Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

24"x20" oil pastel on canvas

I had fun with the texture with this one. And all the expression in the face. A wonderful bird!

High

Wake up to the world all around you
your heart and your spirit are free
accept your mistakes
don’t worry
try to live
try to breathe
try to be.

Find peace 
in the center of chaos
listen when you can’t find the words
swallow your pride 
tame your ego
make friends with the trees and the birds.

Fly high on the wings of your ancestors
grow up 
and find love
and find light
believe in the flip side of evil
seek some answers 
find the truth
do what’s right.


~Becky Robbins

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

20"x16" oil pastel on canvas

It was pure joy to navigate all the expression in this beautiful face. This painting won second place at the Mahoosuc Art Show in Bethel, Maine this year.

Spring Fever

It’s a wondrous night. 

The moon is full and framed 

by branches pregnant with fat buds. 

A perfect balance of stars and clouds

orange and mauve in the moonrise. 

There’s a warm gusty wind 

rustling and bending the pines 

and it’s so bright 

almost as bright as day 

without all the colors. 

I get the sense 

that everything around me is awake. 

It’s like a swell of movement 

surging from the darkness between the trees. 

No one out there will sleep tonight. 

I hear yowling and growling 

coming from the hedgerow. 

Songbirds are chirping and trilling 

and hopping from branch to branch. 

Woodcock are performing 

noisy mating rituals in the field. 

The spring air carries a mysterious sweetness 

intriguing, almost irresistible. 

The primal part of me inhales deeply 

wishing to follow that damp sweetness 

wherever it leads. 

To slip into the woods and go wild. 

Rage and run

shake off the long cold winter 

in a fevered and frenzied prowl. 

Come home at dawn

leaves and twigs in my hair

panting and muddy

eyes flashing.

The shadows in a cloud 

passing above the moon 

form in perfect puffy letters 

NAY. 

I imagine it’s a message from the heavens 

and try to figure out 

which question in my life 

it might be the answer to. 

The wind breaks the cloud 

into squarish bits

like cracked mud at the bottom of a dried stream. 

Every time I’m about to turn and go home 

I hear a new sound in the woods 

and the breeze rises 

and the pines rustle and bend again 

and the clouds streak and puff 

and new stars twinkle into view. 

I won’t rush it. 

This is a night to be savored.

~Becky Robbins

Foxes

Fox curled
pointed nose on warm red fur
scent of the sun and the earth
a dry den dug into the hillside
But spring is here.
Wake up, foxes!
Run and jump upon my memory.

Wake me up, foxes.

And under a painted sky
blinking first stars
I will find all that I lost
in a wet meadow somewhere north
under the sky of purity.
The taste of the Real
still on my tongue.

Awake.



~Becky Robbins

My Maine

Photos of beautiful Maine that I've taken over the years. Music by Dave Mallett.

Great Golden Digger Wasp

"Within the insect order Hymenoptera, family Sphecidae, is the Sphex genus with over 130 recognized species and subspecies. One of the larger and more impressive thread-waisted is the Great Golden Digger Wasp or Sphex ichneumoneus. Aptly named, as the term "ichneumoneus" is Greek for tracker, these robust wasps are known for tracking their prey. Great Goldens are one-half to over an inch in length, though some sightings have reported seeing them as large as two inches. Great Goldens are easily spotted during the summer. Their black head and thorax are covered with short golden hair. Half of the back segment of their abdomen is also black with their front segment and legs a reddish-orange.

"Occurring in North America, Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, Great Goldens are usually seen in parks, gardens, fields and meadows - anywhere that is sunny, has compacted clay and sand, flower nectar for adults to feed on, and crickets, grasshoppers and katydids for their larvae. The adult wasps subside strictly on sap fluids and a variety of flower nectars that bloom during their flying time. Spotting them is one thing, but observing them can be dicey. Great Goldens do not linger around a bloom for very long and are quite wary of anything larger than they are. Fortunately, though they may look scary, these wasps are not aggressive unless handled and should be left alone. Great Goldens are solitary wasps, live independently and do not share in either nest maintenance or in the caring of their young.

