We have been slowly re-wilding the edges of our yard. We started by not mowing part of the back and leaving some areas on the sides natural. Grasses and wildflowers appeared there like magic. Birds and butterflies became more abundant.
I consider these newcomers gifts.
So, this summer I hope to take pictures of whatever gifts are presented to us in our yard and maybe paint some. Our first gift was a flock of around 50 waxwings. Two days later, a dozen were nice enough to come back and stay while I took pictures of them.
Here they are sketched.
Below is the reference photo.
If anything comes of this, one thing will happen: I will know the difference between a Cedar Waxwing and a Bohemian Waxwing (thank you Christine) because I will have spent time painting them. And, I should be fairly good at painting crabapples too. That's a lot of crabapples.