Art of the Endangered, Snail Kite painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Snail Kite, 2012 (c) Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 20"x30"

The Marco Island Center for the Arts, will hold a reception for the exhibition "Art of the Endangered" May 8th at 5, at the center. 

Painted for this exhibition, the endangered Snail Kite is a medium-sized raptor almost entirely dependent on a regular source of Apple Snails for food.  The Kite catches its prey at or just below the waterline with sharp talons, and pries the snail out of the shell with a uniquely adapted beak.  With habitat reduced and water levels varying, as the apple snails decline, the Snail Kite is struggling to survive.

I've seen two kites, together, at Shark Valley a couple of years ago, and from afar they look like a  nice fat pigeon.  It's only when you see the talons and beak up close do you realize they are quite fierce.  I wanted to make my male kite formidable, masculine, and very alert. 

Apple Snail daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Apple Snail, 2011, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on cradled panel, 5"x5"

The apple snail is the main source of food for the endangered Snail Kite.  The kites have a sharp beak adapted for eaily removing the snails from their shels. 

The snails live in and on the water most of the year.  They prefer wetland grasses that they can climb rather than lily pond vegetation, and climp up onto sawgrass and low hanging branches in April and May to lay their eggs in large white clusters.  

The largest of the Florida snails, not much more is known about the life cycle of Apple Snails except that they are considered a bellweather species for Everglades restoration.  They don't do well if the water is too low, but if they are thriving, there's enough water but not too much, the water is clean enough, the birds are fed, and the natural cycles of the Everglades are healthy.  

Kite Runner Flying High, Snail Kite, daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Snail Kite, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on cradled panel, 5"x5"

sold

It was wonderful to see not one, but two Snail Kites flying low over the open prairie on a recent visit to the Everglades.  The small, dark blue-grey hawks with red talons flashed patches of white as they flew searching for apple snails.

The snail kite was so endangered in the mid-sixties that it was estimated that only 100 pair remained in Florida.  Now, in recovery as a species, there are over 3500.  Still, rare enough to delight when seen.   

The Apple snail, practically the only source of food for snail kites, is a brownish colored snail that lives both on land and water.  It’s the largest North American snail, and is also struggling for survival as a species.  It is hoped that as Everglades restoration continues, both the snails and the kites will flourish. 

Snail Kites, Still Morning, a daily painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Soft Rain

5x7, Acrylic on Canvas

sold

Snail Kites are medium sized hawks that flourish in lowland freshwater marshes like the Everglades. In the Big Cypress basin, snail kites use the Lostmans and Okaloacoochee sloughs, Hinson Marsh, and the East Loop and Corn Dance units of Big Cypress National Preserve. They thrive in shallow open water that is clear and calm.

The males are a blue-gray and the females are soft brown with a longish tail and rounded wings. They're birds of prey, in the same family as other hawks and eagles. They fly with much wing motion, always looking down to search out their favorite food, the pond, or apple snail. Apple snails are a large, freshwater snail, and provide the kite with 99%of it's food.

The snail kite is dependent on the hydrology and the water quality of it's watersheds. Watersheds in southwest Florida have experienced pervasive degradation due to urban development and agricultural.

Drainage of marshland has reduced the habitat of the pond snail, limiting the food supply, and egg taking by collectors in the 1950's drove the number of Snail Kites down, but the species may be rebounding a bit today.

Why Snail Kites? We have a huge population of snails in our yard this year. Recently a large hawk landed in a small space between the house and a mixed border. We wondered what it might have been after. I've been researching the hawk, and because of it's clumsiness, it's red beak and legs, it might have been a snail kite.

Better after a snail than some of the other creatures it might have been! Of course it was gone by the time I got my camera.