As a young child, I was fascinated with stories of pigeon numbers so large that they blackened the sky. Book illustrations encouraged me to read accounts of their decimation by early settlers because planted fields were equally decimated when pigeons settled in to feed. To protect crops, thousands of pigeons were killed as more and more settlers arrived.
Pigeons were utilized as food by settlers and Native Americans, although there were such great hordes... seemingly endless numbers... that many were killed and never utilized. Market hunters killed and shipped ever increasing numbers of pigeons also.
Such a shame. No one ever expected they would become extinct.
I have always wanted to paint these beautiful birds, as a painter of historical content, but never could decide how. I didn’t want to show dead birds, and I didn’t want to paint hordes blackening the sky. I chose not to show a negative situation. I compromised by having a few fly close enough to see their colors, as they fly a mountain path, shared by another Native.
As a young child, I was fascinated with stories of pigeon numbers so large that they blackened the sky. Book illustrations encouraged me to read accounts of their decimation by early settlers because planted fields were equally decimated when pigeons settled in to feed. To protect crops, thousands of pigeons were killed as more and more settlers arrived.
Pigeons were utilized as food by settlers and Native Americans, although there were such great hordes... seemingly endless numbers... that many were killed and never utilized. Market hunters killed and shipped ever increasing numbers of pigeons also.
Such a shame. No one ever expected they would become extinct.
I have always wanted to paint these beautiful birds, as a painter of historical content, but never could decide how. I didn’t want to show dead birds, and I didn’t want to paint hordes blackening the sky. I chose not to show a negative situation. I compromised by having a few fly close enough to see their colors, as they fly a mountain path, shared by another Native.