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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦

@secondnaturemb.bsky.social

23K followers 600 following 7.9K posts

Naturalist, writer, artist, and educator with a Ph.D. in Ecology. I make interpretive signs, illustrations, murals, and books. Sometimes, I chase polar bears and belugas. #scicomm #sciart http://www.discoversecondnature.ca

www.discoversecondnature.ca

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · Mar 7

Hi Everyone!
I'm Heather. A lot of new people have joined me in the last 24 hours so I thought I'd answer some frequently-asked questions.

1. Where do you live? - I live in Manitoba, Canada in a provincial park on Lake Winnipeg. It is a wild area of the boreal forest, but not remote. 1/

A white woman wearing glasses, a red toque and a scarf with a green parka smiles at the camera. A snowy forest can be seen behind her.

A small cottage sits quietly on a moonlit night in the snowy boreal forest. Smoke rises placidly from the chimney while the windows glow with warm light. It's a cold clear night with lots of snow.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 2m

Thanks. It was my grandpa's.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 39m

Some people take coffee breaks in the afternoon. I take wood splitting breaks :) 🪓

An axe leans against a stump where a poplar log sits waiting to be split. It's located on a gravel pad in the woods. A grey work bench in on the left and tent garage in the distance.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 5h

This photo was a happy accident. I was photographing the white-tailed doe when her fawn came out of the shadows. I love the way this turned out. #mammals 🌿

A white-tailed doe looks off into the distance in the dying light of the evening. Behind her and to the right, her fawn is just visible among the shadows in the willows. Its looking at its mom the way only a child can.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 17h

Or two siblings.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 17h

Sorry for the thumping. My car makes that noise when it's cooling down and I was shooting from the driver's window.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 17h

A moment of peace from this evening with a doe and her fawn. #mammals

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 22h

It's a magpie. I think it was just ignoring everything :)

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

Too funny!

Reposted by Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦

V Pellicer- looking for work! @veppart.bsky.social · 1d

New graphic for Doc's vet bills. Please consider buying art of anything at all! My little dude needs surgery asap. Feel free to share this graphic far and wide!

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

There's one (different look) at the corner of Sherbrook and Notre Dame in Winnipeg. I've only been there once in grade 11 and it's still there 33 years later. I'm not sure when it opened.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

This is so cool! Wish I'd had one when I was teaching Chordate Zoology.

Blue Appaloosa @blueappaloosa.bsky.social · 1d

Fish cranial kinesis model is now listed in my Etsy shop! Hopefully useful for showing the mechanism that opens and closes a teleost fish's mouth.

(Ships from US) blueappaloosastudio.etsy.com

#SciArt #SciComm #BSNM #ArtShop #Fish

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

I'm so sorry. I know how hard this is.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

When someone reaches for the last bread stick 😉

Photographed from my kayak. #mammals 🌿

One coyote snarls at another one which rears back with a look of 'dude! chill!' against the backdrop of limestone cliffs. A black-billed magpie ignores the scene.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

Great reflection!

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks. There are several more signs, but I couldn't post them all.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

I rarely work on interpretive sign projects without having input in the design, but I just researched, planned, and wrote these ones in Hecla Village. Despite not being Icelandic, I have a deep connection with this place, so it was an honour to use my voice to share it's story.

A blueish interpretive sign that says Hallo! Velkomin Til Mikley - Hello, welcome to Big Island - the original name for Hecla. The sign is written as though you are being welcomed by a local in the 1930s who is going to walk you through the village on the way to the boarding house.

A blue-topped interpretive sign is mounted on two wooden posts across from an old, white boarding house with a two-story wrap-around veranda and. It is titled Rest at Lake Winnipeg's Crossroads.

A blue topped interpretive sign titled 'What's in a Name?' tells the story of the patronymic naming system used by Icelanders and how it evolved over time in the new world. It also mentions how they named their homesteads and how the post office was named Hecla, after Mt Hekla in Iceland.

A blue-topped interpretive panel titled - Plying the Water and Ice sits in front of an old wooded whitefish boat protected by the elements by a large roofed structure. The sign tells the story of the start of the commercial fishing industry on Lake Winnipeg.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

I only go when the lake is pretty still and I'm very careful. I also have an insurance rider on it, just in case.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

I'm glad you're enjoying them. You should try kayaking sometime! It's so much fun.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

Their howls definitely get your hair standing on end, but having gotten to know them over the last few years, I really appreciate how intelligent and individual they are. Also, indoor cats are the best for so many reasons.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks! It was an incredible experience.

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

A gorgeous portrait.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 1d

A couple of white-crowned sparrows without their white crowns stopping along the beach on their way south. #birds 🌿

Two brown sparrows with prominent dark brown caps perch on a tangle of dead willow branches on a sunny afternoon.

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah. That was pretty much running in a loop in my head the whole time I was floating there :)

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Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you :)

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks, Glen. I'll be riding that high for a while, yet :)

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