Thank you for visiting my exhibit at the Hollingsworth Gallery at the Patuxant Research Refuge! Below you can find stories, bird songs, and more information about these local birds.
Northern Cardinal | Cardinalis cardinalis
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Black-Capped Chickadee | Poecile atricapillus
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Chickadees may not have the brightest coloring but what they lack in pigment they make up for in personality. They're fun and active birds to watch. Their calls are very distinctive and other bird species take notice when they hear a chickadee sounding the alarm that a threat is nearby.
THE ART: this piece is a combination of digital and traditional mediums. The final product is digital, but the texture in the background and the branches are hand-painted. |
Tufted Titmouse | Baeolophus bicolor
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Pileated Woodpecker | Dryocopus pileatus
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Carolina Wren | Thryothorus ludovicianus
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
If there's a small brown bird trying to build a nest in a dumb place, it's probably a Carolina Wren.
I kid, but there was at least one spring growing up where my parents couldn't use the range hood on their stove because Caroline Wrens built a nest in the exhaust vent. They are, however, very fun and active birds to watch. You usually hear them before you see them. And when a nest is built in an appropriate place, it's exciting to watch the doting parents and peek in on the babies. THE ART: This little painting is something of an experiment. I'm trying to engage my toddler in some creative activities keep her busy and to keep me sane. The drawing of the wren itself is all me, but the leaves are actually her little watercolor paintings that I layered together in my painting program (Procreate) and added into this piece. |
Mourning Dove | Zenaida macroura
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
"Rockville Roost" | American Crow | Corvus brachyrhynchos
Colored Pencils on Wood
Original available for purchase |
Every night between roughly October and April, hundreds of thousands of American Crows roost in the trees and on the buildings in Rockville, Maryland. The exact location changes from winter to winter, but generally they gather near Montrose Road near the White Flint Metro. At dusk and dawn, the sight is eerie and reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's "Birds."
According to a Washington Post article, the crows had been congregating in Rockville for 20 or 40 years. Since the article was published in 1993, that suggests that the Roost has been active for at least 50 years if not 70 years. Crows are intelligent and social animals. In the winter months they huddle together for warmth and safety. The bright lighting of the city at night and the safety in numbers also might make it easier to spot owls, one of their main predators. |
Blue Jay | Cyanocitta cristata
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
Eastern Bluebirds | Sialia sialis
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
American Goldfinch | Spinus tristis
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
Northern Cardinal | Cardinalis cardinalis
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
"Winter is for the Birds" | Various common backyard visitors
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
From left to right:
Dark-Eyed Junco Tufted Titmouse Northern Cardinal Downy Woodpecker Black-Capped Chickadee Unlike "Snow Birds," some birds stay year round--with the exception of the Dark-Eyed Junco, who spend most of the year in Canada but winter in Maryland and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region. |
"Snow Birds" | Various Migratory Birds
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Pictured from left to right:
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak Baltimore Oriole Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Yellow Warbler Indigo Bunting Purple Martin These birds follow the food, whether it be fruit, nectar or insects. They visit us in the spring and summer but quickly depart to warmer climates like the southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
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Baltimore Oriole | Icterus galbula
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
For some inexplicable reason these birds are extremely popular in Maryland and Baltimore in particular.
The only time I ever had the privilege of seeing an oriole up close, it was in suburban Kensington and the poor little guy was dead, possibly of a window strike. I was working on this particular piece at the time, and when I got home I had to immediately make some color adjustments to my drawing. I'd thought that the people that were fortunate enough to snap photos or Baltimore Orioles had been editing their photos to increase the saturation for a more eye-grabbing image, but no, they really are that orange. The most safety vest/highlighter/questionable-car-color orange you've ever seen. |
Scarlet Tanager | Piranga olivacea
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird | Archilochus colubris
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
Painted Bunting | Passerina ciris
Colored Pencils on Wood
Prints available for purchase |
This rare, stunningly brightly-colored bird is not supposed to be in Maryland, but as the climate warms, a few of these tropical birds are making their way to the mid-atlantic region.
A male achieved celebrity status by sticking around the area of Great Falls for most of the winter of 2020-2021. Hundreds of photographers and birdwatchers flocked (haha) to the Maryland side of the river to try to catch a glimpse of one of one of the most colorful American birds. Washington Post: A rare, ‘magical’ visit from a brilliantly colored bird draws crowds to Maryland park He wasn't the only one; there were sightings of painted buntings in 8 other Maryland counties in 2021. There were other far-flung tropical visitors such as a roseate spoonbill, Mississippi kites, a tropicbird, anhinga, and wood storks. |
"Immaculate Peregrines" | Peregrine Falcon | Falco peregrinus
Colored Pencils on Wood
Original available for purchase |
This piece was inspired by a family of peregrine falcons that nested in the rose window of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the 1990's in Washington, DC. As a kid, I knew they were special, but I didn't know that it was a miracle that they were there at all.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the peregrine falcon population had steadily declined due to hunting and other human activities, but their numbers plummeted after DDT, a popular insecticide, was introduced into the ecosystem. As apex predators, DDT accumulated in the peregrine's system after they consumed other birds that fed on seeds, insects and fish contaminated with DDT. This build up interfered with normal calcium production which led to thin, fragile eggs that were crushed by the nesting parents. All of the peregrines east of the Mississippi were dead by the 1960's. By 1975, there were only 324 known nesting pairs. In 1972, DDT was banned by the newly created Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established peregrine falcon recovery teams composed of Federal, state, and independent biologists to recommend actions necessary to restore peregrines in the U.S. As part of recovery efforts, scientists at Cornell University successfully bred and raised peregrine falcons in captivity. More than 6,000 peregrines were released into the wild. Peregrines were removed from the endangered species list in August of 1999. The nest in the rose window is long gone, but peregrines are still frequent visitors to the Shrine, perching on the second-tallest tower in the city to better survey their urban domain. |
"Winter Screech Owl" | Eastern Screech-Owl | Megascops asio
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |
Great Horned Owl | Bubo virginianus
Digital Painting
Prints available for purchase |