True Grit

 

True Grit (acrylic on canvas)

 

There´s a huge vine climbing beside my kitchen window where the bluebirds build their nests every spring. Unfortunately we´ve got a nasty little gang of young magpies as well here (don´t get me wrong, they are beautiful but you´ll soon see why I don´t like this particular group).

These youngster know very well where my bluetits hide their nests and every spring they try to rob them a couple or so of their precious eggs.

This time though the magpies were in for a surprise!

Last weekend I observed one of the little bluetits I´m feeding regularly on my windowsill showing true grit. He (or she – it´s hard to tell) kept fighting them off by constantly attacking them himself/herself with his/her little beak! It felt like watching David vs Goliath.

It took a while but in the end he/she won this fight and the magpies flew away!

It was frightening and simultanously glorious to watch this scene, and afterwards I couldn´t help it: I had to paint a likeness of my little hero!

Hope you like him/her! 🙂