Spring Migration – Blackburnian Warbler. 12″ x 9″. Acrylic on Pine. 2017.

I’ve only recently become a ‘serious birder’ who takes checklists and counts of every bird I see when I go out for a walk, and later submit the data to ebird. But for years I have taken photographs of the birds I’ve seen. I remember the first Blackburnian Warbler that I’ve ever seen, about two years ago I was walking up the path to Chine Drive and beside the path was this male heading down to the pooling water. I remember seeing the bright orange of his breast out of the corner of my eye. I watched him splash around in the water before heading off, the photos that I took that day are the basis for this painting. This warbler was the first ‘big’ migrant that I’ve ever seen and was also my first live rescue with the Fatal Light Awareness Program so they have little bit of personal significance for me.