Day 16 Bird Search

Last night, while calling in the kitty, I noticed the green buds on my lilac bush.  I was so excited, knowing that today I could walk around my yard and discover the budding life of spring, finally arrived.

I love lilacs– they are something to be appreciated and remembered because they last but a couple weeks. Perhaps that is part of their purpose, to remind us how fragile the little things we love are, and to take the time to note and connect so we remember.

So, today, my art would be to draw my lilacs in budding stage. And, I decided to add a bird native to our area, which I needed to research.

This is how I started.

First, I searched for washington state spring birds and found a site– Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife– linked to on this page in my Google Search:  Bird Resources | Audubon Washington

So, the WDFW page provides a “species” search so I could  just search for “birds” in our state:

 Species in Washington | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

I chose several birds — guessing and choosing what might be a small one that would sit on a tender lilac branch. I opened their pages on this site, which usually, but not always, included a picture and the scientific name. I then copied the scientific name and conducted another search: Wa State and the bird’s scientific name.

I looked at information until I found the bird that lived in our area: the white-breasted nuthatch, which lives in the Ponderosa Pines of eastern Washington. This I discovered  on this page, the site of which has valuable information on habitats and range:

I’ve seen these birds flying around and climbing around, pecking at bark to find insects and spiders, although they also eat seeds. They are very athletic, able to walk along upside down! Now I know its name.
I found other images and information here, part of the search results:
Perhaps one day I’ll be able to draw a more realistic bird, but I enjoyed getting this far to create an image for my excitement at spring time in our yard.
PROMPT:
What have you discovered in your corner of the world? What did it inspire you learn more about?

This post is a Slice of My Life, part of a March Slice of Life by The Two Writing Teachers with tweets at #sol20