Life and death

This morning, there was a loud thud against the dining room window and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bird hit the window then fall. I went outside to see if it was ok and found this beautiful, tiny yellow-rumped warbler on the ground, conscious but not moving. I picked it up and placed it on my flat palm where it stayed blinking and panting, but still didn't move. I put it in the grass in the shade and kept my distance, doing some gardening,one eye watching it. Within 20 minutes it died. Unfortunate, but it provided me with an opportunity to sketch it. Such a tiny perfect bird.

On a farm, life and death are as natural as breathing. People who buy their meat from a supermarket or butcher are often oblivious to the origins of their food and would likely be rather squeamish to know. I used to be like that too, but now I have a healthy respect for both life and death.

I worked on 'duck in a bucket' to expand the sketch from yesterday. I decided to use some black Mi-Tientes pastel paper and dug out some old pastels that I have had for years to see what I could do with them. I forgot just how messy pastels can be, but the effect is lovely as I tried to capture the highlights on the duck against the darkness of the background.

Today 17 Chinese geese were moved from the barn to an enclosure on the edge of the woods. Boy, they are noisy! It was a beautiful warm sunny day and the first time they had been outside their pen in the barn since they were born, about 8 weeks ago. There was a lot of herding but they seem to have settled in now. Catching geese is not an easy proposition as they flap a lot and are quite strong. Not something I'd want to do every day.

Technorati tags: warbler, sketch, art
, duck, pastel, geese