2021 marks the first year since 1980 in which CSS hasn't sent a delegation of faculty and students for the College's Ireland Program in Louisburgh, County Mayo. In honor of the program and the birds of our "Irish campus," here is a lovely painting of a Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) by our colleague Dr. Patricia Hagen, who, with her husband Dr. Tom Zelman, led the program on seven different occasions. Dr. Hagen's painting (enlarge by clicking on the thumbnail) is from 2015, when this species was a frequent visitor at the campus feeder.
In 2012, students in the Honors class "The Book in the Fifteenth Century" created the illuminated manuscript The Black Bestiary of Scholastica, with text & images adopted from the Aberdeen Bestiary. This condensed student version of the bestiary included four images of birds. You may view them here.
The Phoenix
The Rooster.
The Dove.
The Eagle.
"Red-Winged Blackbird." Field notebook of Angie Fish.
"Various birds." Field notebook of Angie Fish.
"Robins." Field notebook of Angie Fish.
"Robin in flight." Field notebook of Angie Fish.
"Grackle." Field notebook of Angie Fish.
“Much is said of the state of contemporary education. So, perhaps the younger generation can be forgiven if they think the only eternal war that exists is between vampire & werewolf. That is what silly books will do. But there is another, older, eternal battle waged between contestants of equal worth, fox vs. crow, vulpes vulpes vs. corvus brachyrhynchos.
Aesop knew two thousand years ago, just as I know today. Who is a match for the watcher from the top of spruces? The mimicker? The tool maker? The strutter around the bird feeder? The petty thief of shiny objects? Not the eagle. His flight is ignominious. Not the raven. He made his last stand against the crows from a tall red pine as I watched from the woodpile last May. Certainly not I, for I am nothing but a man.
We will live under the tyranny of the crow until the fox returns … until the king comes across the water.”
From “As willy REYNARD view’d with wishful eyes, a CROW possess’d of a delicious prize … “
"Psychopecker. "Linoleum print in process of being carved
Pen & ink sketch of blue jay feather. The image has been scanned and then reduced to various heights in 1/4" increments to allow for visualization of the best size to use on a 5"x7" print. Once determined, the image will be turned into a photoengraving to be printed on a letterpress.
(Image by T. Arthur White)
The intense beauty of a jay's wing is captured in this photograph "Birdsong" by CSS alum Annabelle Pflug. But in just another trick of the light, blue jay's are actually brown. This from CornelLab of Ornithology's All About Birds ... "The pigment in Blue Jay feathers is melanin, which is brown. The blue color is caused by scattering light through modified cells on the surface of the feather barbs."
Entry for "chickadee," from A Field Guide to the Birds of Duluth Township, a lost book attributed to CSS Librarian Todd White. Letterpress & photoengraving by T. Arthur White. 6" x 9"
Entry for "pileated woodpecker," from A Field Guide to the Birds of Duluth Township, a lost book attributed to CSS Librarian Todd White. Letterpress & photoengraving by T. Arthur White. 6" x 9"
