When Birds Fly South

 

More than anything else, it is the quiet backyard and the long shadows that achingly signal the coming of autumn here in New Jersey. As the Sun moves southward, birds follow. Most of my backyard birds are gone though a few stragglers remain. I saw a pair of cardinals this afternoon. Not sure if they plan to hang around here for the winter. During spring and summer, I spent a lot of time watching the backyard visitors from my kitchen window and capturing their movements and sounds with my Nikon D7000. I had put makeshift ground level bird baths in several places. I observed the communal (or its lack) spirit in sharing the water bath and was amused to see how the birds perched on the nearby branch to signal to the bird splashing in the water that its time was up. I wasn't the only one observing them. My neighbor's little kitty stalked them too. Even the cat is now huddling inside. 

Just yesterday, nearly three dozen birds descended on my  backyard for a little sip and a dip before resuming their southern journey. It felt like a good omen for the season to come. 

The art work at the top is two sides of a clay tag collaged with a print of an original watercolor I had done of  Red Munia, also known as scarlet finch, a common bird in the Indian sub-continent. Below are a sample of my backyard visitors through the camera lens. 

Enjoy the photos!

Linked to Paint Party Friday. 

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Duobirds and Duotangle

This week's challenge at I am the Diva is to use just two tangles, Dex and Bunzo, to celebrate Laura's 35th birthday. I have been working on this painting for the last few days and the tangles found the right placement on the edge and side of the rock! This is a mixed-media painting done with watercolors, ink, pastels and markers.

This is also my submission for this week's Paint party friday.http:/paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com


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Birds!

Since last week, I have started on a new habit...spending an hour or so every night drawing and painting. To keep my enthusiasm going, I decided to start with birds. These are Indian birds. The image sources for these bird paintings are photos that I had taken and the wonderful Wikimedia Commons. Birds 1, 3 and 4 are from Wikimedia Commons.

These are small art, done on Arches rough watercolor paper. I used watercolors, acrylic ink, brush and pen. I also added a bit of collage using old maps.

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