#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks"

#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" 
16 x 24 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 10:30 am Saturday, July 12th, 2025

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. It was very hot and humid outside, so I was in the cooler environment of the Singleton Studio. Environment Canada had issued the appropriate advisories. 

The first strokes of the sketch define how the painting might proceed. The image carried a wonderful story. The first marks of the brush on the virgin canvas just felt "right". It was going to be a good day. 

The first strokes on #2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" ... went very well indeed.

Wood Duck broods like this are frequently seen during the summer. The ducklings crowd together so close to the mother hen that they look like a single, very long-bodied duck crossing the lake.

 Sometimes they parade across our lawn of red and white clover. Wood Ducks, like every other creature, are welcome at Singleton. This hen had nine ducklings behind her. The one at the end of the line was easily distracted. I know that feeling. 

Wood Ducks cannot make their own cavities. There are about twenty Wood Duck boxes within the Singleton Sanctuary. They are very well used. The following map and images tell that story. The Wood Duck nesting boxes are numbered and monitored every year. Sometimes, hooded merganser eggs are also found in the boxes. 

Ducks Unlimited Project at Singleton circa 2010

Breeding pairs search for those special nesting cavities during the early morning. The male waits outside as the female enters and examines the site. They (meaning "she") typically choose a large tree, often 2 feet in diameter, with a cavity located anywhere from 2 to 60 feet above ground level. The Wood Ducks prefer the higher cavities, which are typically places where a branch has broken off and the tree's heartwood has subsequently rotted. Woodpecker cavities are used less frequently. The nest tree is normally situated near or over water. Wood Ducks will use cavities up to a mile from water if nothing else is available. 

Incubation Period: 28-37 days Nestling Period: 56-70 days 

Egg-dumping, or "intraspecific brood parasitism," is common in Wood Ducks. The hen will visit other Wood Duck cavities, lay eggs in them, and leave them to be raised by the other female. This may have been made more common by the abundance and conspicuousness of artificial nest boxes, like those at Singleton. In some areas, it happens in more than half of all nests. Individual females typically lay 6 to 16 eggs per clutch, but some very full nests have been found containing 30 eggs, the result of egg-dumping. Wood Ducks will sometimes have a second brood. 

After hatching, Wood Duck ducklings make a dramatic leap of faith from the nest to the ground, often falling from heights of over 50 feet to the ground below. The wood duck boxes at Singleton are about 12 feet off the ground with a predator guard to protect each nest. 

While many migrate south for the winter, including the Singleton wood ducks, some Wood Ducks remain in southern Ontario during the colder months. 

#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" 
Nearing completion in the Singleton Studio

Wood Ducks feed by dabbling or short, shallow dives. They are strong fliers and can reach speeds of 30 mph. Wood Ducks are not territorial, with the exception that a male may fight off other males that approach his mate too closely. Courting males swim before a female with wings and tail elevated, sometimes tilting the head backwards for a few seconds. Males may also perform ritualized drinking, preening, and shaking movements. Both members of a pair may preen each other. 

Wood Duck populations have increased since 1966, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 4.6 million and rates them 7 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern. This is good news, considering their dramatic declines from hunting in the late 19th century. Even so, Wood Ducks are second only to Mallards in the number of ducks shot by hunters every year. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2959 "July 7th Singleton Sunrise"

#2959 "July 7th Singleton Sunrise"  
14 x 18 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:00 am Monday, July 7th, 2025

The sunrise was at 5:27 am on Monday, July 7th, 2025. My friend John Verburg photographed this brilliant sunrise over the Singleton Sanctuary from a dock of the Singleton Lake Family Campground. Sunrises looking eastward only appear over the forest canopy for us. Some interesting meteorology was revealed by those clouds. That story deserved to be recorded in oils as well.

A warm front extended eastward across the Ottawa Valley from a low over Lake Simcoe. Water vapour imagery revealed the warm conveyor belt pattern over eastern Ontario. A series of upper vortices were rippling along with the jet stream flow. Southerly surface winds were directing abundant low-level moisture northward. The warm sector even enjoyed some strong July sunshine. The winds veered with height, especially in conjunction with the upper vortices. 

