Remember that bird painting challenge I'm working on?

...apparently I forgot about it, but I'm back on track with paintbrush in hand. It seems lately I've done everything but paint birds. We were on vacation on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for two weeks, and that was wonderful. I visited Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge a lot and have tons of photos. The rookery was a lot different this year compared to last year, and I saw a few new birds there this year too. My poor Cincinnati birds are going to feel left out because I'll probably go straight from posting Florida birds to South Carolina birds...

Before I get to the photos, here are my catching-up-to-the-challenge paintings. They are very fast sketches, and I think I had better get used to painting fast if I want to have any hope of making 100 in a year. I should be a bit beyond 50 now, but I'm only at 37!

Painting 37 - Eastern Towhee

Painting 36 - Eastern Towhee in Orange

This one was fun. I just wanted to create a flat form

with color. I normally pay attention to detail, but I wanted

to leave that style behind for a while...

Painting 35 - Willet in the Gulf

Painting 34 - Eastern Kingbird in the High Meadow

(From the High Meadow at Voice of America Park)

Painting 33 - Prothonotary Warbler painting study

This was a five-minute value study for an earlier painting. After I figured out how to work out the real painting, I tossed this on the floor and forgot about it. A couple of days later I saw it on the floor and picked it up and scribbled over the top of it with pastels and charcoal, really grinding the pigment into the paper. Then I stuck it under the faucet and doused it with water, washing a lot of the pigment off and soaking the paper completely--I have no idea why. It ended with an old-fashioned fabric feel that I liked, so I decided to use it in the challenge.

Prothonotary Warbler exhibiting courtship behavior and displaying his tail feathers...

It's no secret that I do a lot of birding on the Little Miami Bike Trail, and for good reason...every time I'm there I see something cool. I usually hop on the trail at the old Peters Cartridge Company (commonly called the Powder Factory) on Grandin Road in Kings Mills and walk toward Morrow, going as far as the Lebanon fork. This little patch is always productive. If you’re familiar with this stretch, you probably know the hillside stream not too far from the Powder Factory with the tiny “observation deck.” Over the years people have carted stones from the creek bed up the steep banks to create a rustic patio that lets you look down at the stream and follow its course up through the heavily wooded hillside. The water runs at a nice pace here and gathers in small pools along the way creating little watering holes perfect for sipping out of, especially if you’re a bird. I always check the watering holes to see what might be there. It's a great place to spot thrushes, and a Barred Owl is often hanging around too. I will see him well up the hillside sitting over the water, just watching. He’s usually so far up the hill you can only see him with the binocs, but if you know where to look, you’ll spot him frequently. Once, he sat in a tree about 10 feet from the patio. I stood and watched him, mesmerized, but this post is about a Prothonotary Warbler, so I had better get back on track! ...I had just walked back from the little patio, and as I stepped on the trail, a Prothonotary Warbler landed on the bridge railing about 15 feet from me. I was so surprised I froze! I watched him for a few seconds and slowly raised the camera to get his photograph. I didn't want to scare him off. This guy was so gorgeous and so close he unnerved me!

A Prothonotary Warbler perched on the wooden railing of a bridge spanning a small stream. I was a bit shaky when I took this photo. He surprised me by flying in so close, which sort of sent me for a loop! You know that feeling...you're trying to move quickly and slowly at the same time while adrenalin floods your system and you forget to breathe... I didn't really pull this shot off, but you can see how he was fanning out his tail feathers to display for the female.

He soon flew down on the trail and started hopping around, spreading his tail feathers even more and leaning a little off balance. At first I thought he was hurt, but then I realized he was exhibiting courtship behavior and showing off his lovely tail for a female up in the tree. Every couple seconds he would look up to see if she was still watching him…

...this is the first time I've had a Prothonotary Warbler walking the trail with me!

He would hop a little and look up, then move forward and look up again. It took me a while to figure out he was looking up to make sure the female was paying attention to him.

...he continued to hop forward, fanning his tail.

...look at that cute little eye. He is soooo looking up to make sure his honey is watching him!

Eventually he flew up into the tree, and I walked on. If the couple was nesting close by I didn’t want to disturb them. Prothonotary Warblers are the only warblers in our area that nest in tree cavities, and they often nest over water, so this slow-moving stream would be a perfect place for a nest site. I read a long time ago that fledgling Prothonotary Warblers are born with the ability to swim. Since their nest cavities are often over water, it's not uncommon for them to fall out of the nest and into the water! The Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center’s site confirms this, as does the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Nestwatcher’s Resource Center.

Holy Cow...it's been over two weeks since I posted!!

What is up with that? I have so many photos and half-written posts in the pipe. I really need to get cracking and get these things up. I also haven't been able to get out and visit anyone's blog. Things have been so busy, but there is light at the end of the tunnel (I hope it's not the train!).

...I thought I'd sneak this one in. If you look a third of the way down on the right, you can see the silhouette of the Barred Owl sitting on a branch overhanging the stream. I was shooting through a dogwood in blossom, and he was just a spec with the naked eye. I've cropped the image a lot to show him. In person, the view was gorgeous. I've found him in this exact spot many times...

