A Bird in the Hand

If there’s one thing a woodpecker hates, it’s an empty nest, as frequent contributor to SCM and friend of SCU’s art programs Edward Rooks notes in one of his lectures at Filoli Gardens this past year.

“They have a cache of valuable acorns to protect. So, the birds have evolved to recruit family members to protect it,” he says as a lecturer on the garden’s summer theme, NEST: Creating Home.

Through sacrifice, the family of woodpeckers help each other and make a home. It’s this poetry of nature that Rooks captures in his art. His naturalist paintings and photographs are award-winning and have appeared in biological journals, nature magazines, and even on wine labels.