Megan O’Connor 🍁
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meganoconnorart.ca
Megan O’Connor 🍁
@meganoconnorart.ca
1.5K followers 740 following 780 posts
I draw wildlife with coloured pencils using my own photos and observations as a reference (unless otherwise stated). Toronto, Canada.

https://meganoconnorart.ca
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meganoconnorart.ca
I’m looking forward to this!
stevebrusatte.bsky.social Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 4d
🚨🦜🐧Cover reveal! Thrilled to show off the cover of my upcoming book: The Story of Birds!

Coming April 28. The whole history of birds, from their dinosaur origins to colossal extinct penguins & terror birds, to the 10,000+ species today. From @marinerbooks.bsky.social

Preorder 👇
November 24, 2025 at 12:40 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
I began this drawing as a simple sketch to test some paper (a new batch of Fabriano Artistico 300lb). The red crest was such a treat to draw after using so many greys! I see and/or hear red-bellied woodpeckers almost every day, but it never gets boring :)

I’m happy with the paper. #SciArt #Birds
Coloured pencil drawing of a small black and white bird with a red crest perched on an old snow-covered electricity pole, with a grey sky behind.
November 23, 2025 at 7:07 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
I saw my first sandhill crane today — in fact, I saw over 50 of them, but not before hearing the most uncanny, stirring sound. Sadly, they were too high to photograph well, but it was a thrill nonetheless and not what I expect to encounter in a Toronto ravine :) #birds
Photograph of 9 large birds with long necks flying overhead in a white sky.
November 17, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Megan O’Connor 🍁
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Delightful detail from the Roman “unswept floor” mosaic by Heraclitus, showing a mouse nibbling a walnut.

Superb use of darker tiles for subtle shadow effect!

2nd century AD. Vatican Museums www.museivaticani.va/content/muse...

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
The image shows detail from a floor mosaic of a brown mouse on a pale background facing left with its nose close to half a walnut in its shell. The mouse has a long thin tail stretched out behind. The mosaicist has used a mix of lighter and darker brown tiles for the mouse’s body to hint at fur. The walnut is created with warmer light and dark brown tiles. Slightly darker background tiles have been used beneath the mouse and walnut to create subtle shadows
November 10, 2025 at 1:07 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Ever since seeing this tree full of cedar waxwings (this morning, in a Toronto ravine) I’ve had Burl Ives singing “The Lollipop Tree” stuck in my head!
Ten brown and yellow birds sitting in a tree without leaves against a snowy background.
November 10, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Megan O’Connor 🍁
davidrvetter.bsky.social
With COP30 underway, Climate Action Against Disinformation releases a report showing how both Big Carbon and Big Tech are sabotaging climate action worldwide. Cites examples of legislation that has been effective in limiting the harms of disinformation.
caadcoalition.bsky.social CAAD_Coalition @caadcoalition.bsky.social · 15d
🚨 Our new report, Deny, Deceive, Delay: Demystified, is out now. 🚨

The report explores how Big Carbon and Big Tech use disinformation to sabotage climate action and why, despite 89% of people worldwide demanding stronger action, progress gets derailed.
buff.ly
November 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Work in progress: a red-tailed hawk in coloured pencil. I spent ages shuffling paper cut-out leaves to decide on the composition, but won’t know if it worked until the end. Right now it’s at the “might work” stage :) #birds #SciArt
A graphite pencil sketch of a large bird on a branch surrounded by leaves. An unfinished coloured pencil drawing of a large brown, white, and rust-coloured bird perched on a branch surrounded by yellow maple leaves.
November 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
I still get excited about the first snowfall of the year — only now I run outside with a camera instead of a toboggan. I found some chatty juncos this morning :)

#birds #wildlifephotography
A snowy background and a small grey and white bird perched on a snow-covered plant.
November 9, 2025 at 4:31 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
“Maybe if I pretend to be asleep she’ll go away.”

Eastern screech owl, 700 mm, close crop.