The warm airmass was loaded with moisture, heat and wind shear, which are all conducive to strong convection. The trigger in the form of the cold front could set everything into motion as it crossed eastern Ontario in the mid-afternoon. It was a dynamic weather situation with the added complication of lake breezes and local topography. 

Any convection that developed along the subtle intersections of these low-level convergence lines would encourage the development of a mesocyclone and possibly a tornado. The weather situation was worthy of special scrutiny. But I had a painting of a sunrise to work on in the Singleton Studio,  relatively immune from the heat and humidity outside. I would leave the forecast to my friends in the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.

The "toothless" cradled panel worked well with the fleeting nature of the sunrise cloud shapes and colours. Sometimes you just need to charge the subject with bold and brash strokes. 

I alerted some family and friends after lunch, anticipating the weather developing in the early afternoon hours. The rogue cells that explode ahead of the cold front always warrant close scrutiny! I no longer "carry the can" for Environment Canada, but I still keep an eye on the weather. I was also still playing with the morning sunrise, so I could not devote much attention to either the satellite or radar imagery. 

Environment Canada went to "Tornado Warning" at 2025-07-07 19:18 UTC (3:18 pm), replacing Severe Thunderstorm Warning for: Merrickville-Wolford - Kemptville, Ont. (043610). Current details: At 3:18 p.m. EDT, Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado. Damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall are also possible. 

There were some pictures of the Franktown mesocyclone and tree damage posted on Facebook. 

The hotspot of Canadian tornadoes has shifted from the Prairies to the eastern part of the continent. Severe convection must follow the moisture of the upper atmospheric trough. The science of my friend Dave Sills and The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) is making great progress at detecting more of the tornadoes and creating a more comprehensive climatology of severe weather events.  A research paper I did in the 1990s suggested that the Environment Canada observation network only detected 15 to 20 percent of the severe events that actually occurred. It is impossible to create a meaningful climatology with such a meagre detection rate. Weather IS important. 

The Northern Tornadoes Project may study this event in more detail. As for me, I am more than busy painting and looking after the forest. Several large trees were knocked down by the June derecho, and that will occupy my spare time into the autumn. 

I used two studio palettes to keep my colours clean. My brushes are always in a state of some neglect. Oh my...

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2958 "Summer at Point Paradise"

#2958 "Summer at Point Paradise"  
14 x 18 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:00 am Sunday, June 29th, 2025

I decided to revisit the western tip of our Singleton property and the weathered remains of the "Grenville Mountains". Those rocky ridges were nearly 30,000 feet tall about 1000 Ma ago and rivalled the current Himalayas.  This view, looking almost straight north, captured the late summer colours of the Carolinian forest on Point Paradise. Some trees were starting to show their autumn colours. The shoreline trees display autumn colours earlier than most, a result of the limited soil on the ancient marble.

This image of Point Paradise with the fishing boat was taken by my good friend John Verburg. It was still hot and humid outside, so the Studio called to me.  I also employed similar photos that I had taken from my canoe for reference. 

I charge right into most paintings with the brush. 

The "toothless" feel of the gessoed, cradled panels was necessary for the loosening-up process in preparation for some fun plein air weather paintings. Just a few brushstrokes are employed to lay the paint on thick, wet on very wet. Art needs to be fun - painting with pools and swirls of oil and pure colour is the answer. My Dad built the stretcher bars, and I aspire to use every one of them before I am done.

I have painted this characteristic point before. 

The lengthening nights and drying crops provided both the cooler temperatures and moisture conducive to radiational fog. The air cooled over the land drains to lower elevations by dawn and chills the moist air over the lake. Mist is the result. A thick layer of stratus overhead had formed under the associated radiational inversion. The weather makes late summer a special time of year, as the lakes are as warm as they will ever get, making swimming quite wonderful. 

A fishing boat was out in the shallow bay. That is a favourite spot for fishermen pursuing both bass and pike. 

I used two studio palettes to keep my colours clean. My brushes are always in a state of some neglect. Oh my...

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2957 "Singleton Rocky Point and Sheltered Bay"

#2957 "Singleton Rocky Point and Sheltered Bay" 
18 x 14 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 4:30 pm Monday, June 23rd, 2025

The canoe is the most functional and beautiful craft imaginable. Bill Mason once said: 

"I have always believed that the Canadian Wooden canoe is one of the greatest achievements of mankind." Bill continued: "When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known." Bill was quite right. 

