Gratitude 16

I am also grateful for birds.  Our lives, our world, would be so much poorer without them.  I have never thought of myself really as a birdwatcher or a bird geek.  I have always been interested in them, of course, their lives, their biology, their ecology, their habits, their ways.  But my approach has always been one of wonder rather than scientific curiosity.  I suppose it is wonderful that they fly, that they come from eggs and that they have feathers.   It is all that and more that makes them wonderful.

I find all birds intriguing for their very birdness.  For me to interpret them in my art hey have to have some modicum of colour.  I use birds to convey art.  Not vice-versa.  I am not a technically skilled bird artist.  I could never imagine painting or drawing for a field guide or a coffee table book.  The beauty and form of birds simply stimulated my artistic drive, and yes, Gentle Reader, I always feel inept when it comes to representing them with any bit of technical skill.  But my love of them makes me persevere with the hope that I will get better. 

This particular post I want to dedicate to the hummingbirds.  They are among the most fascinating things with feathers.  Their intelligence is ranked to be near or equal to parrots and crows.  They are tiny, and so fragile looking, yet so incredibly tough and resilient as they endure some very harsh climate conditions.  I am thinking of our own Anna's hummingbird and how well they endure our mild but still northern, and for many, harsh winters.



I will be spending this March in Costa Rica where I can see some particularly stunning species live and at close range:










I find hummingbirds incredibly brave and fearless, despite their tiny size.  They are also mythologized as messengers.  The iridescent splendour of their plumage makes them like living jewels. Their gifts of flight are incomparable in the bird world.  They also have gratitude.  I remember when I rescued a female hummingbird who got stranded in my house.  I gently caught her then took her outside and released her.  A couple of years later a hummingbird built her nest and raised her two chicks in a blackberry bush right next to the house.  Every time I passed by her nest I would stop to say hi to her.  She would calmly look up to me, as though to say hello and how is your day going?  She seemed very trusting and confiding.  I saw her two tiny white eggs and then her offspring as they hatched and then grew into adult birds.  I believe this to be the same bird I rescued and she decided to make her home with me.

Here are some more of my favourites:


















I would publish more but I get warnings posted for every three out of four images I try to copy and paste that they could be harmful to my computer.  Let's here it for the wild west of the internet.