The Bird Song Project: A Sculpture Trail, an open-air fusion of nature and art at Inlet Pond County Park in Greenport, is more than just a walk in the park.
A collaboration between the North Fork Audubon Society and East End Arts, this outdoor art installation opens Saturday, July 18, featuring nine local artists whose works in fiber, stone, wood, bamboo and metal are inspired by the natural world, birds and wildlife. The hope is that visitors will have a visual experience and connect to the physical surroundings as they encounter art along their walk.
The nine works of art are interspersed along the main trail winding through the park. It is the first time this type of sculpture exhibit has been held at the 55-acre Inlet Pond County Park.
“Our trails are created for people to enjoy bird-watching, trees, the nature preserve and now sculpture. This exhibit is on the main trail, which is about four-tenths of a mile and brings people down to Long Island Sound,” said North Fork Audubon Society President Peggy Lauber.
Artists find inspiration in the landscape
Just behind the red house in the park, home to the Roy Latham Nature Center, stands the first stop on the environmental art hike. Multiple pieces of bamboo, ranging from 10 to 18 feet high and painted a vibrant red, are designed to evoke strong feelings about the environment, creator John Wittenberg said.
“Bamboo has an ambivalence. Some people like it, but in terms of the environment, it’s terrible. Bamboo is a warning, in a way, about the natural world. I decided I wanted to do a piece that spoke to the environment.”
The Southold artist named his piece “Invasive Beauty.”
“This is a new adventure for bird-watchers, people who are interested in sculpture and people who have never gone on a sculpture walk.”
At the head of the trail is sculptor Ted Thirlby’s piece. Most people think plywood is simply pressed wood, but to Thirlby, of Southold, it is a “fascinating and beautiful living material.” A contractor in his previous life, he saw lots of discarded plywood. Now that material brings his artistic vision to life.
“Plywood is made from trees, but it’s been heavily modified by humans and has a lot of history to it. Violence when the tree is cut down, chopped into layers and glued back together. Then degradation, age and human interaction. The old sheets are beautiful. They’re like a painting.”
His piece — a plywood circle 4 feet wide with the center cut out — is perched fittingly in an old tree that still shows signs of life, with a few branches trying to burst out. In the background is a 12-inch wooden ball Thirlby fabricated. Painted blue, the disc and the ball, he said, could represent the sun and the Earth.
“The circle is a symbol of completion or wholeness, kind of planetary, and the wood grain makes it look like the Earth.”
He added that his approach to art comes from the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, a Zen-inspired philosophy reflecting time, the deterioration of objects and the beauty found in them as they age.
Sculptures emerge along the woodland trail
Further down the trail, peeking out between tree branches, are seven gray steel figures — “dancers,” according to artist Arden Scott. A lifelong sculptor like her fellow artists in the exhibit, her contribution is titled “Forest Dance.” Scott has welded steel into art for 30 years and has walked through this small forest for years, thinking about ancient myths surrounding trees and druids.
“I like the idea of dancing in the forest, and spirits always fascinated me; these figures are not men or women, just spirits. The figures here are abstract, and movement is what I’ve been trying for.”
The steel dancers measure 6½ to 8 feet tall. Scott transported the artwork into the wooded area herself using a hand truck.
The zigzagging trail, 3 to 4 feet wide, is lined on either side by decaying tree limbs and branches. At one point, the artists ducked beneath a large downed tree that crossed their path. The trail has a few small hills, and tree roots are often underfoot.
Sculptor Sherry Davis said her approach to the exhibit captures the sounds of the park.
Installed along the length of a fallen tree, “Cardinal Code Three,” the vivid red sculpture stretches like a visual recording of birdsong across the forest floor. The work is fashioned entirely from decommissioned fire hose donated by local fire departments, with each carefully cut and riveted section representing the digital waveform of a northern cardinal’s call. Against the muted browns of weathered bark and the surrounding green understory, the bright red installation stands as a reminder of the interconnectedness of nature and the people who protect it.
The piece is also interactive. A QR code beside the installation allows visitors to hear the cardinal’s distinctive song while viewing its sculptural interpretation, transforming an everyday woodland walk into a multisensory experience. By translating sound into form using recycled materials, Davis invites viewers to consider not only the beauty of birdsong, but also the many ways art, conservation and community can intersect in the natural landscape.
“I was walking the trail one day using my Merlin app, and one of the most common calls was the northern cardinal,” Davis said. “I got to thinking about their calls and the calls of first responders because, like cardinals, fire hose is red.”
The app showed her the wavelength of the cardinal’s call. She then linked lengths of decommissioned fire hose to mimic the bird’s digital call.
After hours of riveting, hammering and fabricating the fire hose with her husband, the finished piece consists of 12 sections mounted on a fallen tree.
She believes seeing art outdoors, surrounded by trees, birds and nature, will inspire visitors.
“Imagine just walking on what you think is just a trail and then you see a wonderful piece of art,” she said.
Nature becomes part of the artwork
As they continued down the trail, stopping to contemplate and discuss the artwork installed a week before the opening, bird calls echoed through the 60- to 80-foot-high canopy. An occasional silent butterfly glided by in rhythm with the natural tranquility of the dense, 4-foot-high brush. The preserve is a mixture of invasive species, such as the fast-growing mile-a-minute vine with its triangle-shaped leaves, and native plants, including cranberry bush with its bright red fruit.
Wittenberg also pointed out that because this is an outdoor art exhibit, the setting becomes part of the artwork.
“In this case, especially here at Audubon, where they’re pulling out invasive species and putting in more natives, it’s a message that you’re trying to send.”
Scott McIntire transformed a tree stump into a brilliant orange-and-yellow, bird-of-paradise-like flower.
“The roots are showing, and those points are what I wanted to work on. I was thinking about the bird-of-paradise flower after spending time in the Caribbean, and it’s one of my favorite flowers.”
The large abstract sculpture is surrounded by smaller sprouts of the same coloration, creating an eye-catching display against a backdrop of green, gray and brown meadow.
The trail ends with a view — and an owl
As walkers come to the end of the trail and step onto a wooden deck, the pond comes into full view, with Long Island Sound just beyond the sandy beach. The final work of art, standing more than 6 feet high on a pedestal, is a white marble, tower-like sculpture of an owl by artist John Warren. Scattered pieces of graying driftwood surround its base.
For East End Arts, the exhibition is unlike any the organization has undertaken.
“Sculpture is a discipline we don’t always do on a large scale, having it indoors in our space in Riverhead. This exhibit is unique because it’s in a wooded setting, and it’s a different experience. It had the artists thinking about how their surroundings will be change through the seasons,” said Executive Director Wendy Weiss.
She said the trail features a combination of established and emerging artists.
QR codes are being installed so visitors can learn about each artist and the philosophy behind the work. As in the past two years, the North Fork Audubon Society received a grant through the Suffolk County Omnibus Cultural Arts Grants Program to support public events.
The opening reception July 18 will feature live music and an opportunity to meet the artists. The Sculpture Trail is free and open daily from dawn to dusk through Oct. 11.
More information is available here.
