Blue Heron Editing

In thinking about what I do and what I represent, I decided to take the next step: an online portfolio of my work as a communications and environment professional. My new website is simply that–an online portfolio–and not a business or advertisement. Blue Heron Editing is my new online home for my professional adventures in communications and environmental protections. My mission is to inspire others to protect the environment and to help others communicate their message.

Growing up on the coast of Maine, I explored estuaries and swam in the Sheepscot River. Great blue herons swooped over my head countless times, stood stoic and elegant, and came to symbolize a few things for me, privately. When I wrote essays or poems at school, the heron showed up as a constant symbol for myself and the things I held dear.

heron silhouette
on iridescent mudflat
darts flash of minnow

My mother used to say that the osprey was her token bird. As a child, I saw the osprey in her persona. She was more of a bird-lover than I was as a teen-ager. But I made an exception for the blue herons. I read an article about a heron that pierced the skull of an ornithologist, who came too close with his camera, and the heron killed him with its long pointed bill.  One day while our family lived on Pemaquid Lake, the summer of ’95, when my brother, Julian, was born, a Great Blue Heron walked along our dock and up to our front yard. Our cat, Taxi, had been sitting in the grass, watching this large intimidating bird advance toward us–and before the heron got too close, the cat bolted for the camp. It should be noted that this cat had been born on Guam, spent her kitten years on a sailboat and had brought down sea gulls with her fierce claws. She’d even fallen into the open ocean. So she was not easily intimidated. But this was different. The Great Blue Heron is a hunter with a sharp eye for detail and a compelling presence. Herons are often used in the logos and imagery associated with wetlands organizations. The national newsletter, Wetland Breaking News, that I edit each month has a heron in its logo, which I designed.  With my roots in Maine estuaries and an eye for editing, I adopted the blue heron as my token bird, so to speak, for my online portfolio. It’s a work-in-progress.