17/52 - Birds and Old Books

A few years ago, our friend Jen read the book Hardscrabble Harvest by Dahlov Ipcar in one of her Kindermusik classes, and we instantly loved it. Dahlov Ipcar wrote children's books from the 1940s into the early 1980s, and this particular copy was actually from Jen's own childhood. Most of Dahlov's books have been out of print for some time, but luckily for us a Maine publisher had just started reprinting them. Since then, we've become big fans. Her artwork is fresh even after all these years, and the nature inspired story-lines are a hit with Anders. He now has a "Dahlov Ipcar" section of his bookshelf, and he accesses it frequently.

Dahlov Ipcar is still producing art today at the age of 96. Given her age, we decided now was the time to let her know how much we love her books. Anders drew this picture for her which we sent along with a note.

In response, Dahlov's son, who manages her correspondence and website, sent Anders a picture of a reindeer that Dahlov drew at the age of 4 1/2, along with her review of Anders' drawing:

In her estimation, [Dahlov's reindeer drawing] wasn't as fully developed as Anders' deer picture. She thinks his is an excellent work.

They even posted his drawing on Dahlov's own website. How's that for inspiration?

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Our friends at the Mount Adams Resource Stewards (MARS) organized and hosted a Bird Festival at the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge in nearby Glenwood. The event included all sorts of bird-related activities. Biologists from the Washington Fish and Wildlife were capturing small songbirds using mist netting, then tagging, weighing, recording and releasing the birds. There were also guided bird walks through the refuge. We arrived just in time for Anders to build a bluebird birdhouse from pre-cut kits.

We gave Anders the hammer and tried to keep our fingers as far away as possible.

Did you know that the inside of a bluebird house should be notched or scored so that a young hatchling can climb to the opening? Neither did we. (If he can't get to the opening, perhaps that is a sign that he shouldn't be jumping out, either. Just a thought.)

The Gorge Discovery Center brought a few of their raptors to the event. All of their birds have some disability that prevents them from being released to the wild.

This American Kestrel was illegally captured as a baby by people who were planning to train it for falconry. As a result, he has imprinted on humans and never had the opportunity to learn hunting skills from his natural-born parents.

This Great Horned Owl has poor depth perception and would be unable to hunt very successfully.

This Red-Tailed Hawk has a damaged wrist and can only extend one of its wings about 80%.

All three birds are flight capable. Whenever the wind blew, they would all turn into the wind and spread their wings.

Oh, and we also won a pair of nice binoculars in the festival raffle! This was the first in what is hoped to be an annual event. I suspect we'll be back.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders