ELISHA THE WAYWARD FLAMINGO  

Quilted wall hanging, 87” x 51”.

Prepared in 1998 for the first anniversary of Elisha’s rescue by staff and volunteers of the Wild Bird Care Centre to support a fundraising initiative of the Centre.  The interest and compassion aroused by the story of Elisha’s arrival, efforts to rescue her, her eventual capture and return to Connecticut, inspired the piece.

 There seemed to be some irony in her allowing herself to be recaptured on December 10, International Human Rights Day.  It was as if she was was saying “What about the rights of wild creatures?”

 The end of Elisha’s great adventure was somewhat like coming to the end of a good book, when you feel a sense of loss, knowing that the main characters will no longer be with you.  The quilt brings Elisha back to the Ottawa area, this time to stay.

 Design

 As with my other works in a series of birds on the wing, a stylized geometric layout has been used for the background, with fabric prints that suggest the setting and help tell the story.  Graham Creek, where Elisha made herself at home, is represented by the diagonal gray panel.  The snowflakes of the print used for the borders on either side of the central panel represent the harsher weather closing in. 

 Segments on either end depict two very different landscapes.  In the upper right hand corner, the Andes Mountains of Chile are represented.  The brown and green hand-dyed fabrics bring a warmer summer palette that complements Elisha’s bright colouring.  Here, the early morning scene is bathed in light, since in December Chile is experiencing the longest days of the year.

 The bottom left corner shows a representation of the view from Graham Creek across the Ottawa River to the Gatineau Hills in early December.  In this instance, the lighting is much darker, for although we are in the same time zone as Chile, it is early winter, and our daylight hours are close to the shortest of the year.  The hand dyed navy fabric used for the hills has white markings, and helps to give the impression of the first light of day reflecting off a dusting of snow on the far off hills.

 The dark gray fabric in the Centre has green overtones that blend nicely with the hand dyed fabrics selected for the Andes Mountains. The lines of the grey print suggest bird nets. The snowflake print of the inner borders includes gray, blue, mauve and green tones, allowing for an easy transition between segments.  The broken ice in the lower part of the central panel is in bluer tones, easing us into the cooler landscape.

 The image of Elisha herself was recreated (with permission) from a photograph by John Long that appeared in The Hartford Courant  (September 30, 1997).  This image was selected not only because it was the most dramatic and elegant in line, but because it was printed in our local paper on two separate occasions, and is fixed in the memory of anyone who saw it.

 Some of Elisha’s black flight feathers have been made individually, where an effort has been made to depict light reflecting from the feathers.  Some of the feathers have been lined, where it seemed important to provide some dimension.  The back edge of some of the flight feathers has been left loose, to add more dimension.  For the upper side of the right wing, emphasis has been placed on the rapid but still subtle colour gradations, from purest white to a vibrant shrimp colour.  The piecing of miniature triangles helps to build these colour changes.  Use of this technique was influenced by the work of Joan Colvin and Janet Rice-Bredin.  For the more even-toned lower side of the left wing, and for the body, larger appliqued segments have been used.

 Hand dyed fabrics have been used for Elisha’s legs and feet.   She wears a band on her leg bearing the number 237 – the same number that appears on the real Elisha’s bird band.

 A narrow border has been used only behind and below Elisha’s flight path, to keep the vista open.  A full border would have had the effect of blocking her path.  The coloured strips of the outer border help to integrate the different palettes used in each portion of the design, by carrying the warmer colours into the cooler corner, and vice versa, and by repeating Elisha’s vibrant colours.  The ted tones are limited to the lower right corner, to avoid strong contrasts that would detract from the moodiness of the landscapes. 

 The Back

 While the colours of the front are quite restrained - aside from Elisha’s feathers - the back is much brighter.  The main colour is a vibrant shrimp, which is reminiscent of the colour used for plastic lawn flamingos.  Photographs of the staff and volunteers who participated in Elisha’s capture appear on the back (courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen), also their signatures.  Also appliqued onto the back are the story of Elisha’s great adventure, and the photograph of Elisha from the Hartford Courant (with permission).  The fabric strips used along the bottom, and to frame each of the elements on the back, are made from a multicoloured print with a black background.  The print has a South American flavour.

