Roseate Spoonbills

Wow! Last week, I remembered how powerful an experience drawing outdoors can be. Drawing and painting outside is called Plein Air. There is nothing like it. You are living in the moment; more than that you are recording the moments. Here are Wood Storks trying to nest at the amphiteater.

Glynn Art Association invites a few of their artists to take part in a fund raiser for the children’s art programs called the Plein Air Affair. This year, I was asked to be part of this event. I choose to draw at the Jekyll amphitheater. The birds are nesting there so they are sitting still. They are much easier to draw that way. Love is definitely in the air. While I drew a pair of egrets, I witness a first for Georgia. I witness the first pair of Roseate Spoonbills mating. We birders have been waiting for this for years. Where would they nest? That question was on everyone’s mind. And because I was drawing and sitting still, I was able to document this for science. Art and science go hand-in-hand for me.

Willets in the marsh

Last week, we had a Willet on the south end of Jekyll. It looked very different because it was an eastern Willet returning to nest. They are the long legged shorebirds sitting on the wires on the causeway. The western Willet are the gray guys eating all the small clams on the beach. They should be heading out to the Great Plains soon. As we walked back to the van we crunched through lots of those tiny clams. Look that is all those tiny clams.

Cedar Waxwings

Sorry guys it has been a very long and cold winter. Good news things are looking up. Speaking of looking up, for weeks now the Cedar Waxwings have been gathering. They are helping each other prepare for the migration north. Beautiful birds!