MONTE VISTA – The Monte Vista Crane Festival swooped in for another year of fascinating tours, beautiful, personalized crane novelties and crane viewing, along with plenty of opportunities for people to hear amazing speakers and scientists talk about cranes, waterfowl.

Amongst the most interesting speakers was the keynote speaker Rosemary Mosco, who addressed a large crowd of about 125 people on Saturday, March 7.  Mosco is known for her many nature books and humorous comics, as well as her speaking abilities.

Mosco engaged the crowd as she started her speech by speaking about birds, and the comics that she creates featuring birds, and how she finds humor in the names that everyone gives to birds.

“I make comics that share my enjoyment of birds. One of the things I think about a lot is bird names. If you bird a lot, your mind will start to wonder when you are seeing the same birds over and over again. One thing I have thought of is some of the weird names that we call some of the birds that we see. As an example, has anyone seen this bird that I am showing now? This is the beautiful Nuthatch, it’s native to certain parts of southern Asia and southeast Asia. I have never seen this bird but it’s beautiful. It’s stunning,” she said.

Mosco suddenly asked everyone, what does it mean to call this bird the beautiful Nuthatch and what does it imply about other Nuthatches? She said that if she sits and wonders about the name of that bird, and what could it imply about other birds.

“I made a comic called real and implied birds. So, the existence of the rough legged hawk implies the existence of the smooth legged hawk. The great crusted fly catcher implies the existence of the OK crusted fly catcher. The mountain chickadee which I have had such a good time seeing here, implies the existence of the Valley chickadee here,” she said.

Mosco explained that this is the kind of thing she does, but she also pokes fun at birders from time to time, and that’s also implied to herself as she is a birder.

Mosco stated that she enjoys taking pictures of birds. She stated that the best photos she has taken are the ones she has taken with her mind because she has forgotten her camera. She stated that she likes making her art about unusual species of birds too. She is drawn to the common and unloved species of birds.

“I have been hearing a lot of Canadian Goose hate at the Crane Festival,” she said with a laugh.

Mosco then proceeded to show a video of a Canada Goose chasing after someone who was trying to photograph the goose’s baby. Mosco stated with a chuckle that if a human would chase someone who was holding a sack full of steel equipment and getting near the human’s child, that it would be something honorable, but when a goose does it they are just in trouble. She made a comic about a Canadian Goose, and some of the traits they have that humans should also have. She stated being assertive was one of them, being brave, being team players, because they fly in a V. She smiled and stated that even though the Crane Festival is about cranes, she wants everyone to know why she is showing and likes common unloved birds.

She stated that she grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and had a nature-filled life. She said two things she loved about growing up in Canada were being out in nature and reading nature books. She combined the two hobbies and began cartooning when she was young. Her biggest influence was her father, that she lost 2 years ago.

Mosco brought up many species of birds that her dad saw, but in particular brought up pigeons and how pigeons are versatile and important. Both male and females produce milk, and that in earlier times pigeons could be eaten, and that pigeons used to carry messages to other people, too.

Pigeons like cats and dogs come in many fancy breeds, she said. There are many breeds of pigeons, including the Fairy Swallow who have large wings, Frillback, Pouter Pigeons who have puffy necks, and many other breeds. There are also Feral Pigeons, with different eye colors, different body colors, and different beak colors.

She stated that the reason some pigeons are speckled according to scientists is that at some point in the past these pigeons were crossbred by humans, with a breed called the African Speckled pigeon. She stated that pigeons were also decorated war heroes.

The last bird she talked about that her dad saw growing up was a seagull. Seagulls were at one time declining.

“Gulls are interesting because they are creatures that are probably found everywhere you go. Say you are at the beach drinking a nice cold one, bam there’s a seagull eating your sandwich.  Gulls have not always been everywhere; they were actually victims of fashion.”

Mosco proceeded to show some people in ancient times, wearing accessories made of actual seagulls.

She showed a comic that she made about abilities she wished she had that birds have.

“I start with wishing I could fly, and singing complex songs, carving wood with my face, eating shrimp to become pink, storing food in a pouch, being a symbol of peace, or being an omen, and stealing chips with no criminal repercussions,” she said.

Mosco has written and drawn for the New York Times and has created award-winning science books for kids and adults, according to her website.

For more information on Mosco, visit rosemarymosco.com.