2025 Project WILD's - Nature in Art by Lori Wilson

Spotted towhee

destinyturner — 2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

I observed a spotted towhee in my backyard near our birdfeeder. I am not an artist, so please don't judge my drawing too harshly! I found that once I started drawing the bird, there were so many details that I hadn't noticed initially. I could easily recognize the colors of the bird, but when I started drawing it I had to look closely to see exactly where the orange feathers began and ended. I did not have access to a good camera, so I looked up pictures online so I could really see some of the details that I overlooked during my initial observation. Drawing the bird made me look much more carefully and notice those little details. I learned more about their behavior by observing them more closely. I noticed that they mostly ate seeds on the ground and I wondered about their nesting behavior. I learned that their nests are often on the ground or low to the ground. This activity made me a more active observer and made me more curious about the spotted towhee.

Angela B. - Whitetail Doe

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

Deer are a very common in my neighborhood. The whitetail deer are more prevalent during the winter and spring where as the mule deer are much more common during the summer and fall months.

I never spot the whitetail does/fawns/yearlings alone. They always travel in groups. Because so many are fed (either unintentionally through birdfeeders, or intentionally) they are very bold and will allow you to get an extended look without them being spooked.

I had never really noticed the white around the mouth and eyes. Had I drawn from memory, I would have excluded those details.

This time of year, they still have to dig through the snow in our yard to access vegetation however, there are sunny places across the street where food has already been revealed.

While the bucks draw our family's attention, they are hard to spot this time of year because they have not yet grown this year's antlers.

I appreciated the reason to stop and really look at my "neighbors."

Mary Charley

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

Mattie Johnson: Nature in Art

mattie25johnson — 2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

Christa UI Extension

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

Nature in Art

zdwello — 2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

We have a lot of squirrels around our house, so I thought it would be fitting to draw one. I am no artist by any means, but it was still fun to do! Drawing the basic outline of the squirrel was pretty easy, but when I looked closer at the picture, it became increasingly more difficult to draw. There are so many details on an animal that you don’t realize until you get a more close up view. God’s creation is amazing! They have big, black eyes with a white circle around their eyes. I guess I never really noticed that. I did notice while observing them that they are very active and always playing or looking for food!

Duck Drawing

ddwello — 2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

We have a lot of ducks near our house, so we decided to draw a duck. I am on spring break with my kids, so I went out with my 9 year old (Rustin) and did the drawing activity with him. The colors on the ducks were amazing, even though he did not have the time to add them to our drawing. He did a good job, and worked hard to get the direction of all the feathers. We learned that the feathers go different directions on the duck! They aren't all arranged in the same pattern. The feet took a little longer, because the crazy things weren't very still, and if they were, they were usually sitting down and covering their feet. We learned that they have an extra ridge on the back of their leg above their webbed foot! We did end up cheating a little bit at the end and just pulled up a picture on google so he could get the details right. Overall, it was a fun activity, and it was fun to involve my own son who loves to draw.

Art - Kirsten E.

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

I love watching the birds visit our feeder in our backyard. I’m not great at identifying them, but this was fun to take a photo of a beautiful yellow bird and then draw it. It did force me to notice the small details. I think this was a yellow warbler – it does have white and black on its wings which I never noticed before. I could use this when teaching about variations - focusing on beaks and feather differences.

Savanna Caballero

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

Black Capped Chickadee, Kristal Kangas-Hanes

2025-10-13 15:50:07 UTC

bniedenzu — 2025-10-31 18:58:08 UTC

This from one of my Environmental Science students who was also my Biology student AND my student aide. She had such a passion for art that I had her do Nature in Art type projects for assignments instead of traditional assessments.

Willow and bug

2025-11-10 23:35:59 UTC

At first I thought it was a bee on the willow tree leaf, but it had details that didn't match a regular bee. Then I realized it had strange shaped rings with a v on its back. I also noticed that there were many of them all over the tree, still not sure what they are, but they were feeding off something on the leaves.

I think kids would love this activity and pointing out for them to look at the details will help them look closer.

Small Milkweed bug - Sarah Dixon

2025-11-11 21:14:52 UTC

As a kid growing up, I always thought these were called wood bugs and I’m not sure why. Now I know their real name! I was surprised at how much detail there was in their back markings. It was also interesting that there were a few markings that weren’t really even from side to side. These guys almost remind me of the markings on a monarch butterfly.