#Birds #WildlifePhotography
Small grey and brown owl sitting in a tree. The owl’s eyes are mostly shut, but not entirely.
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 AM
meganoconnorart.ca
“Before the Storm”. Coloured pencil and oil pastel on watercolour paper. While I didn’t want to pet this hyena, or get any closer, he did intrigue me, and the artist in me was captivated by the textures of fur and muzzle. #SciArt
Coloured pencil drawing of the profile of an orange and tan mammal with dark spots and a dark muzzle, stretching out his neck and pricking his ears forward.
November 1, 2025 at 5:50 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The nature extinction crisis is mirrored by one in our own bodies. Both have huge implications for health
Modern life is waging a war against ecosystems around us and inside us. Keeping our own microbes healthy is another reason to demand action to preserve the natural world
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Megan O’Connor 🍁
brenttoderian.bsky.social
“Recent studies show that between 80% — 89% of the world’s population wants to see climate action. Many would even contribute 1% of their income to make that happen, even tho people vastly underestimate their peers’ desire for change. Members of this “silent majority” come from all walks of life…”’
‘I worry about the future of my daughter’: the ‘silent majority’ who care about the climate crisis
Readers who are part of the 80-89% of the population who want to see climate action tell us their ideas on how to make their voices heard
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:32 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Progress is slow, but I want to make individual hairs stand out (not all of them!) because this hyena’s energy seemed to live in his fur. #SciArt #Drawing
Unfinished colour pencil drawing of the profile of an orange and dark-spotted mammal with a dark muzzle and forward-pricking ears.
October 30, 2025 at 5:41 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
I’m trying a new (to me) combination of coloured pencil and oil pastel for this spotted hyena — because I want a heavy, stormy background. I hadn’t been planning to draw a hyena, but this one at the zoo caught at my imagination with his intense energy! #wildlifeart
Unfinished drawing of the profile of an orange and brown mammal with a closed mouth and ears pricking forward. The background is a dark, mottled grey.
October 27, 2025 at 9:08 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Posting an old drawing (almost a year old!) because it’s International Snow Leopard Day.

I drew this based on photos I took at the Toronto Zoo of the snow leopard cubs; am hoping to see them again soon!
Coloured pencil drawing of a large white and brown-spotted mammal in the cat family. Only the face and shoulders appear from behind a wire fence.
October 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Feeling seen.

Red-tailed Hawk. Photo taken by me today in a Toronto ravine. #Birds
Photograph of a red-tailed hawk looking toward the camera. The bird is large, brown and white, with a rust-coloured tail and yellow talons, standing on a branch in the woods.
October 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
“Written in Stone”. Coloured pencil on cotton paper. This is the third and last of my “Time Flies” series of drawings based on statues and birds I saw in Oxford, England last spring. #Birds
Coloured pencil drawing of a stone statue of a man holding an open book with a blue, black, and white bird perched on his arm.
October 20, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Megan O’Connor 🍁
minibubbly.bsky.social
Work of N.S folk artists generate big bids at auctions — and it’s not just Maud Lewis paintings #NovaScotia

Painting by Everett Lewis recently sold for $18,400, roughly quadruple what was expected

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Work of N.S folk artists generating big bids at auctions — and it’s not just Maud Lewis paintings | CBC News
While artwork by Maud Lewis routinely sells for tens of thousands of dollars, rising interest in other Nova Scotian folk artists means their work is now selling for thousands of dollars.
www.cbc.ca
October 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
meganoconnorart.ca
Work in progress: “Written in Stone”, the last of my three statue drawings. #BirdArt
Unfinished coloured pencil drawing of a stone-carved man holding a stone book, with a living black, blue, and white bird perched on the man’s arm.
October 16, 2025 at 5:56 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
“The Petty King” is finished. Coloured pencil on hot pressed paper. The bird is a goldcrest, whose Latin name is regulus regulus :) #birds #birdart
Coloured pencil drawing of the stone statue of a dog with a crown-shaped collar and an uplifted paw. A small brown and yellow bird with an orange crest is perched on the paw.
October 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
“The Last Day of Summer”, coloured pencil and watercolour, based on the last hummingbird I saw of the season — a young ruby-throated — before they all migrated. #Birds #WildlifeArt
Coloured pencil drawing of a small green and white bird with its wings forward as it hovers over wild plants and grasses.
October 2, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Megan O’Connor 🍁
emilytaylorscience.com
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
― Jane Goodall (1934-2025)
October 1, 2025 at 6:34 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Work in progress. I decided to use watercolour for the grasses and pencils for the hummingbird and larger plants — to get the coolness of an early morning in late summer. #Birds
Unfinished coloured pencil drawing of a small green and white bird with a long bill, flying over the tops of grasses and flowers.
September 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Somehow “the back of a napkin” sounds more romantic than “a scrap of printer paper”. Ah well. In my mind, at least, the drawing is already vivid 😏 #BirdArt
Rough pencil sketch of a bird hovering above some flowers. Really, that is what it’s meant to be!
September 26, 2025 at 8:15 PM
meganoconnorart.ca
Am at the restless but still exhausted stage of illness. I miss the ravine 😭 But, housebound, was able to finish this portrait of my dog in record time! Coloured pencil on hot pressed cotton paper. #bordercollie #dogportrait
Coloured pencil drawing of a black and white dog with amber eyes and a long pink tongue.
September 21, 2025 at 10:18 PM