Natural History Illustration

Earlier this year, I completed an online certificate through the University of Newcastle, Australia: “NHI101x: Drawing Nature, Science, and Culture: Natural History Illustration 101.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this 6-week course, and it genuinely helped me improve my illustration skills. Partly due to the techniques we learned and practiced, but possibly more important, by boosting my confidence as I worked through the assignments successfully. I am wholly satisfied with my progress, and am already planning to take another course in illustration in January (this time, focusing specifically on digital artwork).

My final project:

Here are some additional examples of the work I did during the course:

Ecosystem Exploration

This week, I’m using some Virtual Field materials in one of my classes (Ecosystem Exploration: https://thevirtualfield.org/virtual…/ecosystem-exploration).

In addition to the questions provided with the videos, I’m going to ask them to do some additional field journaling, including sketches. Here are the two I drew as examples (based on the Mojave Desert video), to give them some inspiration. (They aren’t expected to render things as completely as the tortoise, but the level of detail in the plant illustration should be doable by everyone).

As an aside, I think that Gopherus agassizii was the first scientific name I ever learned. My parents had hand towels with these tortoises (along with the name). Wow. It’s not actually too surprising that I’m such a nerd.

Wildlife on Copeland Creek

On Saturday, March 25th, SSU collaborated with the California Conservation Corps’ Watership Stewardship Program to start work on our riparian restoration project (more details about the work we did on Saturday coming soon). One of the side benefits of working alongside the creek is encountering some of the wildlife that shares the campus with us. Here are a few of the highlights of our day . . .

Southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata): 

This gorgeous lizard was spotted in the middle of the bike path – one of the largest alligator lizards I’ve ever seen! What a gorgeous specimen!

Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla): We found more than one of these little cuties during our work day.

Slender salamander (Batrachoseps attenuatus): At least 9 of these little amphibians were discovered while working in an area of about an acre. The one at bottom right is the smallest I’ve ever seen.

We also saw lots of great native plants and fungi.

While I didn’t get many photos of them, I did see or hear a wide variety of birds, including western scrub jay, red-shouldered hawk, brown towhee, Anna’s hummingbird, turkey vulture, wild turkey, and Canada geese.

Best of all, the creek is gorgeous right now, with a good amount of water after our recent rains.

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Animals of Our Creeks, Rivers, and Marshes

Had an amazing evening with some of the folks at the Sonoma Land Trust – They graciously invited me to speak as part of their 40th anniversary speaker’s series, and I gave a talk on wildlife in freshwater habitats in Sonoma County. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

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What a great audience . . . they were engaged, and they laughed at my stupid jokes (hahaha), and then they asked me nearly an hour’s worth of questions after I finished my presentation. Really grateful for this opportunity to talk about some of the cool critters we have living in our local waters! (And I learned loads of stuff from them, as well . . . it was a wonderfully well-informed bunch of people). The SLT folks were all really wonderful, too. *hugs* SO MUCH FUN!!!!

I’ve been invited to speak . . .

. . . as part of the Sonoma Land Trust’s 40th Anniversary Speaker’s Series. I’m super excited about this opportunity – any chance to talk about cool local wildlife sounds amazing to me! Information from their website reproduced below.

40th Anniversary Speaker Series
Wild Animals of Sonoma County

As part of the celebrations for our 40th Anniversary, and in view of the overwhelming interest we’ve received for our work on wildlife corridors, we are offering a very special series of talks about the fascinating wildlife of Sonoma County.

May 4: The Northern California Serengeti: Sonoma’s Wild Past by Breck Parkman outside Sebastopol

May 11: Animals of Our Creeks, Rivers and Marshes by Wendy St. John in Petaluma

May 18: Coexisting With Mountain Lions — Sonoma County’s Apex Predators by Quinton Martins in Sonoma

May 25: Mammals on the Wing: Bats of Northern California by Greg Tatarian in Santa Rosa

 

River Otter
River Otter

Animals of Our Creeks, Rivers and Marshes
by Wendy St. John
May 11 (Wednesday), 6:30—8:30pm, at the Petaluma Community Center, 320 N McDowell Blvd., Petaluma
Free

Here in Sonoma County, we are fortunate to have a variety of freshwater systems that support a rich diversity of animal and plant life. Our marshes, wetlands, streams, rivers, lakes and ponds provide habitat for many native and at-risk species. Wendy St. John, a professor in both the Biology and Environmental Studies and Planning departments of Sonoma State University will focus on some of the wildlife found in these watery habitats, such as beaver and otter, steelhead and salmon, turtles and lizards, and maybe even a few plants!

