“For The Love of Nature” Paintings by Teresa Stieben

Tess invites you to an open house reception
& exhibition of wildlife and floral paintings
July 11 6:30-8:30 pm at the Jeff Allen Art Gallery 10831 University Ave, Strathcona Place Senior Centre. Edmonton Alberta 
for info call 780 433 5807
The exhibition runs June 29th to July 25th
Jeff Allen Gallery is open Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm. 

Skruff

This beautiful fella is Skruff. 

A memorial image recently completed. Skruff was a pleasure to paint.  Knowing that my artistic skills have made someone else happy by doing that which I love to do is priceless.

have a wonderful Day
Hugs!

ps, there are a couple more paintings posted, to view, click on the sandhill crane icon to the right.

Birding around Empress Alberta

I was told by a local that for the past four weeks birds were abundant as Empress is located on a main migration route. It's close to where the Red Deer River merges into the South Saskatchewan River which is an important IBA (International Bird Area).

 Puddling for nest material. Cliff Swallows are major engineers creating massive mud-daub-nest colonies under bridges. These were busy gathering mud, rolling it up in and onto their beaks. It is so amazing the variety of nests birds make by use of feet an beaks.

Though this Swallow looks similar to those above it has a deeply forked tail and does not nest in large colonies, although it does make mud nests attached to structures. Its a Barn Swallow. When I was young swallows made nests under an open shed and my Mother made sure we knew not to disturb them as she considered them "lucky" birds. My father said if a swallow flies at the forefront of your canoe it foretold a good journey.

Western Kingbird. 

One of my bird books states the Western Kingbird is not abundant in Alberta and as its the first time I have ever seen them I guess they are not abundant in the western part of the province though they sure were plentiful from Empress to Hanna. 

 Eastern Kingbird

The Eastern Kingbird on the other hand is abundant throughout the southern part of the province. Kingbirds are flycatchers notorious at retrieving bugs on the wing. 

 Lark Sparrow

This beauty was everywhere in the grasslands. It seemed once we spotted our first we then saw them often on the fence lines and posts. To our delight there were a couple that spent much time serenading each other at the campsite.

Lark Sparrows flirting on the road. Not a great shot but an interesting one taken through the vehicle window.

 Chestnut-Collard Longspur

Once an abundant bird in Alberta this species has declined as it does not survive in cultivated landscapes, it needs undisturbed prairie grasslands. I feel blessed to have seen this one an only beauty.

  Vesper Sparrow

I tend to acquire used bird books when I find them as it seems no one book gives all the birds or all the markings to look for. Recently I picked up a field guide Birds of North America and must say that the comparison charts especially for sparrows has helped greatly in identification. 

Clay-colored Sparrow

At least I think it is.

Before leaving Empress we went for a picnic down by the river and as we left the river bank four Curlew's flew overhead, of course to my dissapointment my settings were not set to capture flight shots and it all happened so fast there was no time to make changes. So can you imagine the delight when we stopped to photograph these wee bunnies

and...

up-ahead this strange large bird bird of the open range prairies and its mate obliged by being alongside the road way. Its a Long-billed Curlew, what a nice sendoff for our north-home-ward journey. The Curlew is another declining bird due habitat loss. We watched these two from the vehicle so as to enjoy the moment without flushing or rushing them off so when they did take flight I again missed the flight shots due sitting in the vehicle. Oh well, such is the nature of bird photography.

 Enough memories told for today, have a wonderful day and fill it with a smile.

Hugs!

A tail of a rattle

Gerald and I were invited to camp with friends at Empress Alberta last weekend and what a wonderful weekend it was. Good friends, good food, good times birding and not to forget a heart thumping gazelle leaping experience of almost stepping on a rattlesnake while photographing a Gray Catbird down by the river. And no, there are no photos of the rattler. Now I tell you I was keeping an eye out for snakes so was very surprised that I did not see it till after its tail rattle shook and it slithered they are so wonderfully camouflaged. My husband laughed at my sportily retreat. but my goodness this snake was thick and big, though not to sure how long it was as it slithered of into the grass while I spring-boked to the vehicle. I am no snake lover and have decide that open prairie is not the place for me, besides there are six foot Bull snakes there which they say will chase you, yuk! Noway, nadda!  Though I am not fond of snakes I do appreciate that they have their place keeping gophers in check and note, rattlers are endangered due loss of natural habitat. A photographer from the area said that rattlers will swim up onto her kayak when she is out on the river, I never knew rattlers would swim.

