“Respect All Life, See What Happens”

All photos in this article are by LouAnne Brickhouse.

It was an early morning in Los Angeles, California. LouAnne Brickhouse was just about to start her day with a nice morning walk in a local nature park when she heard two gentle taps emanating from the direction of her window. Outside the glass, she saw two familiar dark forms: a couple of ravens that she had dubbed James and Margaret. She gently whispered sweet greetings and compliments with an expression on her face that conveyed adoration for and amazement at this blossoming, unexpected interspecies connection.

She soon decided that she had to start taking photos of her backyard’s residents and share the sheer joy she got from such moments with the world.

“I couldn’t imagine anyone believing me so I started taking photos. This is how The Daily James started,” Brickhouse says in an email interview with me, referring to the popular Instagram account she runs with 206K followers as of this writing.

The journey to moments like this had all started with one bird feeder.

Brickhouse remembered the day she had seen a bird feeder for sale and decided that it would make a nice addition to their urban backyard. She watched, and all manner of different bird species began to appear at the feeder. How miraculous the sight seemed to her, given that she lived near the definition of a bustling metropolis!

She was inspired; this trend was too good not to continue. Brickhouse bought more feeders, filling each with different types of seed to attract new species to the blossoming habitat.

Her next addition was a bird bath. Within a couple hours of filling it, she noticed her first visitors–two ravens had stopped by for a drink. James and Margaret, as she named them, returned to her garden again and again.

“Their presence was magical and I was enchanted,” Brickhouse recalls of the pair of ravens.

When James started knocking on her window to ask her to come sit on the porch with him, she felt compelled to do justice to this story in some form. The best way, she decided, was via the power of photography.

“I needed to learn [to] capture his charisma through images,” she reflected.

She became good friends with National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale, who was also her photography and storytelling mentor.

“She has been [an] incredible mentor in not just helping me better [understand] how to use a camera, but to inspire with it,” Brickhouse says of Vitale.

Today, on her @thedailyjames account, she posts regular updates on the multifaceted residents, from a California ground squirrel she named Ms. Bonita, to Ciabatta, a western screech owl, to Mildred the Magnificent, a turkey vulture, and of course, James and Margaret. She has even posted Instagram reels of herself holding a bright red and yellow feeder containing sugar water–and brightly-colored “sky ninjas”, her nickname for hummingbirds, would land directly on her fingers to feed.

She gets her fountains from Jackalope Pottery in the North Hollywood region, which she has recently collaborated with for a paid partnership; she is offering her followers a discount. Recently, she has posted a few updates on Queen Isabella, an Anna’s hummingbird that decided to make a tiny cup-shaped nest in one of the hanging plants at Jackalope Pottery. The tiny bird laid eggs and raised two babies, who are not so baby anymore and are on the cusp of leaving their birth nest; animals sure grow up fast!

“I’m continually surprised at the diversity of wildlife that comes through our yard,” Brickhouse said, considering her urban surroundings, adding that she had noticed around 100 species of birds and mammals come through the place or make a home there already.

The beauty of the moments that she has documented speaks to the fundamental way that different life forms are not so different after all. Ms. Bonita, the squirrel, is now nine years old and has lived three times the average lifespan for her species. To Brickhouse, seeing Ms. Bonita emerge every year post-hibernation feels “as if a legend has reappeared”. She has also observed Ciabatta, the owl, dipping his feet in her fountains in the middle of the night for at least ten minutes in one sitting–much like humans enjoying a cozy shower or bath. James and Margaret eventually had little ravens that were raised in her backyard, and they sometimes dropped off the little ones at the tree where Mildred the Magnificent, the vulture, regularly hung out, as if Mildred was doing raven daycare.

“Some people are adamant that animals are completely different from us but they’re not. We all share the same fundamental needs,” Brickhouse reflected.

Given the amazingly intimate views of the lives of these urban wildlife species that she posts, one might expect that the relationship is based on Brickhouse constantly feeding the animals. But Brickhouse only puts out seed about once a week, and insists that there are many other factors in creating and maintaining this type of interspecies connection. She gives some of these tips to others who might hope to follow her example in their own yards.

“The secret is to be welcoming to [the animals]–as in make your place their place too,” Brickhouse says.

Specifically, being welcoming can mean hanging nest boxes, having fresh water sources in fountains or baths, and planting native plants. It’s also important for planting to be done organically as rodenticides can poison owls that consume poisoned rodents and pesticides eliminate food sources for birds.

“We don’t set traps or try to eliminate an animal because it might eat our plants or dig a hole in the ground. We look at it as an opportunity to get to know another family,” Brickhouse insists. She points out that “[w]e’ve moved into their (wildlife) space,” and that it is only fair for us to try and be good, welcoming neighbors. People often think of themselves as quite separate from nature, but she points out that we should remember, in her words, the way that “our human boundaries are arbitrary”.

Brickhouse feels she has learned a lot along this journey of making a home for these diverse inhabitants, and that James the raven was, in a way, her guide.

“When a raven knocks on your window, because he wants you to come outside and sit with him on the porch, it teaches you to be still, be quiet, to observe,” she reflected. “Sitting with James taught me that not only does magic exist in the world, but it’s right outside your window.”

Her motto, both on The Daily James and in her life, is “Respect all life. See what happens.” “There’s a saying that we are all connected, but until you experience it, you can’t fathom the joy of this discovery,” she stated.