Slaughter of birds, Joy to Spring daily painting by Everglades artist JoAnn Sanborn

Joy of Spring
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.8cm)
acrylic on Panel

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My day usually starts with a shower, turn on the coffee and the computer, and while each is getting warming up walk outside, pick up the newspaper, am greeted by a beautiful morning sky and often take a short walk before getting to work in the studio. It's quiet then, and yesterday you could feel spring in the air. The birds were singing, and you could almost see the buds swelling under warmth coming up from the south. Here, where some people can't see a change in the seasons, spring has come.

Even though it was a little colder this morning, today's morning chill didn't come from the weather. It came from the headlines in both of the papers I picked up. The Naples Daily News's it was a slaughter, and the Marco Eagle's 21 birds killed for fun both saddened and disgusted me. Apparently seven people with nothing more important to do went out and killed the birds for the fun of it. Fun??

340 species of birds have been documented in the Everglades. The birds of the Everglades were slaughtered almost to extinction in the 1920's for the purpose of obtaining their feathers for ladies hats. They're making a comeback, but its not quick, and there are still nowhere near the hundreds of thousands that used to blacken the skies.

People with no respect for our natural world have driven our land and our oceans to the brink of destruction. I hope they're prosecuted in Federal court to the fullest extent of the law!