View from my window

cormorants driving fish in the cove

Last week's Nor'easter brought the Cormorants swarming into the cove. It's a great spectacle. day after day they come in droves diving and pushing the fish out toward the open water. In fly the Egrets rising and falling and causing a beautiful ruckus with lots of screeching and croaking as they ready to grab the passing buffett.

Great White Egrets fishing the cove

The ocean has been quite dramatic too...and some fine treasures have been rising up onto the tide line. ...

this morning's oceanfront view

Egrets post for Sharmon

click on image to enlarge

Sharmon made a request and so here...

are the three paintings posted yesterday from the series 'Bird Watching'.

Titled: 'Lake Smith #1', 'Lake Smith #2' and 'Daybreak'.

Each work is on canvas 20 x 24" and in each I'm playing with my customary layers and scratchings. In #1 and #2 the flower centers are filled with glitter glue and just to play with the surface a bit more I've varnished all three in combinations of flat and gloss to give the impression of water reflecting juxtaposed with the dull quality of the early morning fog.

Thanks and enjoy Sharmon!

For the Birds

It's day two of the annual Backyard Bird Count. It is such a wonderful opportunity for taking a few minutes and relaxing with the beauty that surrounds.

Here at Wren House we have a bird's eye view of wonder most every day. These Great White Egrets being snapped yesterday back in the cove on Lake Smith.

It's cold here in Virginia after a few days of balmy and when the temp drops the cove becomes a haven for Cormorants, Hooded Mergansers, Egrets and Heron.

This week there has been the thrill of an added bonus ...for the past three nights a Bald Eagle has been roosting on a dead but sturdy Loblolly pine limb that hangs high over the water .

Here's a link for the Bald Eagle nest at the Norfolk Botanical Garden 5 miles from my home

My Back Yard...

When the temperature falls the Cormorants come into my backyard. They arrive in big numbers for some concentrated fishing. They're mesmerizing to watch as they work together diving and driving schools of fish to the end of the cove.

Once they reach the deadend they turn and in a synchronized swim they push the fish out toward the open water. As though a dinner bell has sounded droves of gulls arrive plunging and screaming as they pull fish off the surface of the lake. Then in come the Great White Egrets and the Great Blue Herons. They soar and squawk and land and rise and swoop and settle for a moment before once again looking for the best place to land their claim. Today we even had a Bald Eagle glide in to roost in one of the tall pines at the water's edge.

I can only capture a sliver of the real scene that includes over 50 Egrets doing their 'cove ballet'. The sound is just as exciting as the movement.