Mystic — It was 13 years ago that Julie Zickefoose decided to watch and paint wild bird nestlings day by day, documenting their rapid growth with her brushes.

The endeavor has led to a new volume, "Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest," which includes more than 500 of her life studies of bird hatchlings and fledglings.

Zickefoose will be at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday to give a talk about the book. Tickets are $15 per person. For more information, visit dpnc.org or call (860)536-1216.

Zickefoose studied biological anthropology at Harvard and spent six years working in Connecticut as a field biologist for The Nature Conservancy. She has been a regular contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered" and her work has been featured on the cover of Bird Watcher's Digest 27 times, according to a release about the event.