Build a pond for the birds...

Matty and I built a little pond with a waterfall last year, but it didn't get a lot of bird action, so I dismantled it this spring and changed it, adding a small 10-gallon retention pool between a tub waterfall and a 50-gallon tub pond. I stacked the retention pool with with rocks, which made it feel like a rocky stream, and the birds already love it. All it took was mimicking nature and thinking like a bird...

A juvenile American Robin studies the water in the rocky "stream bed."

The rocks allow for several depths, from above the water to three or four inches below the water. The water flows from the big waterfall tub on the left, to a small waterfall that flows into the pond on the right. 

We didn't have a lot of room for the pond, so we opted for a 50-gallon tub instead of a liner. In a couple of years I'm going to put a larger pond in the yard where I have more room. We will use a liner and create a small beach for it, which the birds will love, but until then, the 10-gallon bird friendly "stream bed" works great!

It doesn't take a lot of room to add a pond with a waterfall and a little stream. The birds love it, and it sounds great too. (The tall plants are volunteer milkweed plants. The first popped up three or four years ago, and each year a few more join the stand.)

A juvenile robin still holds on to some of its baby down. Soon those little fuzzies will be gone.

He only studied the water for a short while before drinking from the stream.

...refreshing!

'Tis the season for baby birds...

Rick spotted this newly fledged American Robin in our front yard this morning. It was about 7:15, and the grass was still wet with dew. The little bird was sitting in the grass pecking around in the ground, looking like he was not at all happy with the prospect of digging his own worms for breakfast...

A small clump of dirt clings to this fledgling's bill, evidence of his recent attempts of being the early bird getting the worm.

...gotta love the little downy "hair tufts" still clinging to his head!

Momma Robin was nearby in the tree keeping an eye on the fledgling.

Mama and papa Robin feeding their nestling at Magee Marsh...

This sweet little bird has to be the most photographed American Robin on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. Her nest was located at eye level in the crook of a horizontal branch on a huge tree about ten feet from the boardwalk. She faithfully sat on the nest and was there every time I walked past. The robin's nest was so conspicuous that any person with a camera would stop to "oooooh" and "ahhhh" and then photograph her. She didn't care. She would sit and watch or close her eyes and doze. One afternoon in a light drizzle I stopped to photograph her. No one else was around, so I knew I could spend some time with her. As I focused in, I heard the chirp of another robin and watched her perk up. Suddenly her mate popped into view with yummy insects in his bill. I assumed he was delivering insects to feed the female, but she didn't eat. Instead, she got up, peered into the nest, and a little beak popped up...

An American Robin (Turdus migratorius) sitting on a nest at Magee Marsh. A gentle rain was falling and I could see the raindrops beading up on her feathers. I thought that would be interesting. Little did I know something more interesting would show up...

...suddenly, the male robin flew in with a tasty treat. 
(I am assuming this is the male because the color of his plumage was more vibrant that the female's.)

The male gave the female the insect--looks like some sort of damselfly!

...they both took turns feeding the baby (only one little bill popped up).

The female put the damselfly in the nestling's mouth.

...papa took a turn too.

"Do you have any more? The baby's still hungry..."

"You'd better hurry. Those insects aren't going to catch themselves..." 

The female returned to the nest, keeping the nestling warm.

...as I was leaving, I noticed I could see her head on--always one of my favorite angles. You have to love robins on nests! 

These photos are all from the week I spent looking for warblers at Magee Marsh in May for the  Biggest Week in American Birding festival.

Note: Magee Marsh is one of the sites on the Nature Conservancy's Natural Treasures of Ohio sweepstakes (May 22 - August 8). You can enter to win a Honda Insight Hybrid after visiting Magee Marsh! Click here for details on how to win the car.

(These photos are classic "robin sitting on a nest" shots. They are great references for artists. If you're an artist, feel free to use them for inspiration.)

Economy of brushstrokes...

These paintings all fall under "economy of brush strokes." I wanted to see how few strokes and how little detail was needed to capture the feel of the bird (I used no pencil marks either...just worked with the paint brush). The first in the series was the wren. By the time I got to the chickadee I found I didn't need many brush strokes at all to come up with a likeness...

(check out the date on the paintings. I wrote 1-2011...that's so me. At least I got the month right!).

Painting 212. Chickadee Light

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Painting 211. Robin Redbreast

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Painting 210. Northern Cardinal Aflame

(watercolor, smooth hot-pressed paper)

Painting 209. Carolina Wren

(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

...more paintings for Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up!

I love robin's egg blue...

...especially when it's on a robin's egg!

...yesterday morning as I walked past the dwarf Weeping Cherry that borders the front walk and drive, an American Robin flew out of the tree. "Wouldn't it be cool if a nest were in there..." went through my mind, so I leaned in for a peak, and wow...robin's egg blue is what I found!

...just the day before I had received in the mail, "Avian Architecture," by Peter Goodfellow--an exciting book about birds and how they build their nests. I had been reading it at breakfast and had bird nests on the brain, so I was doubly excited to find the nest!

You can see that Mrs. Robin (who does all the nest building) is not tidy in her work, but...

...she builds a nest to last with heavy mud to reinforce the walls, which form a safe cup to hold the eggs and nestlings.

...sweet Robin's egg blue.

...our dwarf Weeping Cherry tree. Mama built the nest at the top of the most heavily leafed area. Needless to say, we're not using the front door now! Hope the nest is successful.

When I finish reading "Avian Architecture," I'll write about it. From the little I've seen, it's awesome! I know I'm going to love the book (it has wonderful artwork in it too...).

