It has been such a busy season for wildlife around our place that I thought I would create some wood slice wood burnings of each of the animals. Had I done this last winter, I would have done a coyote but I have only seen them a handful of times this winter.
The first one I did was of my Black-Capped Chickadee friends. I interact with them daily as I call them to come eat peanuts from my hand. There is a couple that always comes to me together. Lately one of the two takes the peanut and the other just retreats after it. The second chickadee must be struggling with its eye sight as it often misjudges and can’t quite find my hand to land on. I am not sure whether they will stick around this spring when the many pairs of robins, prairie chickens, wax wings and warblers return but I hope so.
The next forest friend that I wanted to highlight was the Red Squirrel. I think he finally stopped the foraging part of his duties and may have settled in to enjoy his stash of pinecones and nuts. He has stopped jamming up the bird feeder daily and isn’t as focused on chattering angrily at me. I do see him scampering about on warmer days but just as a means of travel probably from one food hiding place to the next.
Having branches form his body shape is so relevant. This squirrel is constantly up and down trees chasing away the birds. He even jumps from the branches of one tree to the next and seems fearless.
The White-Tailed deer seem to have gone from many smaller groups to form a herd of 19 deer. In the group are about five bucks, many females and some smaller young deer. I imagine they feel that there is safety in numbers when they are competing for territory with many moose and a pack of coyotes.
At the beginning of winter we would often see a lone buck walking through our yard. There is something majestic about them. I decided to add some patterning inside the deer’s general shape. I loved this piece of wood as it is like a full moon above the deer’s head.
The last animal that we have seen a lot of this winter is the moose. We see them so often that it is almost like seeing a deer on Vancouver Island. It almost feels like they are everywhere. It has been interesting to see how they interact with each other and the deer. They prefer to travel in twos or threes. I am looking forward to see if they stay in the area for birthing season in May/June.
We have seen a couple moose with larger racks back in November. The males lose their antlers in December and immediately begin growing a new set. The majority of the moose we have seen have been females with a pronounced hump or males that have already shed their antlers. The spruce trees depicted in this moose is applicable because they love to eat them. We are close to the Rocky Mountains here so I decided to have mountains off in the distance.
None of these are original ideas. Others have created similar types of art but they resounded with me so I want to try something similar. I haven’t yet decided how I want to hang them but likely they will end up on our family art wall or above the fireplace. In any case, I will date them on the back and be reminded of our many visitors from the winter of 2022/2023.
Looks good enough to consider starting a book ?