My Art.
The Belted Kingfisher of North America. Believe or not this gaily colored bird is a female putting the male to shame. An unusual arrangement among birds. A watercolor painting.
We have a Red fox’s den just over the way from our house. The dog fox can be seen sunning himself on our front lawn. By climbing up the escarpment I can look down on the den, and on a hot spring morning I can watch the kits at play. For these many reasons I enjoyed creating this watercolour painting.
Coloured Pencil, plus pressed Plant, imposed on a Spore Print.
Fungi are everywhere in very large numbers—in the soil and the air, in lakes, rivers, and seas, on and within plants and animals. Although closer related to animals than plants.
Mycorrhizae plays a significant role in plant nutrition. Because they are unseen, they are often disregarded. Just what are mycorrhizae and why are they so important in plant production?
Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a green plant and a fungus. The plant makes organic molecules by photosynthesis and supplies them to the fungus in the form of sugars or lipids, while the fungus supplies the plant with water and mineral nutrients, such as phosphorus, taken from the soil.
Acrylic Painting.
Great blue herons mainly nest in trees. Males arrive at the colony and settle on nest sites; from there, they court-passing females. Colonies can consist of five hundred or more individual nests, with multiple nests per tree built high off the ground. Males gather nest material and present it to the female as a gift. to weave the nest. During courtship, the male employs a stretch display and uses erectile neck feathers; the neck area may swell.
Barn Swallows. Hirundo rustica
Acrylic Painting.
It has been recorded that the unusual, forked tail of the male Barn swallow is a product of female selection.
The flight of a flock of Barn Swallows is a remarkable sight, with their amazing ability to twist and turn in mid-flight to catch flying insects. It is a beautiful bird with its bright blue back and a red forehead plus a dark blue breast band. The tail is deeply forked with a fine line of white spots across the outer edge. It is believed that the female selects for this swallow tail and thereby it has a high reproductive success.
The preferred habitat of the barn swallow is open country with low vegetation, such as pasture, meadows, and farmland, preferably with nearby water.
Baby Mountain Gorilla
Pen & ink Watercolour Painting.
We all love the young, this baby mountain gorilla clinging to its mother’s back was part of an art lesson in watercolour realistic art. Image from Photo by Todd Lahman.
Mountain gorillas live in Rwanda and Uganda’s volcanic mountains (the Virungas). They are managed and monitored closely by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Their numbers are currently around one thousand, up from just 10 years ago when their population size was closer to seven hundred.
