I am working on so much new art! In the meantime, here are a few bird photos from an overcast day at Merritt Island…

Well, I just posted about finishing painting all the birds from the Merritt Island NWR bird checklist. Now I am going to share some photos from my last trip over there. Can you see why I love the place so much?

Wilson’s Snipe

American Avocet

Peregrine Falcon

Eastern Phoebe

American Kestrel

Sora

American Robin

Osprey

I finished!

This is my last field guide painting from the Merritt Island, Florida bird list. It includes Thrush, Wrens, and the last few others.

I started the project in May 2010. Almost 3 years later and having painted 270 birds, I have learned so much! I started in hopes that in painting all the birds I would become better at identifying the birds here. It has helped tremendously, but I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn. This project was just the beginning.

Check out all the birds together…

(This is the bird checklist I used for Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.)

My favorite thing about Merritt Island right now is the Green Heron’s nesting in the mangroves. There are also Boat-tailed Grackle’s with chicks in the nest, and a pair of Eastern Kingbird’s building a nest last time I was there.

At this point you can see all ages of Green Heron’s there. Some are still sitting on the nest, others have little fuzzy heads poking out, while various sizes of chicks perch on branches.

New field guide painting, the Warblers of Merritt Island Part 2:

Featuring:
American Redstart
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue-winged Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Golden-winged Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Tennessee Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Worm Eating Warbler

This painting does not stand alone, there were too many warblers so I did two paintings. Here is Part 1, done quite some time ago:

Prints are made, I will have them this weekend at The Big Crafty in Asheville, NC and will ad them to etsy when I return.

Finished another field guide painting in my Merritt Island, Florida birding series.

This one has the woodpeckers, owls, goatsuckers, and some other odd ones… getting to the end of the list and it can be a bit hard to decide which set to put some of these birds in.

Features:

Barn Owl

Barred Owl

Belted Kingfisher

Black-billed Cuckoo

Common Nighthawk

Chuck Will’s Widow

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Screech Owl

Great Horned Owl

Ground Dove

Hair Woodpecker

Mourning Dove

Northern Bobwhite

Northern Flicker

Pileated Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker

Rock Pigeon

Short-eared Owl

Smooth-billed Ani

Whip-poor-will

Wild Turkey

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Now I am working on finishing the warblers! They are the prettiest birds.

Knowing I was getting out of work early today, all I could think about was finally getting in some bird watching time! So despite the dreary clouds looming overhead I got in my car and was off to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, picked up breakfast at Sunrise Bread Co. and was on the beach by 10:30.

Found this beautiful Prairie Warbler on the dune.
Unfortunately, also discovered the return of mosquitoes. BIG TIME. Rushed back to car!

Green Heron

Great Blue Heron

Eventually it did start to rain… Black-necked Stilt. Love their legs.

Roseate Spoonbills in the rain.

What a great face!

I also saw a number of nests out there. Will definitely be back to check for chicks.

From Merritt Island last weekend…

Snowy Egret

Cattle Egret

White Ibis

Roseate Spoonbill

American White Pelicans

American Avocets

Great White Heron

Great Blue Heron

Sora

Eastern Kingbird