Birds in the Garden

This year we have had quite a few nests in the gardens and house eaves.  We watched as a pair of cardinals built a nest in the Buddha belly bamboo about 5 feet from our screen porch.  They hatched and fledged 3 chicks from the nest then moved on.  There was also a nest in the eaves just off the porch which was either sparrows or wrens, but we never got a real good look at them.  They also hatched and fledged some chicks from that nest.  The two nests are below, first one is the cardinal nest which included bits of plastic.  It contained small snail shells when we looked at it.  The other nest belonging to the sparrows (or wrens) is much more elaborate and deep.  It probably is 6 inches in and has a smaller opening.  All in all, along with squirrels nesting in the palm tree and camphor trees, it has been an abundant summer here in the garden.   

This painting of the cardinals give the feeling and fleeting appearances of those birds in the bamboo as they tended their young in the evenings.  

Cardinals Nesting in the Buddha Belly
24 x 16 Oil on Canvas on panel