Keeping Cool with Our Feathered Friends

The days are l-o-n-g now and hot here in Phoenix.  Though I have lived here for more than 30 years, we've been able to slip away to Minnesota for the last four summers.  So it's been a while since I felt these temps!  Today it's overcast, but still 107° at 6 pm!  Whew!  
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A friend of mine lives in an apartment downtown. She wrote to me in early May with the subject line  "A Fan for a Fan?"   She commented on how the weather was already heating up and wondered if I'd be interested in making her a fan.   A week earlier she had written a piece about all the birds she was enjoying in her yard, especially in its quieter state minus heavy traffic.  

So I started doing research on birds she had mentioned.  The Cornell Lab was a great help. (I keep going back to check on specific markings or identify the call of a bird I can't see in the tree above.)

I've lived here so long and seen birds out in the desert, at our feeders, and in the backyard. Yet I soon realized I hadn't really "seen" them.   As I spent a little time each day for several weeks painting all sorts of doves - White-Winged, Inca, Eurasian Collard and Mourning - I came to see my backyard feathered friends more clearly. There are Pigeons of course, but others thrive in the desert too - Gila Woodpeckers, Cactus Wren, small birds like Sparrows and Finches, and of course, the tiny Hummingbirds.  

After painting these, I cut and constructed a fan...complete with a paint-stirrer handle... and presented it with great delight to my friend.  None too soon... temps continue to rise. We average 105°+ this time of year.

I've also created note cards with four of the paintings... 

So for the ornithologists out there, here you go! Something to sing about!