 The infamous Gray Catbird

 Mourning dove blends into the terrain.

Prairie flowers, it would have been lovely to see cactus in bloom but its a tad early for that.

This was a long shot on a hillside by the river so a tad soft but look at the colours, delicious combination.

 Pronghorns were few and far between, just the odd loner out in the field, second photo cropped.

Cultivated Prairie.

Next post will be some of the Prairie birds we captured.

Enjoy, have a great weekend, and share a hug!

More photos from the road-trip

It is so wonderful having readers correct when I miss-identify a bird. Thanks to John I re-looked through my five bird books then I ended up going on line this morning and found a downloadable four page "peeps identification". So corrections were made to last post.

 I love Gadwall's, they're subtle, soft looking and elegant.

 Post-hopping Meadow Larks. He would sit atop the fence and sing away then fly into the field and sing there then back to another fence post then back to the field, etc.

 Savannah Sparrow

 Not a clue as to who this is, but my does he camouflage well with the stubble.

 Blue-winged Teal showing his blue lapels.

Green-wing Teal drake and hen. Below photo shows the hens wing bars with green speculum flashing.

Northern Shoveler drake and hen. These ducks are easy to identify by their wide bills. They are surface feeders.

 Abandoned farmstead. I have heard that Vultures make nests in some of these old buildings and the way to tell is guano build up on the window sills.

 Mallard hen. 

I should have posted this in the last post with the male, oh well, she's here now.

 Coot, don't you just love those wonderful limey green legs. I need to post one that shows their feet, they are unbelievable.

I find I did get a female yellow-headed blackbird. 

I still have photos to edit as I took about 2000 shots, eee-gads thats a lot of editing.

Enjoy.

Of Wildflowers and Dreams

Jackies Wildflower Dream

acrylic, 5x5

This little 5x5 inch painting took a while to complete as I repainted the background three times. At first it was an abstract background with bold yellows. Well that proved too much for this wee bunny, so I over coated with dark blue, that too was overpowering. Once I settled for soft blue I then decided Jackie needed some wildflowers to sit amongst. Isn't she a delightful charm. 

One Prairie Aster began to pop its head from the cool earth to greet the morning sun only to have our resident Jack eat it back slightly lower than ground level. I may not ever see it grow but at least its being enjoyed. Next Asters definitely get planted in the back out of bunny reach, which reminds me we have to block the rabbit hole in the fence before my native sunflowers get found out. The joys of nature and planting Native plants is wonderful. We thought we were planting for the birds to find out that we are also planting for jackrabbits as well as native bugs and bees. So all in all its a wonderful learning experience; and I don't mind sharing the Asters as without a resident Jack or Jackie I would not have had the chance to paint their portraits.

Big hugs and may your life be blessed with the joys of blossoms Native to your abode.

Carries Sunshine Goat

I can finally post this painting that I did for my beautiful daughter-in-law.

Carrie's Sunshine Goat

Painted on 8x8 canvas in acrylic. 

We were graciously given an impromptu tour of a farm a few years back where they had a variety of goats, some of which were fainting goats. Is this a fainting goat, I think so but cannot be a hundred percent sure as the updated version of iPhoto cannot read notes from the older iPhoto. So I conclude that computers make more work, not save on workload. All my paintings and photos had pertinent info saved to the notes which transferred to the discs which this newer version cannot decipher. Photos come up but  titles, sizes, info is poof! So what I now propose I do is after photographing my work is to print out the image with all the pertinent info so that I have a tried and true method of saving information. Back to the basics of paper and pencil.
While in university I enrolled in a museum studies program and it was interesting to find out then that technology i.e. computer saving systems and retrievals have aptly lost much information due faulty disc, eroded discs, etc that at the time museums were going back to the quality method of pencil and paper, after all we know that good paper lasts a few hundred years.
Anyhow, back to Carrie's sunshine goat. I painted the goat amidst native prairie sunflowers as they are so cheerful. I just love the sunflowers. We planted some common native sunflower plants outside the back entry this year and I can hardly wait till they shoot up and pour forth blossoms. Last year while out photographing flowers at the Edmonton Naturalization Garden I noticed that Goldfinch love the seeds. So we also planted some in the back side yard where I like to sit. I was warned they spread quite well by tuberous roots so by the back entry we will need to put down some edging to keep them contained so I can plant some other flowers as well, but in the back side yard they can have their way.
have a wonderful day, hugs!