Painting #99, Robin Berry

Painting 99, Robin Berry

Acrylic, 16x20 Canvas

Do you recognize this American Robin? She showed up in this post earlier in the month. Matty loves this one. He wants to take it with him when he leaves for college (he's 15 now...let's see if he feels that way when he's 18. A Robin eating a berry might not be cool enough for a college dorm room!) This is the first time I've put acrylic on a real canvas. I liked the feel of the canvas and working on the larger size.

...same painting cropped down. I like the crop...I could see myself buying notecards of something like this.

...the painting at an earlier stage. I took out all the fuzzy orange "out-of-focus-in-the-background" berries and in the process overworked the sky. I probably should have kept it at this stage. I had actually signed it and considered it finished (and I never sign my paintings...I always forget to. I'm working on that.).

...same painting at its earliest stage. I whipped it out in about 40 minutes and then headed off to bed. I almost like it more than the finished product. It's a completely different style...a little more graphic with no detail and a bolder red breast. Which do you like better?

...painting 100 is in the works! Yeah! It's a sweet little American Tree Sparrow (and is even larger at 18x24). I hope to finish it today or tomorrow.

I posted paintings 86 - 97 on the 100 Paintings Challenge site. I will try to add them in to this post later this evening.

While an American Robin picks a berry...I'll pick the winner of the "Great Penguin Rescue" giveaway!

What a close-up! This American Robin was sitting right on the other side of my living room window. He was so intent on snagging berries he didn't mind me on the other side of the glass snapping away.

The colder temps suddenly made these crabapples very appealing to the birds. Usually they don't munch on them until late Jan or Feb, but this year they are fair game now...

"Aaa-hem (which is the sound of a Robin clearing its throat), don't you have a job to do...Peanut?"

You are so right Robin, it's time to pick the three winners for the "Great Penguin Rescue" giveaway! (Click here for a review of the book.)

I printed out all the comments for the past week and cut them into strips.

I then folded each one and dropped them into a big Christmas bowl, mixing them up a lot.

Then Matty pulled out the first winner!

"Uh...Mom, did you take your name out of the comments?"

"Errrrr...no. I forgot."

"Looks like you won!"

(Oh brother! The ironic thing is, if you look at the comment it's the one I wrote to the author, Dyan deNapoli, after she left a comment!)

Matty then drew the three real book winners:

The first was Roy from England. His blog is "The Fenlandwalker Birding and Countryside Blog!"

The second was Warren from England also. His blog is "Pittswood Birds."

The third was Mona from Montana. Her blog is "Montanagirl."

...who can stop drawing names? We couldn't...and as a surprise, we had more to give away. I had four cards left from the Oxbow fundraiser and two prints, so we decided to draw three more names:

The Cardinal cards went to Sarah, whose blog is "Plastic Acid" (which is cool because I just won a card giveaway on Sarah's blog and the cards arrived today!!).

The print of the Eastern Meadowlark in a field of poppies went to Hilke, whose blog is "One Jackdaw Birding."

The print of the American Goldfinch on the sunflower went to Pix, whose blog is Rural Rambles.

Thanks, everyone for participating! It was so much fun watching Matty pull the names out of the bowl to see who would win. If you were a winner and want to claim your prize, email me your address so I can send you your book, or cards...or print!

Painting a Winter Robin...in autumn

Painting #38 - Winter Robin

(9" x 12" - Acrylic on Canvas Paper)

"Winter Robin" is painting #38 in the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge. It was my first attempt at painting with acrylics, and I loved it. The Plaza art store in Kenwood had canvases on sale for 70% off and acrylics on sale for 60% off, so with such a fab sale going on I decided it was time to dive in. I started with Golden's "Golden Open Acrylics." Golden Open Acrylics are creamy and dry slower than standard acrylic paints so they feel more like oils. Since I've painted with oils in the past, I decided they would be my best bet. I really liked them and had fun painting with them. I definitely went with a looser style, which was my goal.

Click here for photos of the Cheerio-eating robin that inspired this painting.

Winter robins...they like Cheerios too!

Last weekend during the Great Backyard Bird Count, this American Robin was keeping an eye on me as I photographed him. It was snowing hard, and I first spied this fluffy robin from the kitchen window. He looked beautiful in the snow, so I quickly put on my coat and boots and went out to photograph him. He was sitting in a Cleveland Pear tree. You can see the damage to the bark the 17-year cicadas (Brood XIV) left behind during the summer of 2008 as they greedily sucked sap from this tree.

At one point I ran out of seed, but before I could run to the store to get some more, I just put out some Cheerios. The robins were the first takers. They were maniacs for the Cheerios, which seemed to be the perfect size for their mouths.

...daintily picking up a Cheerio...

...positioning it...

...and then swallowing it down the hatch in one gulp!

Check out bird photography from all over the world at...

On robins and blueberries...

In the past couple of days, I've seen more and more robins showing up in our neighborhood and even at work. When I walked out of the office on Friday, the crabapple trees that line the drive were dripping with them. Hoping to lure a few in at home, I threw a pint of blueberries out on our deck. It didn't take long for a very puffy robin to spy the treat.

...an American Robin puffed up and insulated against the frigid temperatures heard my camera click behind the glass of the kitchen door. She paused to investigate the sound then went back to eating her breakfast of yummy blueberries.

...a beautiful eye, and that rusty red breast looks sun-kissed warm!

...a robin can puff up like nobody's business.

...an interesting study.

...blueberries lay frozen on the deck among patches of snow...irresistible to our berry-loving robins.

In the winter, our deck becomes one very large bird feeder it seems, but we rarely see robins on the deck because they pass the seeds by, but....put out a berry or two, and they will show up. This robin also hunted among the seeds for coconut shreds I had mixed in with oatmeal and breadcrumbs.

...and then the sun came out...and stayed out, and everyone lived happily ever after!! Yeah!