considerable variation in the number of cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds, ranging from 326 in Germany to 1 in the UK. The peak in terms of the number of cases in wild birds was reached in March with 362 cases (compared to 200 in February), with cases declining to 162 in April and 17 in May (until 21 May). The most commonly affected wild birds have been swans, representing 62,8% of the total, followed by ducks (16,3%), geese (4,5%), birds of prey (3,9%) and others (13%).
Following the major geographical spread of the H5N1 avian influenza virus from South-East Asia in 2005, the EU has intensified its programmes for the surveillance and early detection of avian influenza, both in wild birds and poultry. Almost €2.9 million has been made available by the Commission to co-finance Member States’ surveillance programmes for the period July 2005-December 2006 (see IP/06/172 ). Guidelines on enhanced surveillance for avian influenza in wild birds were also issued by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health. The intensified surveillance has enabled the Commission and Member States to gain a clearer view of the avian influenza situation in the EU, and to rapidly detect and respond to any outbreak.
For the Commission and CRL presentations and the surveillance results, see:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/food/animal/diseases/controlmeasures/avian/ai_addmeasures_en.htm
Results for the AI surveillance in wild birds from 1 July 2005 to 31 January 2006:
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/food/animal/diseases/controlmeasures/avian/index_en.htm
Audubon Programs
Third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m.
Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro
Southeastern Vermont Audubon Programs are free and open to the public.
July
There is no program in July.
August 15
Wildlife Underpasses
Mark Bellis, masters’ candidate in wildlife biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, describes his project of monitoring wildlife use of two special underpasses in VT Route 279 (the Bennington Bypass Western Segment) designed for safe wildlife crossing.
September 19
Hiking in Arizona
Mark Mikolas, avid hiker and author of Nature Walks in Southern Vermont (Appalacian Mountain Club Books, 1995), presents highlights of his hikes in various Arizona locations, including the Grand Canyon.
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