Residents spot a Baltimore Oriole at Mud Lake

Expert owler Bernie Ladouceur leads residents to listen to nocturnal birds

Montreal artist Marjorie Lemay films a pair of eagles
through binoculars with a super 8 camera

Ayatana residents patrol with Safe Wings Ottawa for birds injured or killed in collisions with buildings.

Artist Tanya Chaly releases a bird banded by the Innis Point Banding Association

Residents visit the National Museum of Natures archives

Residents visit the chickens of Forest and Farm

Residents work with the Wild Bird Care Center's x-ray collection

Artists work with the Innis Point Bird Banding Association

One of thousands of drawers at the Museum of Nature's archives.

Laying Black Star hen at Forest and Farm

Parliament of Owls

Birds and Ornithology for Artists
Gatineau Hills, May, 2019
Deadline to apply: Jan 15, 2019

Owls are generally solitary, but when seen together the group is called a parliament as they have long been considered to be of a wise disposition.

Ayatana offers a series of guided research residencies for conceptual artists interested in ecology and life sciences. Parliament of Owls is a specialized program that focuses on birds that will take place over a week in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada during the spring migration of 2019. The residency will involve twice daily excursions into forests, wildlife sanctuaries, farms and research labs enriched by biologists, naturalists and experts. Residents will come away with an enriched understanding of migration, flight, rehabilitation and bird behavior within a range of natural habitats.

Ayatana residencies focus on experience and research by visual and conceptual artists. Writers, poets, musicians and dancers also benifit from this program.  This immersive research residency leaves little time free for making art, so developing ideas with the 5 other residents and collecting material is encouraged at all times. 

At least half of Ayatana field trips are spent outdoors.

Artist talk: We invite you to give a private artist talk to share your work with the group.

Sanctuary:
Residents will visit the Ottawa Wild Bird Care Center to observe the many wild birds being rehabilitated there and to see their collection of eggs, feathers, nests, and x-rays. The center hosts up to 600 birds. We are likely to see: Jays, finches, cardinals, wax wings, ravens, woodpeckers, humming birds and the resident turkey vulture and kestrel.

Migration:
Residents will witness the return of migratory birds on an outing along the shore of the Ottawa River. Plovers, cormorants, heron, sandpipers, egrets.

Tagging:
Residents will participate in a bird tagging event for scientific monitoring of wild birds on an outing with the Innis Point Bird Banding Association. We will also visit the Bird Banding Office of Enviroment Canada to learn about how the data collected is processed. We will likely see warblers, grackles, and red wing blackbirds.

Dawn Chorus:
Residents will stroll through Gatineau Park at day break to hear the dawn chorus lead by a field naturalist. Robins, orioles, thrush, grosbeak, phoebe, veery.

Research collection:
We will visit the Museum of Nature's bird archive which includes eggs, nests mounts and skins of local and international birds including extinct species.

Owl Prowl:
This outing will be lead by an expert from the Ottawa Field Naturalist Society. Residents will learn to call owls and identify nocturnal birds. Bard owls, Great horned owls, Saw whet, Whip-poor-wills, Snipe.

Earbirding:
Identify birds by song with the Ottawa Bird Count. Cardinal, swamp sparrow, blue jay, crow, pileated wood pecker.

Birds and the biophony:
Sound walk with a selection of artisinal bird calls.

Bird Collision Research, Prevention and Rescue:
Patrole with Safe Wings Ottawa to collect birds injured or killed by collisions with buildings.

Farm:
Visit an organic free range chicken farm and see their active purple martin house.

Location:
Residents will be picked up in Ottawa, Canada and driven to the Ayatana Residency House, near the small town of Chelsea, Quebec. This culturally vibrant town, surrounded by mountains and nestled between Gatineau National Park and the Gatineau River, is home to many scientists and artists.

Cost 
$1250 USD
Residency places are limited to 6 artists. Official invites will be given to accepted applicants to help in the procuration of grants and funding.

What is included:
All activities.
Transportation to all activities.
Supplies, equipment and technical gear.
A comfortable bed in the Ayatana residency house.
Most meals will be provided, cooked by our resident chef. *Residents will be responsible for paying for their own meals from restaurants, which will happen 2 or 3 times during the week.

Only applications that follow these guidelines will be considered.

Disclaimer: Those who do not like the outdoors or to talk about art, need not apply.

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For more images of past Biophilia adventures see our face book albums

Parliament of Owls 2018, Chelse Quebec

Parliament of Owls May 2017, Chelsea, Quebec

Biophilia Sept 2016, Chelsea, Quebec

Biophilia July 2015, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Biophilia Sept 2014 Wakefield, Quebec