Birds of North America, by Susan Hagen, Nathalie Anderson, and Lisa Sewell

Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius Phoneiceus) 

A shimmer, then creaks and squeals, rasps and wheezings 

somewhere in the shimmery field of silver grass— 

yes, squeaks and creels and my own rasps and wheezes 

as I ran the marshy river path and almost stumbled  

on the fistful or ring of pale orange tail feathers, each one  

the size of a finger and edged in dusky brown. The rest  

of her in the talons, in the creak and squeal, the wheezing  

grasp of something sleek and hungry flying up ahead. The well-  

made cup woven from strands of willow bark and cattails  

was empty too. At the top of the alders and wind-worried  

locusts, her blacker, better half lifted the leading edge of wing 

and plumped his red shoulder patches, singing his heart out.

– Lisa Sewell

 

Mourning Dove (Zenaida Macroura)

Somewhere in the shimmery field of silver grass 

dappled doves go nodding, go ooh-ing and ah-ing, 

shivering the grasses at silver dusk or dappled dawn, 

all shy come-hither, all coy side-sidle, always courting, 

dawdling and delaying as lovers will, all complaisance, 

all soft resistance – the long glide, the flap of a fan 

flicked open and closing, the whispering whistling 

whickering wing, the mellow the melting accents – 

the roucoule, the cu curru, the oh wow, the ooh. 

More a gleaner than a reaper, Audubon thought, no gleam  

or gloss to them. Yet gentling even the hard-edged seed in a crop  

filled with gravel, they’re all soft pewter in the shimmer, the silver.

– Nathalie Anderson
 

Two-thirds of North American birds are currently at risk of extinction due to habitat loss, climate change, and widespread ecological crisis. Birds of North America is a multi-faceted response to this crisis, inquiring into the beauty, meaning, and reality of birds in our time. It features a series of miniature drawings of North American birds by Susan Hagen and an interactive sequence of poems by Nathalie Anderson and Lisa Sewell. The book includes two characteristic individuals of each bird species, a male and a female. Most of the birds were encountered first-hand while walking in wetlands, forests, and urban landscapes, and many were spotted in and around Philadelphia during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021. The poems developed from Anderson and Sewell’s responses to the drawings and incorporated their personal experiences with birds. The poetic format is derived from the rondelet, whose back-and-forth structures echo the way birds call and sing to each other across space. 

 

Presentations on Birds of North America

• Presentation with Susan Hagen, Nathalie Anderson, and Lisa Sewell
• Birds of North America Book talk at Villanova University