Bird Fest

We are so excited to have Heather Murphy of Walleye Cards at Bird Fest 2025 as our Artist Spotlight! You've probably met Heather guiding some amazing Bird Fest trips in years past. 

See some of her nature-inspired work here and be sure to check out the daily Spotlight Artist's Gallery in the River Haus at Wenatchee River Institute to see her work in person May 15-18!

During Bird Fest, look for Heather at the following events and trips. See the Bird Fest Schedule for more details.

• Thursday May 15
  • Hike & Draw Field Trip, 8:00am-4:00pm (registration required)
     
• Friday May 16
  • Habitat Hike Field Trip, 5:30am-4:00pm (registration required)
     
• Saturday May 17
  • Sleeping Lady and Team Naturaleza Bird Walk, 8:30am-11:30am (free, but registration is required)
     
  • Artist's Reception with Bird Fest Spotlight Artist Heather Murphy, 1:00pm - 5:00pm. Stop by during the Community Fair and before Birders' BBQ to meet Heather, see some of her completed works and in-progress nature journals, and maybe even create some art yourself! Heather will be around to chat about her art, and she will have a table set up for community members to add their own observations and creativity to the Bird Fest Journal. 
     
• Sunday May 18
  • Paint-In workshop at the Red Barn, 9:00am-12:00pm (registration required)

Biography: Heather is a Pacific Northwest notecard artist, wildlife biologist, watercolorist, and nature writer. She holds a Forest Technology degree from Wenatchee Valley College and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Habitat Management from the University of Washington, where she also studied drawing. Her watercolors, journal sketches and migratory bird paintings have been selected for conservation programs in the Western Hemisphere. The Sleeping Lady 2016 Calendar solely featured Heather’s art. 

Heather’s agency career spanned from 1974 to 2005, when she retired from the U.S. Forest Service as a wildlife biologist on the Wenatchee River Ranger District. She currently leads Citizen Science wildlife programs as a volunteer for the U.S.F.S. 

Walleye Cards, LLC and Wildtales Journals, Heather’s naturalist notecard, journal business, was founded in 1997 in response to nature journal card needs for Harriet Bullitt’s Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort. Heather’s small independent, woman-owned, business, donates over 10% of her sales to conservation and arts organizations. 

Heather presented "Wildlife and Art of National Forests" to the Smithsonian Institution's 2005 Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. Throughout her travels, she has offered nature journaling workshops such as in the Scottish Highlands and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. She was the Artist-In-Residence for the North Cascades National Park in 2007. Heather was an Artist in Resident for the Icicle Fund CHA CHA (2020 & 2021). During 2023 Heather was an Artist-In-Residence for Terminus: the Memorial to Glaciers of the Olympic National Park. Since 2023 she’s been the Artist-In-Residence at Sleeping Lady Inc., Leavenworth WA. 

Special neotropical migratory birds projects, which Heather helped co-found, are: ¡Team Naturaleza! and Dancing With Birds. Both programs connect people with natural science education, and with migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere. 

Heather notes that much of her success is from her remarkable family and friends, above all her husband, Patrick. They live in Leavenworth, Washington’s Icicle Valley.