My canoe has cherry trim, but the hull is carbon. The carbon layup by Swift Canoes only weighs about 35 pounds, which has become quite important to me. I am not forty years old anymore and never will be again. Being a meteorologist, I convinced my wife that this was my way to permanently sequester carbon out of the atmosphere. I need to purchase a lot more carbon canoes if I really want to combat global warming. 

There are a few other canoe sayings that resonate with me, and I wish to share them here with another canoe painting. 

• "Love many, trust few, but always paddle your own canoe." -American proverb
• "Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing." -Henry David Thoreau
• "Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe." – Henry David Thoreau
• "There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude and peace." -Sigurd F. Olson

And finally, my favourite... 

• “A day without canoeing probably wouldn’t kill me, but why risk it?” – Author unknown

Bill Mason also correctly claimed: "Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy." I have done some long portages, and they were never very much fun, as I recall. 

This rocky knob on the northwest corner of Point Paradise is a favourite of mine. It was recorded en plein air along with its twin as #2481 Singleton Shagbark Hickory Point; #2482 Hickory Point in March . The Kubota tractor carried me and my gear to the painting location through deep snow on Tuesday, March 9th, 2021. It was at the height of COVID and a most enjoyable experience. There were no biting bugs and certainly no people. Just nature which nurtures us all. 

My canoe took me to the same location in April 2025. 

Inspiration can be found around every corner if we just look with a curious mind. 

‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’ – Henry David Thoreau

So I stay home, paint and look after the forests while surrounded by nature. Happiness, being useful and having empathy for all of nature and the environment is my simple quest.  Life remains good and quite productive. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2956 "Spring Shadows Singleton"

#2956 "Spring Shadows Singleton" 
18 x 14 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:30 am Monday, June 23rd, 2025

The paddle around Singleton Lake is about 6.0 kilometres. There is something interesting to be found around every corner. That path is paddled several times a year, and it never gets old. Nature changes with the seasons and the weather. The paddle takes more than two hours if I take my time and investigate everything that catches my eye. I have a very low threshold for interesting stuff. I also use the opportunity to check the wood duck boxes and bird houses that line our shoreline. 

The spring shadows cast by the tall trees that towered behind me climbed the opposite ridge at location 2956 in the above graphic. Patches of bald marble rock peeked out from holes in the toupee of fresh moss. Last season's leaves carpeted the valley floor. The soil was rich. The northwest shore in the distance reflected in the calm waters of the north basin of Singleton. 

I prefer to really "see" the natural world and not just quickly in passing. Many regard the land as a simple commodity for profit in an intrinsically flawed GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Economy. Gross indeed! The GDP does not value either nature or the environment. Enough is never enough, especially if you feel the need to keep up with the Joneses. Simple greed.  

In sharp contrast, we see the land as home, a place to live and learn while caring for essential habitats as stewards of the Earth for future generations. 

A wise meteorologist friend of mine wrote: 

"Some people spend their life seeing the world, others spend their life studying the forest and others spend their life studying one tree. The world needs them all. The canoe slows you down to see it all. It lets you get into all the corners where you can use all your senses one at a time.

I became a Scout leader to help boys with learning disabilities and found how smart and skillful some of the dumb people are. I learned more from them than they did from me. They told me what they wanted to learn and do so I had to find ways to get around shift work as classes were impossible to attend. When I got to my meteoroloigcal posting (a city in central Ontario) most wanted to ski and canoe. After going over 6000 miles in a canoe I started to see what they taught me."

Point Paradise hold many more treasures that I have yet to record in oils. Something worthwhile takes time... There are many more paintings required to capture that special piece of the Singleton Sanctuary. 

I have always believed that life, like art, is not a competition. We just need to strive to be better than we were yesterday. The world is quite irrelevant. Success with this simple mindset is not about wealth, power, trips around the world, expensive clothing or fine wine and food. Definitely not about the "gold-plated toilet seat" that has been in the news. Mindless and conspicuous consumption is not the signature of success, which also comes with a high and unsustainable carbon footprint to boot.

