The Bird Studies continue!

This week Marianna and I shared a lovely tea with birds as our theme, of course! Notice the beautiful table cover with the English Robins? I'll let you in on the secret behind it - it's leftover Christmas paper! Wrapping paper, in my opinion, makes some of the best disposable table covers around for use with children. No worries about a little frosting smeared or hot chocolate spilled! And the variety of colors and patterns available is extensive. Marianna chose a yummy cheesecake that is very reminiscent of a bird's nest, the almonds around the side give it a nest-like appearance with the strawberries masquarading as the eggs!



We read and discussed Jane Yolen's poetry in Bird Watch, deciding the poem Great Blue Heron was our favorite.
Motionless,
a painted hunter
upon a painted pond:
the brushstroked eye,
the slash of bill,
the pencil-line of legs.

Suddenly,
the head strikes,
spiking the water,
splitting it apart
with a splash
and an odd wriggle...

...Motionless,
a painted hunter
upon a painted pond.



Marianna wanted to include it in her Nature Journal so we set up the table in the cockpit and brought out the paints and art supplies. This week we've been painting birds in the Japanese Sumi-e style.



While we were diligently painting birds and eggs, finding inspiration from An Egg Is Quiet and Bird Egg Feather Nest a pelican landed on one of our dolphins! (3 pilings together form a dolphin) He, it was most definitely a mature male pelican, hung around eyeballing us for quite some time finally taking flight as a cormorant surfaced nearby with a fish clasped within her jaws. She tossed it wriggling up into the air several times to get it positioned just right and swallowed it quickly. The water has been so clear that we can see the cormorants swimming underneath the boat! This, of course, attracted the ever present seagulls who proceeded to drive all the other birds away.