"Exotic" species?

When I went to London several years ago, I had a brief - rather funny - encounter that has really stayed with me! My first day there, I was walking through one of the many parks and I spotted a bird species I had never seen before - it was a small bird, perched on a railing. He had a brownish gray back and an orange throat and chest - I thought he was absolutely beautiful! I excitedly asked a woman who was passing by if she knew what kind of bird it was. She looked at me like I was a lunatic, and told me it was a robin. I felt silly but was happy I at least learned what species of bird it was. London robins just didn't look like the robins I was used to!

Why has this encounter stayed with me? Well, I think we often overlook the beautiful nature and animals we see on a daily basis. Animals and plants we see every day may be an exotic, once in a lifetime sighting for someone else. I have found animal lovers in particular to be guilty of this. We plan far off vacations to check birds off of our "life lists" and don't necessarily consider the beauty of the species we see every day.

I think of my encounter in London every so often, and recently this encounter inspired me to paint a Blue Jay - a species I see all the time, that sometimes is just plain ANNOYING! They can be very loud very early in the morning! They are truly beautiful birds though, and I think if I were from somewhere else in the world and saw one I would probably be very excited about it! The Blue Jay is just a start - I'm planning on painting some more of the bird species native to my area and am excited about the project!

The Blue Jay painting above will be available in my Etsy shop soon! https://simplydunnart.etsy.com