Success in life and art can be much simpler. Happiness, being useful and having empathy for all of nature and the environment is a simple and admirable quest. This is just my opinion, of course, but I think it is pretty close to that of Henry David Thoreau.

‘An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.’  (Henry actually meant "paddle")

‘Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.’ 

‘You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.’  

‘This world is but a canvas to our imagination.’ 

‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.’

‘Be not simply good – be good for something.’  

‘Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.’ 

‘Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.’  

Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau would have been an interesting neighbour. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2955 "Singleton Spring Paddle"

#2955 "Singleton Spring Paddle" 
14 x 18 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 10:30 am Sunday, June 22nd, 2025

This is the western tip of our Singleton property. A finger of 1.2 billion-year-old marble points toward and plunges into the 50-foot-deep portion of Singleton Lake. This point is part of the remains of the "Grenville Mountains".  The red cedars on this point are way older than their limited size would suggest. Point Paradise is a great place to sit and watch the world go by. It is also a wonderful spot to paint. 

There is almost no "tooth" (to grab and bite the oils) on these gessoed, cradled panels. I use this as an advantage to loosen up my brushwork. Just a few brushstrokes are employed to lay the paint on thick, wet on very wet. Art needs to be fun - painting with pools and swirls of oil and pure colour is the answer. My Dad built the stretcher bars, and I aspire to use every one of them before I am done.

The westward-facing rocky slope is the domain of a couple of dozen gnarled and flagged red cedars. They are heavily flagged by the strong west winds. Some red cedars have broken limbs, but they hang on. A grove of towering red oaks, maples and shagbark hickories is found on the east side of the marble ridge. This is a Carolinian Forest paradise on the extreme northern fringe of that unique biogeographic region. 

The Google Earth view from October 2023 (above) provides a detailed view of the shoreline structure.  The rocky ridges run northeast to southwest and are the remains of the Grenville Orogeny. By the way, "orogeny" is a process in which a section of the Earth's crust is folded and deformed by lateral compression to form a mountain range. The ancient Grenville mountain chain extended from the coast of Labrador through Quebec and Ontario and then disappeared under younger rocks of the southwestern United States. That mountain range was likely as high as the Himalayas, potentially reaching nearly 30,000 feet. Those "Grenville Mountains" of the mid-late Mesoproterozoic age existed about 1000 Ma (Million years ago) and have eroded and been washed to the sea since then. The present-day Appalachians remain on the southeast flank of the original "Grenville Mountains. 

I have painted this characteristic point before. 

See the following for links to Fine Art America.

• #1281 "Point Paradise"; 
• #1364 "Point Paradise"; 
• #1541 "Spring Paradise"; 
• #1661 "Misty Paradise"; 
• #1732 "Fog at Point Paradise"; 
• #1776 "Spring Paradise"; 
• #2562 "Singleton Paradise Sanctuary Shore"; 
• #2754 "Singleton Point Paradise After the Autumn Colours" 

Note how unsuccessful I have been at keeping the names of the paintings unique. There are a couple of "Point" and "Spring" Paradises in this list. Thankfully, the chronological numbers are one of a kind. 

I am most fortunate. There is no need or desire to travel to the south of France searching for something to paint. Inspiration can be found around every corner. So I stay home, paint and look after the forests while surrounded by nature. 

Such an approach also keeps my carbon footprint pretty low. Geothermal energy is found in the ground. Solar energy is delivered free to the doorstep, providing both electricity and our domestic hot water. The Earth and the Sun provide everything that Singleton really needs, and it is very much appreciated. 

I was in the Studio because of the tropical heat and humidity outside. It would have been like standing in a blast furnace to be painting en plein air. This is Global Warming and a direct result of the release of 16 million years of sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere in just a couple of hundred years. 

The following graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide sums up the last hundred million years. The "Grenville Mountains" of my painting were formed near the top of the pink Proterozoic layer in the time-frame inset. If drawn to scale, the two hundred years of the Industrial Age, which tragically upset the atmospheric balance, would be a microscopically thin wafer at the top of the mountain of time and not the size of the truck as sketched. 