 

Baby King Snake

Few things feel better than a hot shower after three days in the field. It was a good three days, though. Found a total of eight turtles, and the most adorable baby king snake ever. I have never seen a king snake this small before; it was SO TINY AND SO PRECIOUS and really chill about being handled. So beautiful. I’m going to keep checking this location every time I go by; hopefully I’ll be able to see this precious baby again. Photos taken in Lake County, California.

Baby Tiger at S.F. Zoo

On Saturday I went to the San Francisco Zoo (ostensibly to measure baby turtles, and the baby turtles were, indeed, measured), but mostly we went so we could see the BABY TIGER!!! (The first picture is from NBC; the three crappy ones are my own).

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She’s two months old, and she is literally one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my entire life. I cried. (No, really. My friends still haven’t stopped teasing me about it).

She was supposed to be on “view” between 2 and 4 on Saturday, so when we finished with the turtles around 2:30, we went to the Lion House to see if the baby was out. Unfortunately, she wasn’t – she was sleeping in her den box. We could see her on the video camera, but that was kind of boring. So we wandered off to see the dinosaur exhibit (which turned out to be really disappointing; there weren’t any DINOSAURS just stupid signs, some of which had dodgy information), and then came back around 3:30, only to find there was a queue of a couple hundred people waiting to get into the Lion House to see the baby. UM, NO THANKS! I really hate waiting in lines like that, and I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed by crowds of people (we’d gone to Oakland Zoo that morning to measure the turtles there, so I was just about done with dealing with people). We looked around to see if we could find someone we knew who might sneak us in the back way (we know lots of keepers, including the woman who cares for the tigers), but couldn’t find anyone.

So, we mostly gave up on seeing the baby in person, which was making me sad. We wandered around and visited the bears and some other animals, and then, at about five minutes to 4 (when the Lion House and all the other zoo buildings close, in preparation to clear everyone out of the zoo by 5), I suggested that we try again. And it was kind of magical. We walked in literally less than a minute before someone came to close the door, and then we went over to the tiger enclosure, and THERE WAS THE BABY!!!!!

She was out with her mama, and OMG SHE IS SO PRECIOUS. Her little tiger face – thinner than her mama’s – and her bright eyes, and the way her little back-end wiggled as she walked and jumped around on her mom, and then her mom started licking her clean, and she was just really, really beautiful and it was so special to be able to see her like this when she’s so small, and I just got overwhelmed and tears came into my eyes, and then when we were leaving I got even more overwhelmed, and my friends asked if I was okay and I was, because I was super happy that I’d gotten to see this incredibly beautiful little girl, but also sad because she’ll have to live her whole life in a zoo, but probably she won’t mind because she doesn’t know different, and also I do have to admit that tigers are my VERY FAVORITE of all animals. Even more than owls or dragons or turtles. I try not to make a big deal about having a favorite (because really I love almost all animals), but when it comes down to it, there is something about tigers that just makes my HEART SING and then I was crying, and it was awesome. 🙂

And now they will probably tease me about it forever, but I don’t care. I’m not embarrassed about crying about something this beautiful. OMG I love this baby. I love her so much. OMG I LOVE TIGERS and this baby is so ridiculously wonderful.

Slug Appreciation Post!

Because slugs are adorable, and I love them. 😀

So, the first picture is one I took out on my back patio, of a pair of slugs who had just finished some frisky business. (At least I think that’s what they’d been doing. It sure looked like it).

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The second photo is me, at my field site, joining the Banana Slug Club. (And I wasn’t the only one who kissed a slug that day. Far from it. This is a time-honored tradition here in California).

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Finally, a different species of banana slug (from the one being kissed). I took that picture near Half-Moon Bay. And HOLY MOLY that’s one gorgeous slug!

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