Several years ago I happened upon this marvelous book, It’s not a bird yet, The drama of drawing, by artist and educator Ursula Kolbe. The title still brings a smile to my face!
Lesser Yellowlegs enjoying a lovely afternoon at Peaceful Waters Sanctuary
The book’s Introduction opens with a delightful story that describes the inspiration for the title.
As someone who is passionate about both birding and high quality early childhood education, I was mesmerized by Kolbe’s approach to “young children and the transforming power of drawing” (p.1). It’s not a bird yet is filled with images of young children’s drawings and paintings, and photographs of children creating their art.
I encourage you to visit Ursula Kolbe’s website: It’s not a bird yet, to find out more about her work with young children, and her other books!
Birder's Journey 
That sounds terrific, I’ll have to check it out.
Speaking of children and birds we were out last week when a girl that looked to be maybe 8 years old pointed out to her parents and said… “Look, there’s a male anhinga.”
She was right and I nearly fell over. We see adult birders all the time that don’t know an anhinga from a cormorant and certainly can’t tell the sexes apart.
smart girl
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Yes, Phil, I know what you mean! It’s fantastic to see such awareness in kids at such a young age. I recently crossed paths with a dad and his two young (maybe 9 and 11) sons, who were pointing out many birds by name. The even spotted a well-camouflaged little bird in the reeds, one of our most elusive, and called out enthusiastically, “Look!! Did you see the Least Bittern?!”
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It is wonderful that kids get both interested in art and birding. As a kid I was an artist by three drawing horses, but birding came very late in life, I wish I started that much younger since it is always harder to learn as we age. I can still not tell the difference between a Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs. I never see them side by side.
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A couple of weeks ago, my son’s family accompanied my husband and me to my favorite wetland preserve. What a joy to see my 3 year-old grandson watching intently as a Great Blue Heron flew overhead and then walked out of sight, in search of nesting materials.
My grandson gazed in the Heron’s direction for many minutes, waiting …. What a thrill as he saw the giant Heron swoop right past us again and fly back to the nest!
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Donna, I’m so glad you share your artistic nature so beautifully in your photographs and in your gardens!
P.S. LOL….My ID of the Lesser Yellowlegs is based on comparing his size to the Black-necked Stilts and other birds nearby 😉
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Wonderful connection when 2 diverse passions come together!
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I hope you’re having the same stretch of beautiful weather that I enjoyed NYC – visited from last Wed – Sat, and it was heavenly everyday!
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