Miriam Morrill is the creator of pyrosketchology.com.
She combines artistry and data collection with beautiful results.
BW: Could you introduce yourself to our readers by sharing a little bit about yourself and your interest in BirdWeather?
MIRIAM: Hello, my name is Miriam Morrill. My husband, Kipp Morrill, and I are retired from federal wildland fire management positions, which took us across California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, South Carolina, and Alaska. We have also undertaken several international fire assignments, including in Australia, Micronesia, Palau, and Jamaica.
I began my career as a wildlife biologist, focusing on Northern Spotted Owl surveys, as well as surveys of other avian, amphibian, and mammal species that were federally listed or species of concern. During this time, I also served as a collateral-duty firefighter. Later, I transitioned into environmental compliance roles, where I analyzed the impacts on listed species and contributed to recovery strategies. Midway through my career, I moved into state and regional fire management and climate adaptation positions, concentrating on collaborative, cross-jurisdictional planning, communication, education, and training efforts.
Toward the end of our careers, we decided to simplify our lives, reconnect with nature, and retire as soon as possible. To achieve this, we sold our house and moved into a 30-foot fifth-wheel trailer. Now, we travel around the United States, spending a week to a month in various locations, following the weather. While I still do some fire education consulting and illustration work, I mostly spend my time journaling about our travels and observations in nature.
As a gift from my husband, I received the BirdWeather PUC, which I use as a tool to aid my nature observations. I consider myself an experienced observer, though not a researcher. My primary goals are to build my sense of place and improve my field observation skills. BirdWeather has been instrumental in helping me achieve these goals, as it allows me to extend my observations over longer periods when I may not be outdoors. I also use BirdWeather data to track trends in species occurrence and migration. However, I prefer not to rely entirely on BirdWeather or other technology, so I combine it with my personal observations.
BW: Tell us about Pyrosketchology. What is it, how is it used, and what are its advantages?
MIRIAM: I created the term "Pyrosketchology" to define a program or approach for nature journaling about the fire environment. Late in my career, I discovered nature journaling and found it to be the closest thing to a magic pill or observation superpower. This inspired me to explore how the practice could enhance awareness and understanding of the fire environment—specifically, how observations can reveal when, where, and how fires burn in different patterns and intensities. These observations encompass terrain features, weather conditions, and vegetation patterns, while also integrating plant and animal adaptations, behaviors, and trends.
I spent the last four years writing and illustrating a book about this approach, which was published in March 2024. It has been surprising to see how the book and this foundational observation-based method are being adapted by fire practitioners and scientists in various parts of the world, including Australia, Europe, and Africa. Although it was initially intended for the United States, the concepts and approaches can be applied globally.
I hope a broader audience will become interested, as the intent is to help people adapt and live safely in their environment. However, many still view fire as a unique element rather than an environmental process that can be observed before a fire starts.
BW: How did you learn about BirdWeather/PUC?
MIRIAM: I had been seeing BirdWeather advertisements in my social media feeds for a while and thought it would be a fun tool, but hadn't pulled-the-trigger on the purchase. I was thrilled when my husband surprised me by ordering it as a gift.
BW: How have you been using BirdWeather/PUC so far? You have two stations, if I'm not mistaken. Do you use them differently or in tandem?
MIRIAM: We have two PUCs—one that we keep live 24/7 at our trailer and one that we take with us while hiking. I hadn’t realized how useful the data would be or how much fun it would add to my journaling practice. My husband has never been a "birder," but he’s learned some bird calls that I’ve pointed out to him. Now, with the BirdWeather PUC, he checks the app several times a day and has started recognizing new bird calls when we’re out and about.
I’ve also improved some of my birding skills, especially with birds I find challenging to identify. I don’t rely completely on BirdWeather to determine whether the detections are accurate; instead, I compare BirdWeather data with my personal observations, habitat conditions, and other references like bird identification books, iNaturalist, eBird, and the BirdCast migration dashboard.
BW: Your illustrations are gorgeous! How long have you kept a field journal?
MIRIAM: I have been a hobby artist for most of my life, but in retirement, I do some paid illustration work, mostly focused on fire science. I started nature journaling about two years before retiring to help reconnect with nature, as most of my work was office-based. Nature journaling is very different from creating artwork; it's not about making pretty pictures, but about making and reflecting on observations. You don’t need artistic skills to journal effectively—you can easily use tables, diagrams, color codes, and simple sketches to capture your observations.
It only took a short time of journaling for me to notice significant improvements in my awareness and observation skills. Although I considered myself a professional and proficient observer, those skills were minimal compared to those that developed through a journaling practice. I highly recommend purchasing a John Muir Laws Nature Journaling book and attending some of his online courses, many of which are free. He is the guru of nature journaling.
BW: Where would you most like to travel to collect bird/environmental data?
Miriam: My husband and I have traveled to different parts of the world for personal and professional reasons, but I’m now more interested in slow, close nature observations that can take place anywhere in the United States. I have a strong interest in observing complex environmental processes, like fire, floods, and climate change, so I get excited when we travel to places where I can see those processes in action.
One thing I particularly like about BirdWeather is the environmental data it captures. If I decide to download the BirdWeather data, such as temperature readings, I could analyze it in a spreadsheet and look for trends. However, I don’t imagine I’ll do that anytime soon, as I’m not fond of using my laptop. Instead, I track various weather data sets in my journal and use them for analysis.
I don’t currently understand some of the BirdWeather data points, like near-infrared light data, or how to use them, but it has motivated me to integrate other data observations into my journaling, such as light pollution and air quality. I’m particularly interested in the weather’s influence on birds and other wildlife, so I love tracking daily high and low temperatures, humidity, wind speeds, and frontal systems, and then comparing that data with the bird species detections from BirdWeather.
Recently, I’ve been noticing more nighttime detections of migratory bird species. I use the BirdCast migration dashboard to see estimated numbers and directions of migratory birds across the United States, along with weather front maps, to explore the relationships between birds and weather.
BW: I notice you've done some lovely drawings of owls that you were kind enough to share in our Community Forum. Are they of particular interest to you? Are there other bird species that especially capture your attention?
MIRIAM: I don’t have any particular bird interests and gave up on keeping a bird list in college. What I enjoy most is observing relationships and trends, which can involve a wide range of bird species. I was thrilled to get owl detections from BirdWeather because I’m an early-to-bed, early-to-rise person and don’t often hear owl calls—at least not since my early fieldwork days surveying for spotted owls. BirdWeather has become my nighttime observer!
I was especially interested in using the date- and time-stamped nighttime detections, along with our motion-triggered game cameras, to understand when more activity was occurring under different moonlight conditions. I combined sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset data with the detections to create a graph in my journal. I couldn’t have done that without BirdWeather.
BW: Is there anything else that you'd like to tell our community about yourself or about your experiences with birding or PUC?
MIRIAM: I would like to add that I’ve been thrilled with the quick and helpful tech support. It took us a while to get the PUCs to function in a way that best suited our needs. I also appreciate the online community, where there seem to be interesting discussions about app and website features and usage. BirdWeather offers so much more than I ever expected. Initially, I assumed it was similar to the Merlin app, which I was already using, but the continuous recording options and additional environmental data are AMAZING features to include with the bird detections.