 Quilting

 The quilt is machine quilted.  An outline stitch has been used to highlight Elisha.  Additional quilting within her form helps to stabilize the backing and emphasize her dramatic lines. The quilting lines  in the upper left corner represent the mist net used to capture Elisha, provided to the Wild Bird Care Centre by The Ottawa Citizen.  Quilting in the water behind Elisha strengthens the sense of movement.  Quilting in the landscapes complements the lines of the hills and water, and adds dimension.  The strips in the snowflake print are quilted with Canada geese flying south, and with one Chilean flamingo flying north.

 The Name

 Several names were considered for the quilt: Elisha’s Great Adventure, Elusive Elisha, and others.  I decided to use “Elisha the Wayward Flamingo” partly because it seems to allude to her apparent confusion about what she would find in the direction she was flying, but also because it speaks to her character traits of wilfulness and disobedience.  Credit for the name goes to Tony LeFaro of The Ottawa Citizen.
Elisha’s Great Adventure

 After eight years in captivity, Elisha was again feeling restless, as she always did in the fall.  She was irritable, and impatient with her mate, Maurice.  When her keeper approached her one morning in September of 1997, intending to clip her wings, Elisha took wing and escaped.

 In early November she was spotted in Ottawa.  At first it was thought that someone was playing a practical joke with a plastic flamingo.  Birders quickly confirmed that it was not only a Chilean flamingo, but one by the name of Elisha, who had escaped from a private bird sanctuary in Litchfield, Connecticut.  The sanctuary is owned by S. Dillon Ripley, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

 It seems that natural instincts had sent Elisha north, expecting to find warmer weather – as she would have if she had been in Chile, where she had spent the first twelve years of her life.  Instead, she had left a relatively mild climate in Connecticut for much more severe temperatures in Canada.  Over the next several weeks many attempts were made to save her from being frozen into the ice that was beginning to form around her legs as the temperature dropped. 

 Led by Kathy Nihei, Director of the Nepean Wild Bird Care Centre, staff and volunteers spent many long hours in the cold trying every reasonable suggestion: nets thrown from canoes; plastic flamingos used as decoys; flamingo food; strategically placed mirrors;  taped flamingo calls;  a Canada goose decoy with a remote control; a butterfly net carried by a volunteer walking in the cold water;  a long pole with a net on the end; a net beneath the water with a remote control. 

 Elisha was equally devious in resisting capture, and potential predators.  She seemed to sleep with one eye open; used beaver, muskrats, ducks and geese to give her early warning signals; made herself at home in shallow waters several miles apart; used the uneven creek bottom to make approach difficult for pursuers; and seemed to wait until the last moment to fly away.  Finally, a special trap was constructed using large mist nets.

 For several days Elisha gradually moved closer to the trap.  On December 8 the water in the creek froze.  Elisha disappeared.  Two days later, as disappointed volunteers returned with Kathy Nihei to take down the expensive nets used for the trap, Elisha was again spotted, walking on the thin ice.  This time, they were able to guide her into the food-baited trap and take her to the Nepean Wild Bird Care Centre, where arrangements were made for her return to the sanctuary in Connecticut.  By December 16, the seemingly insurmountable red tape had been cleared, and Elisha was returned to Connecticut, and reunited with her mate, Maurice. 

 Elisha had made many friends in Ottawa.  They included the volunteers who took time from regular jobs to be a part of the rescue attempt, worried residents who daily sought out the latest news about Elisha in their morning paper, and relieved children who wrote notes wishing Elisha well once she was captured.  She made a dreary November a little more interesting.  She awakened feelings of caring and compassion that most of us reserve for children and pets.  She also made us think twice about the wisdom of taking wild creatures out of their natural environment.