Sandpipers at the North Sea Coast

 

Last winter we walked along the North Sea Coast as part of a long walk at 'De Kwade Hoek' (Netherlands) and on the shallow mud flats close to the tide line we saw some sandpipers looking for food in the mud. My husband made several reference pictures, but as we could not come very close to them  we are not sure which kind of sandpiper we did see.

Most of them only visit our coast line in winter and they have the same 'winter coat' so I could not find the exact species of sandpiper that visited that stretch of our coast line that day. Maybe there was more than one kind of bird, that is also possible. 

The reference pictures have been waiting a few months before I found the time and inspiration to use them. 

I tried to differentiate the colours of their feathers by zooming in on the picture. There are differences between the heads and the wings and that is all I could find, so that is how I have painted them. The natural light of that day did not help either, we had lots of clouds and some hours of rain during that walk so the landscape was sombre and the little birds were streaks of grey and white with legs and a bill. 

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size, the price and availability of this watercolour painting can all be found in my Tumblr blog.