Oil on acrylic primed birch panel
6” x 6”
Merlins didn’t exist for me until a few weeks ago… well, unless you’re counting the wizard… until I took a raptor identification class with the renowned and amazing Bud Anderson. After weeks of searching I *finally* caught my first glimpse of a merlin perched atop a winter-bare tree surveying for it’s dinner. They’re a beautifully camouflaged, small falcon around the size of a very large robin.
You probably already know the peregrine falcon’s superpower is speed, and like all falcons, the merlin has it’s own superpower: acrobatic flight. So I wanted to capture some of that agility in this painting. Notice the fanned tail and wing angle that allows it to literally push against the wind as it pursues a dragonfly.
All migrating birds have another superpower: the ability to sense the magnetic field. And the last several years, researchers are cracking the biology of just how they manage to do it, and believe me, how they do it is as magical as the wizard. In the background is my scientific illustration style interpretation of entanglement and superposition, which is believed to play a part in helping birds migrate using earth’s magnetic field. Pretty amazing creatures!