We found a miniature bird's nest and egg.

So I haven't been to sketching much lately, what with one thing and another, so I thought I had better get my eye back in before the weekend.

On Sunday my Dad was trimming a tree and by luck really as it was so small we found a bird's nest with the remains of a very small egg in it. He thought it was a Fantail's nest as it had very little dark feathers in it as part of the construction.

So after a bit of research, I've decided it's not a Fantail's nest, but a Goldfinch's nest. A fantail lays a speckled creamy brown egg and has a much more elaborate nest. A sparrow also lays a speckled egg, so I have deduced this must be a Goldfinch nest. Mum and Dad have heaps of them at their place, so that would fit. It is very cleverly constructed using strands of blue baling twine, horse hair, little dark feathers, moss, grass, twigs and much more. When I looked it up the Goldfinch's nests I found online looked very similar and had blue or blue speckled eggs in them.

Here is my painting:

I took it outside to photograph it. I quite like the effect.

As you can see by the biro for scale, it was tiny.