" PROTHONOTARY WARBLER "
Robert Bateman

950 Signed & Numbered Lithograph Print
7" x 12"
$94

 

"Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet!" is the loud, ringing song that makes my heart leap.
It is leaping right now, a little bit, as I write this, thousands of miles away from prothonotary territory.
This is because it brings me back to some of the most joyous times of my life...birding with friends
along the north shore of Lake Erie in the middle of May. This is the time of peak spring migration
when the twigs and branches seem to be literally dripping with birds. Sights and sounds and the
smell of blossoms almost overwhelm the senses. To add urgency to the action, the aim is to identify
as many different kinds of birds as possible in the day or weekend. This means intense tuning
in to every twitch and twitter. In short, there is a very strong sense of being fully alive...a
sense of beingcompletely present in the here and now.

As a Canadian and a naturalist, I have always had a particular fascination with our " southern
climes."These are little patches of the Carolinian zone that make it up to southern Ontario. Tree
species suchas cucumber magnolia, tulip tree, sassafras and sweet gum are found nowhere
else in Canada. Thereare a few special birds as well, the tufted titmouse and Carolina wren.
But the little bird that carriesthe most weight with me is the prothonotary warbler. Perhaps
it is the wet woods habitat or mayberich, egg yellow color. It could be the nostalgia of those
birding jaunts in Canada's "deep south"that makes my heart leap when I hear the
"sweet,sweet,sweet,sweet" song.
Robert Bateman 

Prothonotary Warbler - Robert Bateman

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