Sometimes in Marshes

House on Great Marsh ©2012 Katherine Kean
graphite  6 x 6"

“We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.” Henry David Thoreau 

Bitterns are wading birds of the heron family. They have shorter necks then herons and are shy. Snipes are also wading birds. I don't recall ever hearing them boom, although if I did I might not have known what it was. I'm told it is a drumming sound that they make with their tail feathers.

Another sketch, the Great Marsh in Cape Cod, and a house that is there. I'm not sure, it may be The Halfway House as it's called, for being halfway down the trail. I wasn't near enough to read any signs or plaques. The Halfway House is owned by Barnstable and used by groups from time to time. It looks like a wonderful place to go to draw and paint the marsh.

 

The Great Marsh is an excellent place to get a little taste of some wildness.