Paintings of a Red-breasted Nuthatch...for the challenge

Sunday morning I went birding at Winton Woods (a Hamilton County park in Cincinnati, OH) with the Cincinnati Audubon Society. This was my first time to bird with the Audubon Society. Normally I go on the Cincinnati Birding Club trips, but Winton Woods is only 30 minutes from my house...and the walk started at 9:00 a.m. (yeah!). I also wanted to go because I had heard Red-breasted Nuthatches could be found regularly at the pine stand there, and I wanted to find out where it was. We started the morning at the Settling Pond on McKelvey Rd. where we saw lots of lovely ducks including Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwalls, Wood Ducks (a lot of them!), Coots, Black Ducks, Bonaparte Gulls (a small flock flew in flashing white against the dark grey sky....beautiful and exciting...), Green-winged Teal, Ruddy Ducks, Mallards, and Northern Shovelers. A Great Blue Heron was also there fishing among the ducks, and we watched him catch a fish, taking his time to finally swallow it down. A Belted Kingfisher could be heard in the distance, and just as we were leaving, a Swamp Sparrow and couple of Song Sparrows popped into view. The Swamp Sparrow was especially beautiful...so dark against the light tans of the cattail stalks. For a complete list of birds we found on the trip, check out the Cincinnati Bird Sightings log, here. (Did I mention it was cold? The day before I was in shorts, but Sunday morning was cold!!!)

After watching the ducks, we headed over to the pine stand on the Parcours Fitness Trail and soon enough the little Red-breasted Nuthatches made an appearance. At one point I had three in sight, but could hear others--probably at least a half dozen were following us through the pines (others in the group had 6 in sight at the same time, so there could have been even more). Their nasally calls were soothing and soft and floated in the cold air around us. Such happy little birds, they were so busy darting from branch to branch...following the branch to the end of the pine needles...never stopping for a rest. They inspired me so much I whipped out three acrylic paintings that evening when I was home (paintings 77-79 in the 100 Painting Challenge), and followed them on Monday with a watercolor (painting 80).

Painting #80, Red-breasted Nuthatch at Winton Woods

9x12 Arches Rough 140 Lb Paper, Watercolor

I used a very light pencil sketch on this painting so the water colors could be vibrant and not weighed down by graphite showing through. I took my time with the water color, so it doesn't show the activity, speed and agility of these little birds as they zip through the branches. Although, when I look at it, he does have a wily look in his eyes and appears ready to spring over to the next branch, which no doubt holds another spider to eat.

With the acrylics I tried to capture the movement of the little imps, plus convey autumn's last hurrah. The cold and overcast morning was a shocker. We had been enjoying Indian summer and had grown used to the warmer temps. The cold made the trees seem barer and reminded us what November should really feel like. Starting without a drawing underneath, I quickly painted in the birds, adding in a dark background to relay the gloom of the morning (and the end of autumn)--flashes of autumn color give a nod to the season at it tries to hold on, but we know winter is on the way...

Painting #79, A Red-breasted Nuthatch flits from branch to branch...

9x12 Acrylic Paper, Acrylic

Painting #78, ...never resting

9x12 Acrylic Paper, Acrylic

Painting #77, ...always looking for another spider to eat.

9x12 Acrylic Paper, Acrylic

If you want to read more about these little birds, head over to BirdingBlogs.com for an article Kenn Kaufmann recently posted.

One more cool thing...two other Cincinnati Nature bloggers were there:

Mike of Everybody Funny was our trip leader. I think his phishing is what brought the Red-breasted Nuthatches out. They were very curious at the sound and came in closer to see what we were all about. Mike is very creative, and his blog focuses on visual poetry, nature, and humor. It's a lot of fun, and his work often makes me think in ways I don't normally think...and that's always good!

...and Kathi of KatDoc's World was there too. I started reading KatDoc's blog a few months ago when she posted on a warble (the larval form of of botfly) living under the skin of a kitten (if you want to get grossed out, click here). Since Matty wants to be a vet, I thought I'd check it out. Kathi is a vet and potter and writes about her vet practice and other interesting things. I had never met Kathi before, but when I saw her, I immediately recognized her from her blog..."You're KatDoc!" was the first thing out of my mouth. Kathi let me borrow her Ohio Ornithological Society hat because it was so cold and I didn't have one. Thanks, Kathi!