Gallery: Watching Loons with the Eyes of a Sketch Artist

From the Summer 2021 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now.

I spent much of last summer curled at the edges of lakes in Maine, binoculars in one hand, gazing out at the loons on the water, then glancing down to sketch them in my notebook. With high school out for the summer I was able to join my dad, wildlife photographer Tim Laman, on a project filming loons in Acadia National Park. Sketching for the first time in the field, I learned that I’m able to appreciate a greater level of detail watching birds with a pen in my hand, as my mind decodes the shapes and patterns to translate them onto paper.

The short film above, Loons of Mount Desert Island, Maine, was filmed by Tim Laman and produced by the Cornell Lab’s Center for Conservation Media.

Special thanks to the Somes Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary for help with finding and monitoring loon nests for this project.