“Kingfisher on the Guadalupe ”
This painting is more or less a milestone for me. As most of you know, after a layoff of about thirty-five years, I started doing watercolor paintings again last July. This is the twenty-ninth painting that I have attempted to do since then. In this painting, I used only round pointed brushes and I think I have a better technique for doing the clouds. Edmund Duban, my grandson and live-in computer consultant and art critic, says that he thinks this painting is a big improvement over my previous painting attempts.
The bird in the painting is a female Belted Kingfisher. The female Belted Kingfisher is unusual in the bird world in that she is more colorful than the male. She gets to have a red color band across her belly and flanks that the male doesn’t have.
Most anytime of the year, it is common to see the Belted Kingfisher in Mexico and in the southern part of the United States. They are generally sitting patiently on a branch above a stream or pond waiting for a small fish to make a fatal mistake. In the summer, some will migrate northward up into Canada and Alaska.
The only other kingfishers to be seen in the United States are the Ringed Kingfisher and the little Green Kingfisher. The Ringed Kingfisher is only found in the United States in the extreme southern tip of Texas called “The Valley.” The little Green Kingfisher can be found in The Valley and on the streams and rivers in Southwest Texas.
Birdwatchers come from all over the United States and the world to The Valley to see the Ringed Kingfisher and the Green Kingfisher. They are considered “Life Birds,” in that a birdwatcher may only see one in their lifetime. Since 1990, it has been my custom to write the date of when I have seen a bird in my bird identification book.
About nine o’clock on the morning of October 26, 1991, I was watching a small tree in the middle of a small lake on The Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in The Valley. In this small tree were all three species of kingfishers perched close together on the limbs overhanging the water. A couple of birdwatchers from “Up North” walked up and noticed that I was watching the small tree on the island in the small lake. One of them raised his binoculars to look at the tree to see what I was looking at. After a moment, he exclaimed: “My God, in one field of view, I am looking at two life birds in one tree!!!”
Cheers,
Acree
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