Recently, the good folk of Bartram’s Garden hired me to help design and furnish their new interpretive center, which they’ve aptly dubbed The Green Room. It’s an educational space that will inform visitors of what is afoot in the Garden: what’s in bloom, what artifacts have been found, what animals have been sighted, who will be visiting, etc. Terrariums fill the windows. Cork boards along the green wall are crammed with images, maps, and historical documents. I’ve just completed painting and labeling a collection of model bird eggs of species that visit the Garden: turkeys, orioles, cedar waxwings, blue herons, etc. My pride and joy is the old curio cabinet that I’ve repainted and stocked full of bird’s nests, feathers, and bones (this month’s theme is birds).

Incredibly, one of the nests in the case is woven out of fishing line, a material that is notorious for snaring and killing small birds. On a few occasions I’ve had to rescue cedar waxwings that have found themselves entangled in the awful stuff. Speaking of bird rescues: while I was finishing up a model of a turkey egg yesterday, Bartram’s head gardener Todd Greenberg came into the center, looking winded and carrying a bucket. Inside the bucket was a belted kingfisher that he had just rescued from the Schuylkill River’s deep bank of mud during low tide. Todd was nearly trapped out there himself, but he managed to get back with the kingfisher. We placed the kingfisher gently into a cardboard box, wrapped him in warm blankets, and covered the box with a sheet. I fought through an hour of rush hour traffic to reach the wildlife rehabilitation center before it closed. Sadly we found out this morning that the poor fellow’s injuries were too severe, and he didn’t make it through the night. A cat or some other sort of animal must have gotten to him, because he had injuries all along his side.  So sad. Such brave, bright things, kingfishers. Wish we could have saved him.