Bird migration data literally and figuratively “takes wing” in the collaborative Field Notes series by artists Yvonne Love and Deirdre Murphy. The series centers on birdwatching checklists, marked by Love’s father and stepmother, Bill and Naomi, over the course of decades. The couple’s checklists now number in the thousands, neatly compiled in massive bound books. In Field Notes, Yvonne Love pulled checklists to reproduce as starting points for her collaboration with Murphy. Enlarged, the bird checklists became the foundation for a call-and-response style artistic collaboration. Through painting, stitching, and cut paper, Love and Murphy create a poignant visual narrative of the birdwatchers’ observations and experiences. The artists breathe new life into the checklists by calling our attention to birds observed, using pattern and color to conjure the excitement of the moments embedded in the data. 

Migration Waves is a work in the Field Notes series that combines an annotated bird checklist with vibrant waveforms generated from migration data. The foundation of Migration Waves is the field checklist from an August 1983 birding trip to Cape Hatteras. Birds observed, such as the Buff Breasted Sandpiper and American Bittern, were marked with a check alongside the species name. Annotations concerning certain species are inscribed on the margins by the husband-and-wife in their respective script and cursive. In Migration Waves, the artists removed the checked boxes, inpainting them with peachy pink watercolor. Love and Murphy’s artistic intervention makes each bird’s presence visible through its absence. In vibrant green and yellow, waveforms represent broader seasonal migration data. Through this overlay of migration wave patterns, Murphy and Love demonstrate how data collected as daily checklists becomes larger datasets representing annual migration patterns.

Storm Petrel is a companion to Migration Waves, as the inscriptions originate from the reverse of the August 1983 Cape Hatteras checklist. The tiny, square checkboxes are reconfigured in dimensional grids fastened to the page with pushpins. This act of reassembly conveys the preciousness of the bird data as a reflection of the birds as well as the moments spent watching and waiting for them. The birdwatchers’ annotations include: “Bird was seen for about 20 minutes within 15 feet of the boat. Facial pattern was very distinctive as was its feeding flight pattern with long legs dangling and hopping along in a kangaroo pattern with wings just flat out and no fluttering...” These notations represent the great care taken to observe minute movements, the patience of quietly waiting, and the joy of sharing this moment with birdwatching companions.

In Golden Wing, the artists embellish a checklist from a 1982 birdwatching day at Meesing and Tom’s Creek areas. At the margin, the birdwatchers recorded their observations, including a remarkable number of Golden Wing Warblers: “numerous (15 at least) golden winged warblers—Meesing Woods full of them...” Just below, the birdwatchers include the note, in Naomi’s script: “Bill and Naomi, Sunny, Clear, 75 degrees, Blue Bird weather.” Love and Murphy pay homage to this day twenty-four years ago, overlaying the checklist with a delicately painted Golden Winged Warbler and Blue Bird eggs. These artistic gestures lovingly bring the birdwatchers’ notations to life, reanimating the memories recorded on that day. 

Love and Murphy’s collaboration reflects the social nature of the checklists themselves, which are adorned with Bill’s printing and Naomi’s cursive script. As birding trips are social occasions—albeit quiet by necessity—companions are also present in the notations. In the collaborative practice for Field Notes, Love and Murphy passed the checklists back and forth, adding and subtracting painted and dimensional details. The resulting aesthetic is something like two birds calling to one another. Balancing order with improvisation, Field Notes is an homage to dedicated birdwatchers and a joyful remembering of their recorded moments.