"Between May and August, the female Great Golden, in preparation for egg laying, constructs as many as half a dozen nests. The building of, and provisions for, the nests is done in a concise, methodical manner, which she never deviates from. Rarely is there vegetation around the nests. Most sites are exposed to the sun in an open locale. The female begins digging, almost vertically, by cutting the earth with her mandibles. She walks about an inch backwards from the nesting site with a section of soil between her forelegs and head and flips the soil with her forelegs beneath her body, scattering it to the sides with her hindlegs.

"Great Golden nests have a cylinder shaped main tunnel that is one-half inch in diameter and four to six inches deep. From the main tunnel, she extends secondary tunnels that lead to individual larval cells where she will store anesthetized prey. The cells are broader than the tunnels and parallel to the soil. Once completed, she temporarily closes it after excavation by using the earth that remains by the nest entrance. The female throws it towards the entry with movements identical to those she made when she dug the nest.

"After constructing the burrow, she flies from the nesting area to open fields and hunts for any number of small locally available species of Orthoptera. Great Goldens hunt for crickets (Gryllidae), grasshoppers (Trimerotropis) and katydids (Tettigoniidae) to serve as a food source for her young. Upon capturing a suitable prey, the female Great Golden will paralyze it with toxins in her sting. If the prey is small, she flies it directly to the nest. If prey is too large to transport aerially, the wasp will walk with it across the ground. The prey is clasped beneath her body by grasping its antennas with her mandibles. Once the Great Golden reaches the opening of her nest, she sets the paralyzed insect down. Leaving the prey outside, she goes into the tunnel for inspection. When satisfied that all is well, she comes partially out from the nest and again grasps the prey's antennas pulling it backwards into the nest's interior where it is deposited in a cell with its head turned to the bottom.

"Though the prey is permanently paralyzed, it is able to eliminate feces and slightly move its antennas and mouthparts. Great Golden females close the nest each time prey is placed inside. When she re-enters for egg laying, she emits a set of buzzing sounds as she compacts the earth closing the entrance.

"After the Great Golden has dragged all her paralyzed prey into the nest hole, she lays one egg on each insect, placing it horizontally on the prey's thorax. The eggs are yellow, less than a 1/2 inch long and has a slightly curved cylindrical shape. They hatch within 2-to-3 days of oviposition, and without moving, they begin to feed on the prey's abdomen or at the junction of its leg. The feeding phase is very rapid. In one of the observed cases, the larva consumed even the more rigid parts of the prey's exoskeleton.

"Unfortunately, homeowners, who have these foraging wasps around their landscape and dig holes in their lawn, usually reach for a can of insecticide. Great Goldens are benign, do not defend their nests, are not aggressive and definitely do more good than harm. Hold that can for a moment and realize that like many other wasps, the Great Golden Digger Wasp is quite beneficial to both gardeners and farmers. So please leave them alone to do their job."**

**Text by Candice Hawkinson:  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-54_great_golden_digger_wasp.htm

All of these photos are mine, and I feel super lucky to have been able to witness it. This wasp built her nest in a sunny spot at the edge of our gravel driveway here in western Maine. Still hoping for a shot of one flying with a katydid in her arms!

Damselfly and Blueflag

I went to have my trucks's windshield replaced and there was a 2 hour wait. So I took a stroll down a side road near the shop and found a very pleasant little trail off into the woods, and followed it down to the Little Androscoggin River. I soon found myself in a secluded spot on a flat rock, sitting with my arms crossed over my knees, when a damselfly landed on my arm. I watched her, very close up, for a minute or so before she jumped up quick and came back and settled back on my arm with a kicking mosquito in her mouth. I watched her eat it (surprisingly quickly for such a large-ish meal), and then watched as she did it again and again - my own little bug repellent friend! Endlessly interesting to witness - and she really kept me from getting bug bites! We were like a team - I attracted the mosquitos and she gobbled them up. The 2 hour wait was over before I knew it. As I was about to walk away, she posed for me on this wild Blueflag Iris at the water's edge.

Photo: "Damselfly and Blue Flag", South Paris, Maine by Becky Robbins.