Goldfinches on Thistle — Giclée on Paper sea the moment wildlife photography struggles

the moment wildlife photography struggles to capture with clarity

A male and female Cardinal on a bare rosehip bush in late autumn — the dried berries dark and clustered

the sky and ground barely differentiated in the white-out quality of a true northern storm

drawn back to it by the same quality that makes it Canada's most iconic bird: the combination of extraordinary beauty and the haunting call that defines summer in the Canadian north for anyone who has spent time on a lake

wherever they lived

Goldfinches on Thistle — Giclée on Paper sea the moment wildlife photography strugglesThree goldfinches work through a thistle patch a male feeding on a spent seedhead at left, a second male perched on the right, a female arriving from above with wings still open. The thistle is rendered with the botanical precision Glen brought to all his plant subjects: the spiny bracts, the purple bloom, the white plumed seeds drifting into the composition from the milkweed at left. This 1988 watercolour is more complex than the earlier single bird