Incubating Bar-tailed Godwit from "Arctic Flight: Adventures Amongst Arctic Birds." Image courtesy of James McCallum.

Long-tailed Duck pair from "Arctic Flight: Adventures Amongst Arctic Birds." Image courtesy of James McCallum.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper with chicks, from "Arctic Birds: Adventures Amongst Arctic Birds." Image courtesy of James McCallum.

"Arctic Flight: Adventures Amongst Arctic Birds." Image courtesy of James McCallum.

Yukon Delta Refuge is one of four international venues featured in a recently-published collection of paintings and sketches by British wildlife artist James McCallum.  McCallum's latest and most ambitious book, Arctic Flight: Adventures Amongst Arctic Birds (Langford Press, 2007), includes 140 watercolor paintings as well as over 200 studies and sketches.  Virtually all of the art work was completed while McCallum was actually in the field, and the main text of the book is derived from his travel diaries and field notes taken at the time of the paintings. 

The collection draws on McCallum's field work between 2000 and 2006 in Finnish Lapland, Arctic Norway, Chukotka in the Siberian Far East, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska.  McCallum visited Yukon Delta Refuge in spring, 2004, working as a Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer. He participated in a variety of projects, including research on sandpiper demography, Bar-tailed Godwit breeding ecology, and waterfowl nest plot surveys.  During breaks in the schedule, he devoted himself to his artwork.  Over 30 paintings and nearly 70 studies and sketches from the Delta are included in Arctic Flight.  This section of the book includes images of 20 breeding species, including Emperor Geese, Bar-tailed Godwits, Sabine's Gulls, and Eastern Yellow Wagtails.  In addition, Yukon Delta Refuge education specialist Brian McCaffery wrote the introductory essay for the portion of the book devoted to paintings from the Delta.