New England Coastal Birds: Feathered Gems in the Ocean State

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Feathered Gems in the Ocean State

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!! Check back later, Thanks, Keith!!

Overview

This blog is a collaboration of Keith Mueller and Tom Robben. Our hope is primarily to provide birding field trip experiences along the New England coast. We are going to try our best to "capture" a tiny bit of the immense beauty and treasure of coastal nature and to share those days and places with others.

For many birders, their love of birding extends way beyond a check mark in a book. It is often the experience of finding that species in a special location that holds a special place in their hearts often driven by a personal quest wanting something more than just noting it.

For many (Avian) Artists, birding experiences ignite our passion and creativity. Being "inspired" opens the door to our creative process; and that creative process can lead us on a journey in endless directions! Inspired art projects a narrative. Its the artists job to tell it, and the viewer to absorb it.

Being an Avian Artist/Sculptor, species accounts, habitat structure, and the species itself are critical for a successful design and composition. With the type of work I and many others produce, the subject must be portrayed accurately and realistically. Often reference material is not available, and without accurate reference material the composition fails. In my birding narratives I try and "paint" as much information as I can surrounding the species for those that may be interested with possibly unfamiliar species and will hopefully benefit by a better understanding.

This I will try and accomplish through species anatomy, plumage, character and species traits, habitat and environment, and interaction with other sepecies. For these artists, I include many images of the species from as many angles and postures as I can. This may be redundant to many readers, but for the artist/carver/sculptor, a complete study of a species is essential.

About Us

Keith Mueller, Killingworth, CT- I am a professional avian artist/sculptor for over thirty-five years. I have a deep passion for birds and their environments and glean much artistic inspiration from them. In fact, birds have made a very profound impact on my life; sculpting my career. Sea birds, waterfowl and shorebirds are my favoite birds, and are my main focus for my art. Watching seabirds whether on a pelagic trip, codfishing trip or "sea-watching" with a strong onshore wind are my favorite birding attractions. I spend many hours in the field studying birds, and am creatively inspired by their habits; from subtle behavioral nuances to their species specific complexities. I enjoy the challenge to find a balance between art, nature and reality. Samples of my art can be seen here: The Art of Keith Mueller (kmuellerart.blogspot.com)

My reports on this site are accounts of my birding adventures. Although this site is technically a "blog", I am NOT (really) a blogger, nor a writer. I just want to share my birding experiences and accounts from the day in hopes to inspire others to enjoy (possibly) new birding adventures . I also enjoy photographing birds very much, and the images I take are used for my art reference and studies. However, I am NOT a photographer, I consider myself a "picture-taker"! My camera equipment is standard for basic photography: Canon 60D (50D for back-up) with a Canon 100-400mm IS f/4-5.6 lens. I have a Swarovski 20/60x scope and it is fitted it with a Canon S95 camera with adapter for digi-scoping. For binoculars I have a pair of Leica Trinovid 8x42 (Thanks Jen-birthday gift)! I don't keep a list, and actually I don't have any idea how many species I have actually noted. To me, spending a day birding with my wife Jen at a beautiful location experiencing fascinating birds is about as good as it gets. The "adventure" of birding along the beautiful New England coast or on the sea is our motivation.

A Little Information about my Sculptures, Carvings and Decoys- I have been carving decoys for waterfowlers, photographers, researchers and collectors for all of my career. My decoys have floated, stood in fields and hung from trees on both coasts and many inland areas in between, and in the UK, Mexico and Costa Rica.

I have always been passionate about creating birds in wood, and it is exciting when their wild counterpart associate with them side-by-side; I brings a big smile to my face! Since so many of my Waterfowl, Shorebird and Wading Bird decoys have successfully lured in their counterparts over all these years, I have now taken my decoy art in a new direction. My newest decoy/bird related passion is to carve and deploy as many species of favorite bird decoys as possible with the hopes of capturing both the bird and my decoys together in the same images. Have you ever seen Shearwater, Fulmar, Skua, and Jaeger decoys floating a hundred miles offshore on a pelagic bird trip? Or maybe Puffin, Murre, Razorbill, Dovekie or possibly a Red-billed Tropicbird decoy(s) floating in the Atlantic? Search the blog archives and enjoy!

For my decoys, I use many wood species to carve them from local New England White Cedar, White Pine and Basswood. I also use Tupelo which I have shipped from North Carolina and Louisiana. Spanish Cedar and Mahogany from Central American Tree Farms are also choices of mine. To accomodate vulnerable areas such as long tails and delicate bills, I use a variety of strong local woods such as Holly and Dogwood, and imported woods such as: Greenheart, Zapote, Almendro, etc. for strengthening inserts. All my decoys are hand painted with the finest oil paints in the World: Old Holland, Robert Doak, and Jacob Ouillette. For more information regarding my decoys, carvings and sculptures, see my carving site listed above ( The Art of Keith Mueller )

You cannot create art without being "Inspired"! In my professional career, there have been many great Artists in all mediums that have been very profound "Inspirations" to me-Favorite traditional Bird and Decoy Carvers- "Shang" Wheeler, Elmer Crowell and Gus Wilson, favorite Wood Carver- Grinling Gibbons, favorite Birding Naruralist- Keith Brockie, favorite Bird Painter/Artist- Richard Sloan, favorite Bird Illustrator- C. F. Tunnicliffe, other Bird Artists- Trevor Boyer, Lars Johansson, Terrance James Bond, favorite Author- Alexander Skutch, favorite Oil Painter- Raymond Booth, favorite Musical Artist- John Lennon, favorite Art Theory Author- Henry Rankin Poore, favorite Contemorary Bird Sculptors- Gary Eigenberger, Greg Woodard and Todd Wholt, and most importantly: favorite Artistic Motivator- Jen.

Tom Robben, Glastonbury, CT - I started birding on my 7th birthday when my dear parents gave me binoculars and a bird book. I became active in the Scarsdale Audubon Society at 14, and the NY Linnaean Society at 19. I started birding mostly in NY and NJ, then in other states, and eventually overseas. I joined the COA, Hartford Audubon and the Brookline Bird Club since 2008.

I have been very lucky to be able to bird with many really top-notch birders, including my dear friend, the late Tom Davis. Partnered with Guy Tudor in 1972 to initiate the use of "Christmas Counts" to do the first Summer Bird Counts...

Summer Bird Count 1973 article or http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/NAB/v027n03/p00566-p00570.pdf) and assisted my son's analysis of 34 years of Summer Bird Counts in Greenwich/Stamford CT... SBC Summer Bird Counts by Shoon Robben . Especially interested in pelagic, coastal, north woods and alpine birding, and those beautiful wild natural locations. Cape Cod is one of my favorite areas... Cape Cod Seabirding . Am hoping to get more young people interested in Nature, birds, wild natural areas, and taking good care of the planet.

New England Coastal BIrds

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Feathered Gems in the Ocean State