October 11th, 2020

Day 25 #rogertorypetersoninstitute I didn’t think it would be right to spend 30 days at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute with out painting a bird. Evidently, this little nuthatch felt the same way and wasn’t afraid to tell me so.
There have been 3 times that I set up my easel on or near the courtyard. This has given me time to get to know “the neighborhood”. On the back edge are several bird feeders. One, especially popular feeder has the typical wire cages and squirrel proofing gear attached, apparently it works for the grey squirrels... but not the red squirrels. The birds happily dine on a fine assortment of seeds, until the red squirrel climbs the post and makes one athletic leap on to the feeder. The feeder swings under his weight and seed scatters on the ground. That is when the grey squirrel appears like clockwork, hanging out under the feeder waiting for more seed from above. All this swinging and twirling is quite entertaining, but there is another character in this drama. Enter stage right, the slightly put out nuthatch. I don’t speak fluent nuthatch, but from what I gather he isn’t amused. He sits on the wooden post, and tells the squirrels his thoughts in verbiage that would (as my mother always said) make a sailor blush.

“The Nuthatch” 10”x8”, Watercolor SOLD

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