Bust of Solon,
copy from a Greek original

Humans have discovered so much since the time of the Greeks, but still remain unenlightened. We are just one species within nature, but greed or arrogance motivates the consumption of 16 million years of sequestered carbon in just a few lifetimes. A lack of empathy for everything else allows this tragedy to unfold. What could go wrong? Life on Earth will reinvent itself without humans and try again soon. 

Like Solon, the Greek philosopher (c. 630 – c. 560 BC), when he mused:

"I grow old learning something new every day" 

Learning is a continuous process, not limited by age or circumstance. Art and science are worthy things to occupy one's time and efforts. There is something new to discover with each painting. Just my opinion...

Life remains good if I remain focused on the positive and ignore the news. It is interesting that the word "news" originated from the Middle English word "newes," in the 14th century. Being the plural of "new", the word means "new things" or "new information". There are common misconceptions that "news" is an acronym for "North, East, West, South" or "Notable Events, Weather, Sports". The acronyms make sense, but are wrong. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2954 "Scarlet Tanager Song"

 

#2954 "Scarlet Tanager Song" 
16 x 20 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 9:00 am Tuesday, June 17th, 2025

Heat warnings were encouraging me to seek the air conditioning of the Singleton Studio. As a result, I returned to the ample and generous supply of inspiration provided by my friend John Verburg. Scarlet Tanagers enjoy the Carolinian forest on the property, and this bird was singing to me. 

Art is another opportunity to continue to learn. There is still much to learn about nature so that it might be there for future generations. Together, art and learning are science and a wonderful way of life. Not such a great way of making a living, but still satisfying for the soul. 

Scarlet Tanagers are spectacular songbirds, and we hear them more often than we see them. Males arrive early in spring to defend loose territories that include mating, nesting, and foraging areas. Territorial singing battles sometimes escalate into confrontations, where one or both males spread and droop their wings and raise their tails in threat. If neither backs down, the standoff culminates in one male chasing another. Scarlet Tanagers are monogamous within each breeding season but switch mates from year to year. 

Scarlet Tanagers eat mainly insects along with some fruit and tender buds. The insect diet is wide and varied. While searching for these tidbits, they walk along branches high in the canopy. Scarlet Tanagers perch or hover with fast wingbeats to grab insects from leaves, bark, and flowers, and they catch flying insects like bees, wasps, and hornets from the air. They swallow small larvae whole, but they kill larger prey by pressing it into a branch. 

The female chooses the nest site, usually selecting a shaded spot within a cluster of leaves at a juncture of small branches. Nests are typically quite high (50 feet or more from the ground) on a nearly horizontal branch well away from the trunk. The female prefers an unobstructed view of the ground and open flyways from nearby trees. Scarlet Tanagers tend to nest in mature deciduous trees such as maple, beech, and oak, but they also nest in eastern hemlock. 

The female gathers nesting material from the forest floor and builds a flimsy nest in 3–4 days, spending relatively little time on it each day. She drops material onto the nest, hops in, and moulds it into shape by pressing her body against the sides and bottom. She then gets out to weave in any loose ends. The nest is a loosely woven saucer of twigs, grasses, plant stalks, bark strips, rootlets, and pine needles. It has a shallow and asymmetrical interior space, lined with grass, fine plant fibres, vine tendrils, and pine needles. 

Parents feed their young for up to two weeks after the birds fledge, and then the family disperses before migrating. 

Scarlet Tanagers fly across the Gulf of Mexico between their breeding grounds in eastern North America and their wintering grounds in South America. They usually migrate at night. Scarlet Tanagers winter in mature forests and forest edges, mostly on hills and mountains. They range south as far as the Bolivian lowlands. Scarlet Tanagers join up with other species in foraging flocks. 

The following summarizes the four different tanager species.  

The good news is that according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, Scarlet Tanager populations have held steady between 1966 and 2019. Scarlet Tanagers are an interior forest species, so changes in land use have been slower to influence their populations. Nests are in greater danger of being parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds in fragmented landscapes. To safeguard the Scarlet Tanager population, researchers recommend preserving and restoring mature forest habitat for breeding, migrating, and wintering birds. 

