Gerald Balciar and his wife Bonnie start every day with a walk around their property. They loop around the 10-acre plot near Parker, Colorado, three times, weaving between the trees they planted when they moved there 26 years ago. As they walk, Balciar counts bluebirds. “Most days we see eight or 10 of them,” he says.

“When I get an idea, I grab a magic marker, a crayon, whatever I can find, and quickly sketch it out,” he says. “Sometimes, I just write it out. If I don’t, I’ll forget it, and I don’t want to do that.”

Balciar has spent most of his 50-plus-year career working on monumental wildlife sculptures.

Gerald Balciar (Colorado)

Pride & Joy
Bronze
13″ High
“The trumpeter swan is a family bird that mates for life. I chose to depict a healthy brood of nine cygnets. I enjoy watching the swans at the Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming.”

Gerald Balciar (Colorado)

House of Blues
Bronze
11″ High
“I have a bluebird trail of 11 bluebird boxes that I monitor once a week. For the past 20 years, I have been averaging eight to 10 successful nests with five to six baby blues per nest.”