I was just thinking…………

…that there’s something about sighting the vivid blue flash of a Splendid Fairy Wren that must bring a grin of delight to even the most hardened observer.
If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of gazing upon those tiny splashes of intense blue
amongst a backdrop of green, then I urge you to take a trip down south in Spring.
WA’s southwest boasts the most beautiful race of the Splendid Wren.
Their breeding season, when the males don their truly brilliant colours, begins around September and finishes in January.

I saw these gorgeous little creatures for the first time in Pemberton at the Gloucester Lodge. As I gazed out of the window from the dining room, a tiny patch of vivid blue suddenly appeared and my heart skipped with delighted surprise.
Then all at once there were at least ten of them. I was ecstatic. It was a most exquisite sight. Tiny fat sleek bodies, long cheeky tail feathers, quick beady eyes in adorable little ‘faces’ and all in the richest of iridescent blues and violets.
They were darting this way and that in quick short bursts as they tucked into their late afternoon buffet of insects, and their happy high pitched trilling made quite a pleasing din.

I’d have easily sat there forever, absorbing that enchanting sight, as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist, but alas it hadn’t and I reluctantly took my leave. But the serenity of that picture is indelibly etched in my memory and I draw on it each time I paint those most Splendid Fairy Wrens.