I suppose I tend to write my headlines as though I were writing for a printed publication rather than a blog. In the case of printed publications headlines tend to draw the reader into the story. But on the web I doubt that headlines are all that important.
Still I can't resist. How could you mistake a Bald Eagle for an Eastern Phoebe? Well strictly speaking you couldn't. They're just too different. But if you went looking for an Eastern Phoebe in the same location as you found last year's first of year bird and instead you found a Bald Eagle then you might be able to get away with it.
And that's what happened to us. Just as were ending a quick trip to Morris Arboretum in search of migrants like Eastern Phoebes a mature Bald Eagle lifted up from down low, either from the pond at the wetlands or from the teeny Papermill Run.
It was so sudden and unexpected that I got neither drawing, photo, nor visual memory. But I did want to commemorate it visually. So this is based on a combination of two photos: one of the pond at Morris taken the same day, and one from a low flying mature Bald Eagle seen at Crane Creek in Ohio last September.
As a test of the theory that all watercolor, or at least most of it, can be done with just one good quality large brush, this is all done with a size 8.
