Getting To Know The Neighbors

by Francesca Ricci-Tam

I moved to Santa Clara last June to start a new job. It was my first time living in the Bay Area, and I felt new and out of place in more ways than one when I arrived. I am an avid birdwatcher who only recently started trying to build my birding skills in a systematic way, and familiarizing myself with the bird life in this area has helped me to settle in more. 

From my first day in Santa Clara, I have been trying to identify all the birds that I see or hear in my surroundings. I try to visit the same spots repeatedly and notice which birds are regularly present there, and it feels like seeing old neighbors. 

I made this series of watercolor pencil drawings specifically of the birds that I have seen around my apartment complex in the summer, both to showcase the beauty of birds and also as a way to reach out symbolically to my human neighbors as well. I wrote the little captions to my pictures as if I were addressing the people that live around me, hoping that I might draw them into appreciating the birds and nature in our area as much as I do.

November 2021

FRANCESCA’S GALLERY

Click on each image to see a larger version.