A Snow Bunting and a Squirrel Problem

Here is the painting I have been working on the past few days. I think it's finished now. This sweet bird visited our backyard a few years ago. I didn't even know what kind of bird it was at the time. It looked to me like a cross between a large sparrow and a bunny. So fluffy! I looked it up and found that it was a snow bunting. I'm glad it stayed long enough for me to take a few photos of him.

I did a previous painting of him but I like this one much more. I hope to have prints and cards available with this image in my shop in the next week or so.

I love birds and have always fed them in our backyard. Having a garden that welcomes wildlife is important to me. I also wanted Emma and Chloé to learn about nature through our garden. From when they were toddlers, I kept bird, caterpillar and butterfly guides near our back door so we could identify our garden visitors. Among the birds that have visited our yard are sparrows (many, many sparrows), chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, juncos, robins, swallows, mourning doves, cedar waxwings, hummingbirds, house finches, goldfinches and woodpeckers. We've had rare visits by a kingfisher, a hawk and a ruffed grouse. Plus the sweet snow bunting.

We have been in our current house for over 16 years. It was a new neighbourhood when we moved in so there were very few trees initially, which also meant that there weren't any squirrels. But there are now! The trees have matured. Now my bird seed isn't just attracting my feathered friends, it is attracting squirrels as well...which would be fine except for Meeko. Meeko is calm and accepting when birds are at our feeders. But squirrels? Oh my. He gets riled up, wants to chase them and he barks...a lot. I try to keep him quiet for the sake of our neighbours and our own sanity but it's hard to do. Last week, Chloé was studying for exams and Meeko was barking incessantly at the squirrels. She suggested that maybe I need to stop feeding the birds or to find another place for the feeder that is not visible from the house. That is such a hard thought for me although she may be right. I'm trying to think of alternate solutions. I thought of placing food on the ground somewhere to divert the squirrels' attention. I've even thought of placing paper at Meeko's eye level on the back door so he can't see them from inside. If you have a brilliant idea, let me know!

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On another topic, I have a few of my prints on sale currently! You can have a look at them here. I've been working on my shop a lot these past few weeks. I now have my art organized by category and theme. I hope it makes browsing more efficient and interesting. 

My Sweet Small Sparrow

The past couple of days I have been holding my breath more than I have been breathing. I have been painting my baby sparrow, the one who was in our backyard this past weekend. I have painted many, many more flowers than I have birds over the years. I painted my little chickadee last year. And now I have a baby sparrow.  I painted a snow bunting who visited our yard a couple of years ago but I won't even show you that painting. I'll have to try again.

I tried to give the sparrow definition at the same time that I tried to retain his fluffiness and softness. I used watercolour with a tiny bit of gouache at the end for highlights. There are some progress shots on my Instagram account. I really hope that you like him.  I feel proud of this one. It's giving me the courage to try to paint more of my backyard friends.

I have a big stack of paintings that need to be converted into prints for my Etsy shop. I think I'm going to put this little fellow towards the top of the pile.

Painting has help me recover from all of the physical work in the garden this past weekend. But now I need to turn my attention back to the garden. There is planting to be done. Some big, black clouds have just rolled in. Stormy weather is actually a great time to go to garden centers (if there is safe cover) as you will find that you almost have the place to yourself.