Painting #32 - Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

Painting 32 in the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge

Prothonotary Warbler on the Little Miami River

I saw this fellow last Thursday on the Little Miami River. He was tucked deep in shadow, but his beautiful yellow-orange feathers could not be dimmed. He caught my eye as the perched in a tree near the river. I got a few photos, but they weren't that great. I opted for a painting of him instead. This is one of my favorite paintings so far!

This painting is part of the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge hosted by Laure Ferlita.

When "cute" comes up and knocks you on the head…

…you take a picture or two! Matty and I saw this little guy on Monday just off the trail and decided he's one of the cutest things we'd ever seen. We promptly named him Harry Jr.

Harry Jr. was stretched out on a tree snag right in front of 

us. His coloring was beautiful and he seemed so at ease. He 

was by himself and eventually slipped back into the snag.

It was very warm and Harry Jr. was lazing in the heat. 

Eventually he turned towards us. “Hello you two,” 

he seemed to be thinking. “Do you want to play?”

Today I decided to risk the rain at lunch and head over to the Little Miami Bike Trail to see if I could find another migrant, so at 11:30 I hit the trail and almost immediately saw two Prothonotary Warblers flitting around…a male and a female!

The male has that beautiful face and pure 

yellow-orange color I love. I wish this were 

a fabulous photo, but it's more of an ID shot.

The female just isn’t quite as bright as the male, 

but still gorgeous.

While photographing the Prothonotaries, I heard the first silvery liquid tones of a Wood Thrush! He was singing in the same place he claimed last year. I’ve never been able to catch a glimpse of him because he stays deep in the woods on the hill, but he’s a hearty singer and hearing his flutey song is enough for me. Of course, omnipresent through all of this were the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. I’m convinced we must have more of them per square inch than any county in the nation! Our woods around the Little Miami River are thick with them, and their buzzy, chatty song is nonstop along the entire trail. Sometimes you really have to concentrate to hear over them, and I was very excited when I heard a Pine Warbler. I watched for movement and soon I saw him.

Ack! Do you need a magnifying glass to see this one?

The lack of sunshine did nothing to lessen the beauty of the woodland trail, and a fine mist hung in the air, lighting each new green spring leaf with a freshness that would have been missed on a bright sunny day. As I continued to walk the trail I heard nonstop warbler song. Many songs I didn’t yet recognize. I’m working hard to learn how to bird by ear, but my brain doesn’t seem to be working quite as hard as my desire. I can listen to the same song 20 times and not be able to 100% place it in the field; however, some songs I have down, so I’m making progress. The songs of Prothonotary Warblers, Pine Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, Northern Parulas, just to name a few, are all as well known to me now as Chickadees and Goldfinch…now I only have 600+ more calls to learn.  ;-)

The Little Miami Bike Trail in mist.

The Little Miami Bike Trail and Red-eyed Vireos

When Matty got home from school today, we decided to head over to the Little Miami River to see if we could catch any spring migrants. The weather was warm (mid 80s) and the sun was shining. The weather report said today would be the last of the summer-like warmth and the rains were moving in, so we thought we had better get out to bird while the getting was good! As soon as we hit the trail, we found Blue-gray Gnatcatchers all around us singing, chatting, scolding and basically being cute, but soon our attention was diverted by the song of a Red-eyed Vireo. Matty used the bird's non-stop singing to hone in on its location and then watched for movement. He seemed to have a sixth sense for Red-eyes today, logging four sightings by the end of the walk. We also saw a Black and White Warbler, a Prothonotary Warbler, a Black-throated Green Warbler (another of Matty's finds found through his "bird" sense), a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Hummingbird, and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows (Life Birds for us), plus all the usual woodland suspects, including a Pileated Woodpecker...and three deer!

The two lone Northern Rough-winged Swallows 

were playing just beyond Matty. They chased each 

other and were feeding low over the water, much 

too fast and small to be photographed.

As we watched the swallows, two Canada Geese came honking in, flying wing to wing down the corridor and seeming to announce to all the woodland creatures that, "We have arrived, so please, everyone, look at us. We are here, and we are loud. Yes, we are important. Again, we say, look at us!" It was fun to watch them fly past us at eye level, honking and so close that we could almost feel the breeze from their wings as they flapped past.

"Mabel" and "Floyd" on the wing continued 

to honk all the way up the river...

Matty spotted the second Red-eye from the river bank shortly after the clatter and ruckus of the geese faded away, so we climbed up the hill to get closer and actually got a fairly decent shot.

Look at that lovely red eye...

...and it's red on the other side too!

...yes, you are a gorgeous bird with a very pretty song!

We were starting to get hungry, so we headed for home. As we walked along, we heard the unmistakeable crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves and sticks underfoot and started looking for deer. There were three, and they didn't seem to mind us, so we stayed and watched for a while until they decided to move on.

See you later little deer!