I Hear You

I hear you little bird! Yes I do. How can I suggest you in this painting? But first, here’s a warm welcome to you gentle reader. And, whether you’re brand new or a long time loyal reader, I’m delighted you are here. To find out more about the focus of this post and blog, you can read more here. To sign up to receive these posts every week, you can sign up here. Ready for this week’s topic? OK!

Do You Hear It

Here goes. For the past five days I have had several beautiful, surprise visitors. They appear out of nowhere. Some are here in our yard. Others show up on my daily, sometimes long and meandering morning walks with BDE (best dog ever). I would never be able to identify these visitors were it not for Merlin Bird ID. I love the way this free bird identification app lets me hear bird calls and then identifies them.

As I wander, it’s thrilling to see the different birds cue up on the list within the app. During Saturday morning’s wander, I heard the distinctive call of the Cooper’s Hawk. Then I heard another one. Luckily, I looked up and there in the trees above me were two hawks. Given that it’s late in February, aka perfect bird nest building season, I assumed they were settling in and perhaps nest building. And, what a brilliant location for a Cooper’s Hawk family: the beautiful gardens of the Governor’s Mansion. Guess what? The current Governor’s name is Cooper, too. But not so fast!

Another Call

Tuesday morning, I’m walking through Edna Metz Wells Park and who do I hear? You guessed it: one of the Cooper’s Hawks. Merlin app corroborated this. But the hawk perched on a bare oak tree branch. And, there was nesting material nearby!!! Yayyy! Could it be that the Coopers’ are building nearby? Who knows. Stay tuned!

Yet More Calls

Just in the past week, I have been hearing so many delightful little birds. By far, the sweetest and most endearing sound (to me anyway) is the call of the beautiful, radiant orange and buffy black Baltimore Oriole. Oh my oh my! So as I worked on paintings outdoors this week I kept thinking about that fantastic little bird.

Confession I have not seen it. Somehow I have not figured out how to hold paint brushes and binoculars at the same time. But as I painted this morning, I could hear it and so could Merlin app. So I decided to add a little Baltimore Oriole “suggestion” to this week’s painting. It’s entitled “I Hear You.”

Painting Details

I am pretty sure I started this painting last summer. It’s a variation of the dogwood tree in our backyard. Currently, that little tree has no leaves. But the magnolia trees and nearby evergreen trees offer plenty of ideas. Here’s a photo of the setup on our back deck.

Imagination Station

As the Baltimore Oriole called, I decided to use my imagination to work on this painting. Perhaps you can see a suggestion of it? Here it is! It’s 6×12 inches on an oil primed linen panel and for sale for $197. To make it your own, simply click on the Paypal button below.

Can You Hear Too

How about you, gentle reader? Are you starting to hear or see signs of spring? What are they? I would love to know. Please share in the comments below and thank you for reading here today.