Baby Bea Meets An Author

By Kevin Williams

My wife is a big fan of of author Julie Zickefoose (not that I'm not) so we went to hear her give a talk this weekend at Aullwood Audubon Center in Dayton, Ohio.   Julie is an accomplished birder, naturalist, artist, author, wildlife rehabber and singer.  She maintains a wonderful blog here.

Julie was at Aullwood to talk about her book, which you can buy from Amazon here.   The summation on Amazon describes the book this way:

This beautiful book is as much an art book as it is a natural history, something readers have come to expect from Julie Zickefoose. More than 400 watercolor paintings show the breathtakingly swift development of seventeen different species of wild birds. Sixteen of those species nest on Julie's wildlife sanctuary, so she knows the birds intimately, and writes about them with authority. To create the bulk of this extraordinary work, Julie would borrow a wild nestling, draw it, then return it to its nest every day until it fledged. Some were orphans she raised by hand, giving the ultimate insider’s glimpse into their lives. In sparkling prose, Julie shares a lifetime of insight about bird breeding biology, growth, and cognition. 

It was really interesting to hear Julie's talk and learn about the intricate, delicate lives of the smallest feathered creatures.  Julie is one of those super well-rounded people who throws herself into so many different projects and does all well. I admire that. In that sense she reminds me a bit of Bruce Stambaugh, the Holmes County Amish country based-blogger whom I admire greatly. Julie lives on an 80-acre spread outside of Marietta, Ohio.

I've crossed paths with Julie before (she once gave a talk at the Amish Birding Symposium, a great event in Adams County, Ohio) so I wanted to say "hello" after the talk and I think baby Beatrice and Julie were happy to meet one another!