Painted: 10/22/25
Concerning the Mural: Alongside the noisy Landmarks Boulevard that winds into downtown Alton, Illinois, drivers will now be greeted by a colourful sight: three painted Lesser Yellowlegs wrapping round a small cement constructing, every shorebird standing over 10 ft tall. “You’ll be able to’t miss it,” says Kenneth Buchholz, middle director on the Audubon Middle at Riverlands, who helped set up the venture.
Within the mural, the Lesser Yellowlegs wade by way of reeds towards a vibrant orange, pink, and purple sky. When the solar units over downtown, the mural “spills over to the precise sundown,” says Robert Fishbone, the artist behind the mural.
The mural was created by way of a collaboration among the many Nationwide Audubon Society, Audubon Middle at Riverlands, and Alton Essential Avenue. It highlights the town’s location alongside the Mississippi Flyway, an essential migration route for lots of of chook species, and sits going through the three,700-acre Riverlands Migratory Fowl Sanctuary throughout the Mississippi River. There, lots of of yellowlegs land annually to replenish on bugs and crustaceans earlier than persevering with their journeys.
On high of including coloration and wonder to Alton, Buchholz hopes the mural will evoke a way of duty in viewers and make them marvel: “What can I do to assist make sure that that chook arrives safely right here yearly because it passes by way of?”
On the mural’s unveiling on the finish of October, a dance class from Principia School carried out a dance to honor the venture. The piece was choreographed by Erin Lane, affiliate professor of dance, in collaboration along with her college students, one in all whom designed the costumes.
To create the dance, the category researched Lesser Yellowlegs, first specializing in their bodily traits and behaviors, then on conservation issues. The piece begins off with actions imitating yellowlegs tremors and paces. Regularly, the temper shifts from joyful to extra frantic. In the course of the piece, the entire dancers squat to the bottom and lookup, as if anticipating hardship coming, Lane says. Ultimately, a lot of the dancers fade into the viewers, however some are left behind, as if frozen in place in entrance of the mural.
It was one of many darker items Lane has labored on, “however that was the purpose,” she says. She and her class wished to evoke an emotional response from the viewers: “We have to have one thing shift the best way we see and expertise the world, to hopefully make a shift in our actions.”
The mural is Alton’s second paintings within the Audubon Mural Challenge, becoming a member of a piece painted in 2023 to characteristic the vary of birds that cross by way of the flyway. “We’re distinguishing Alton not solely as a spot of lovely historic structure, but it surely’s a spot the place there’s an appreciation for nature,” says Penny Schmidt, advisory board member for the Audubon Middle at Riverlands. It’s additionally the third in a sequence of Lesser Yellowlegs murals that may define the chook’s migratory path, from Alaska and Canada to South America.
Concerning the Fowl: The Lesser Yellowlegs is a small shorebird finest recognized for its shiny legs. It strides with excessive steps by way of shallow waters, generally swinging its head backwards and forwards because it forages for bugs, small fish, and crustaceans.
The birds are most frequently seen all through the US throughout migration, after they land in wetlands, marshes, and mudflats to relaxation and refuel. In stopover websites like Alton, “we’re meals, shelter and protected passage for them,” says Buchholz.
Lesser Yellowlegs have misplaced greater than 50 p.c of their inhabitants within the final 50 years in the US, in keeping with the 2025 State of the Birds report. One main problem is their reliance on wetlands, that are disappearing as a result of improvement and sea degree rise. If world warming continues at present charges, Lesser Yellowlegs are projected to lose 96 p.c of their summer time vary, in keeping with Audubon’s Survival By Degrees report. However taking motion to restrict warming can make sure the birds can thrive in a wider vary of habitats.
Concerning the Artist: Robert Fishbone, a St. Louis-based artist, has painted greater than 200 murals. Additionally a musician, Fishbone wasn’t educated in fantastic artwork, however has grow to be an professional by way of expertise. He and his late spouse, Sarah Linquist, started portray murals as a staff in 1974. They painted all the things from summary skies to large frogs to scenes depicting the historical past of St. Louis. “Each mural that we did was completely completely different,” Fishbone says. At the moment, he typically collaborates along with his daughter.
For this piece, he introduced on one other muralist, Norm4eva, who painted all three of the Lesser Yellowlegs. In every of his murals, Fishbone likes so as to add some surrealism—on this case incorporating into the panorama a colourful and geometric association he calls the “Burning Man temple of reeds.” In any other case, he made positive the portray was correct to the chook and its habitat.
This mural marks his second in Alton—he additionally painted the town’s first contribution to the Audubon Mural Challenge. Whereas not a birder, “I am in awe of the residing world,” Fishbone says. When individuals see the mural, he hopes they really feel “enlivened”—after which take into consideration “how fragile our environments are and the way straightforward it’s for one factor to decimate or extremely lower a chook inhabitants.”