This was a fun painting, and nature continues to inspire. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2953 "June Morning Daisies and Red Clover"

#2953 "June Morning Daisies and Red Clover"
10 x 8 by 1/4 depth canvas panel(inches)
Started 10:00 am Monday, June 16th, 2025

I needed to loosen up my brushwork, and the daisies were in bloom. I set up my field easel in a thick patch of daisies and started throwing paint around. It is easy to get lost within a bouquet of flowers, and there was no desire to be absolutely botanically accurate. I simply wanted the colours and the feel of the foliage. Red clover also dotted the landscape, although those flowers were more purple in colour. 

An orange and dark brown butterfly flitted in as I was finishing. It landed on a daisy, and a few strokes later, it was depicted in the oils - on the upper left of the panel. A little research and my new friend was identified as a male Pearl Crescent butterfly. When this painting was published on Fine Art America, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that they employ actually picked out the butterfly, although not the exact type...

Female turtles wandered around while I painted, looking for the perfect spot to lay their eggs. Every nest that we identify gets protected from the very persistent raccoons. There are typically a dozen nests protected every year. The turtles do an excellent job of hiding their efforts from my eyes, but they are no match for the nose of a hungry varmint. 

The following collage from 2025 summarizes the turtle nest protection program at Singleton. I want to build more of the very effective (and much lighter) 5.1 protectors, but time and materials are in short supply. Heavy steel grates and shipping palettes are still employed along with the early 2x4, nylon mesh boxes. The snapping turtle nests required large palettes for full protection. 

Raccoons predate the nest the first night after laying if it is not adequately protected.
Scattered turtle shell casings reveal if I missed the nest. 

I stepped away for a drink of water and returned to find an Eastern Phoebe perched right at the top of my easel. The zen of vertical posts scattered around the property might not be positive to people, but the birds sure appreciate them for hunting insects. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2952 "Apple Blossom Bumble"

#2952 "Apple Blossom Bumble" 
16 x 20 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 9:30 am Monday, June 9th, 2025

"No mow May" is standard practice in the Singleton Sanctuary. That first crop of flowers is vital for all of nature. The trees are among the first to produce blossoms - in this case, an apple tree. There are some very old apple trees on the property. They need much more care than I have time to give. This photographic inspiration was taken by my friend John Verburg. 

The American Bumblebee is an important pollinator of native plant species. Bumblebees typically fly during inclement weather conditions, while other insects stay home. The Bumblebee is considered one of the most determined nest-defending bumblebee species, likely because it nests at or above ground. Bumblebees generally visit flowers up to 2 km from their colony. They tend to visit the same patches of flowers every day, making only enough honey to satisfy their needs. Luckily, we see them in abundance every day. 

American Bumblebee queens spend the winter underground, employing decomposing organic material like rotting logs and compost. 

The American Bumblebee is threatened due to:

• pesticide use 
• habitat loss due to agricultural intensification
• pathogens spillover from domestic bees 
• American Bumblebee might have a low genetic diversity, possibly contributing to its decline, while increasing the production of sterile male individuals

Southern Ontario is the northern edge of the American Bumblebee's distribution. Sadly, the American Bumblebee was added to the Species at Risk in Ontario List on January 25, 2023. 

Human conceit encourages the false belief that we know it all. Nature employs not just temperature but also sunlight, gravity, magnetic fields and even quantum effects to manage daily, seasonal and annual activities. We can't possibly fully understand nature, which is tremendously complex and interconnected. 

Uneven global warming has created temperature variations that are out of step with solar radiation. Fragile interconnections between symbiotic species that took thousands of years to tune have been broken seemingly overnight. Insect populations appear to be crashing... 

For example, the blossoms of the apple tree are triggered by a combination of factors: temperature, light, hormones, nutrients and water. Temperature is a strong factor influencing bumblebee foraging. The bumblebees become inactive at both very low and very high temperatures. 

The weather is also changing and driving bigger modifications in the climate. Earth is in the initial stages of verifying the 1970s calamities predicted by the continued exploitation of fossil fuels. We are now just witnessing the tip of the melting iceberg, fueled by greed and the lust for power.

Bumblebees remain safe with the Singleton Sanctuary. Humans seem to think that they have all the answers when they don't even know a fraction of the questions. This encourages a toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance that has resulted in decades of dithering and inaction. Open minds, fresh thinking and wisdom are urgently required to come to the rescue of all species on the planet. May I kindly recommend any book by Diana Beresford-Kroeger. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick