Several weeks ago I posted a picture of a female bluebird we found in our nestbox. We assumed she had died trying to lay an egg as there was no sign of predator attack. She looked so peaceful and never before had we been so close to an adult blue. We monitor the nest box and I have many shots of baby blues, but the parents don't let you get that close to them. And that's actually a good thing. I sketched her lightly in pencil.
And then sorted through the various colored pencils I have to get the colors right. There were three eggs beneath her. One was cracked. Sadly, by the time we found her, they were not viable.
But the good news is another couple of bluebirds won the war with the wrens (with a little bit of HWNSNBP's help removing their stick nests before eggs were laid which is perfectly legal). The wrens gave up and the blues built their nest of pine needles and grass in just about a day. The new mama laid four beautiful blue eggs last week and because it was so cold here in the evenings, she began incubating them by staying in the nestbox overnight.
So we ought to see some babies within the next week.
Our Scribble Picnic theme for this week is BIRDS and I've also used my card for ICAD Day 12 - Wings. You can see my ICAD's for week 1 here, and week 2 here.
It's time for me to check out the "Picnic" and see all the birds the picnickers are sharing..... on paper that is! You can see them too by clicking here.
And life goes on. Your painting is lovely coloured in.
ReplyDeleteYes it does Christine. Thank you.
DeleteWhat a sad story but at least it had a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteNature can be cruel sometimes, but we have to accept it and move on.
DeleteI like the blue of the bird, it's beautiful blue hue. good take on the theme.
ReplyDeletehave a lovely day.
I know, bluebirds are the most beautiful blue to me.
DeleteLorraine, i think your bird illo is just wonderful and love the angle from above too to see the nest in all its twine glory. Loos great! Your real birds nests are amazing. not quite sure how I am seeing this--do you have a fibre optic magnifier looking on it to get it to look so big on the monitor? I love how you are tending to the birds in your locale. Here, we pretty much jsut have nasty sounding crows! lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you for playing along this week and including your interesting write up too.
Thank you. We have a nestcam in the box. When the lid of the box is up you can see color, and it works at night too. It also has audio and when the eggs hatch you can hear all the racket when they're being fed. This nest box is about 125'from the house and has been a lot of fun monitoring this way.
DeleteThat's awesome.
DeleteJ
This is wonderful and I LOVE the angle you did of your bird. I would have never thought to attempt that angle. Beautiful and loved seeing the photos. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Alexandra. I didn't know if I could pull it off, but I'm glad I gave it a try.
DeleteLorraine,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting story and your picture is lovely. I love the colours of the wings. Sad but life... Glad to hear another mom is siting on her nest.
Blessings
Janis
We joke that we'll never be real empty-nesters as long as the bluebirds choose to live here.
DeleteYour bluebird is beautiful, with such realistic feathers; and how fun that you have the nestcam to enjoy the birds in real time!
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the ICAD challenge, thanks to learning about it from you, but haven't posted anything yet. Hopefully within the week, but no guarantees!
Thank you, we really do enjoy having them right here "in the house" with us. I look forward to seeing your ICAD's. I think they're a great way to experiment with different art materials and they really do help me to "decompress" after work. Hope you're finding it fun.
DeleteIt is really sweet to see bluebirds succeed in the nest. Here swallows are a big competitor. Your drawing is charming. Good luck with eggs and babies.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tammie Lee. We put up another box at the school where I work and there are tree swallows there also. I don't mind the swallows so much as they usually don't hurt the blues, but the house sparrows are just mean and will harm them.
DeleteSo sad that she died with three eggs beneath her. A touching tribute sketch to her life, Lorraine. Hopefully, you will have a family of bluebirds to admire. I can't help but wonder what would become of the wrens? I guess they would have found another safe place to build.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely weekend ~ :)
very nice tribute to the little bird
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect rendering of that photo - all the detail in those pine needles and the foliage! This is so beautiful - and a prompt that was just up your street.
ReplyDelete