A Fine Day for a Cape May

 

Oil on Archival Panel - 4 x 4 inches

     This is my oil painting of a female Cape May Warbler as seen in August of this year. This particular bird took sips of water from my bird bath. 
     Cape May Warblers breed in northeastern Minnesota but that is predicted to change in the upcoming years. The following excerpt is from Minnesota’s Wildlife Action Plan 2025-2035 from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

In 2019 the National Audubon Society (NAS) published a report titled Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink. The report documented a comprehensive effort to model changes in the distribution of 640 North American birds that could result from warming temperatures. … At the lowest warming scenario (1.5˚C), the models predicted the extirpation of 27 breeding birds from Minnesota. The vast majority of these species are dependent on the northern boreal forests of the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province. They include such SGCN (Species of Greatest Conservation Need) as the spruce grouse (Canachites canadensis), great gray owl, olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), and Cape May warbler.

     You can read more about Minnesota’s Wildlife Action Plan 2025-2035 in the reference link below.

     Stay wild, my friends.


Reference

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. (2026). Minnesota's Wildlife Action Plan 2025-2035: Conserving Habitats and Biodiversity. Ecological and Water Resources Division. https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/mnwap/3-dnr-2025-2035-mnwap-birds.pdf  

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Location: Duluth, MN 55811, USA

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