Shorebirds~

I think one of the main reasons I decided to stay in Florida is the

"flora and fauna".

I especially like the shorebirds!

I was absolutely fascinated with the sanderlings.  I love watching them "skitter" to avoid the incoming waves. And, they are very territorial.

  This is the first painting done after coming to Florida.

Seagulls are amazing.  They can detect a cracker crumb a mile away. 

And if just one tries to grab it, every seagull within a mile will be there

in an instantto try to steal it away.  One of my favorite sights, is watching

a whole flock take off at once.

  This is what I was trying to capture in this painting.

Egrets are the subject of many of my paintings.Their bearing is stately, regal.

During mating season,they have the most beautiful lime green marking

 near their eye and they develop the long, feathery plummage.

This painting is a watercolor batik done on masa paper.  I love the batik look but the process is very messy and the smell of hot wax is not pleasant .  I love the way this turned out.  It was painted from a photo that I took at the Venice Rookery.

More egrets.

 I have made this painting into a note card~it's a popular design.

  The truth is that this is actually a small section of a much larger piece that

was a "muddy" failure...but I did as many instructors suggest and found the

 "good" part and cropped it. I'm glad it didn't go in the trash pile.

Seagulls punctuate the beach. They're the cherry on the sundae.

  You really miss them when they are not around.

I had never seen a sandhill crane before coming to Florida.

  I had friends in Colorado who were birdwatchers; they would always travel down to New Mexico to see the thousands of migrating cranes.

Have you ever heard a sandhill crane?

  They sound like a large piece of machinery that hasn't been oiled and

 is on the verge of breaking down. They can be heard from a very long distance.

Sandhill cranes are absolutely fearless.

  Our area is a designated preserve. The cranes are almost always in pairs,

 feed on the side of busy streets or right in your backyard.They can stop traffic

 for along time as they strut slowly, purposely across the road. 

Seeing them always takes my breath away.

I have to admit this is not my favorite painting.  The colors and composition are all wrong.  But I love the great blue herons.  They are everywhere.  They especially like to hang around the fisherman on the beach, taking every opportunity to steal a dinner from the fisherman's bait bucket.  It is quite a sight, watching a heron swallow a whole fish. 

More egrets.  Again painted from a photo taken at the rookery.

And MORE egrets.  This one painted on YUPO.

And it just wouldn't be Florida without the Brown Pelican.

  It is not the State Bird as some think, though it should be.

 

I've painted a lot of pelicans but this is my favorite.

So ends today's lesson on Florida Shorebirds.