Larry Zach Wildlife Art

"One of my favorite times of the day is sunrise. The air is fresh, the colors rich and saturated, and though many people would prefer to still be in bed, most wildlife is very active.  If the sunrise illuminates a snow-covered woodland edge, alive with a variety of whitetail and other animals, you have the makings of a painting such as Winter Sunrise-Whitetail."

- Larry

In this scene, the morning’s early rays stream across a forest edge, as a mature whitetail buck pauses in mid-stride. Something has captured the attention of the buck and several other members of the community, while still others are indifferent. Since the presence of human activity usually results in the rapid disappearance of a cautious old buck, the object of scrutiny is more likely another large buck or possibly a coyote. Though coyotes provide little threat to a full-grown deer, whitetail usually deep a close eye on them.

Careful observation reveals the presence of several other members of the forest edge community. After a night of activity, a cottontail, which often prefers the same type of cover as the whitetail, sits against the base of a hawthorn, resting and waiting for the sun’s warming rays. A downy woodpecker, recognizable as a male by the red patch on the back of his head, also rests higher in the same tree. The cracks and crevasses in the rough back of the hawthorn and the nearby wild cherry tree offer numerous places for the downy to look for food. Tracks, much smaller than those of the rabbit, hint of other activity that took place under the cover of darkness. Perhaps it was a meadow vole or a white-footed mouse hunting for food. A red-tailed hawk, with it’s characteristic band of spots across the breast, has chosen the limb of an old cottonwood as a perch from which to search for the day’s first meal.