Another art-related mystery, courtesy of the excellent  Morris Art Museum in Augusta, Ga., which I visited earlier this month.

The painting above is entitled "The Sunny South," by an anonymous artist, painted during Reconstruction. You can see the painting online here.

I think that the birds in the painting (enlarged below) are a key to its meaning. Can you identify them? Do you think they symbolize something? If so, what?

On Monday I asked:

Where have you seen this statue?

What's its name, and why? (And yes, the photo is in color.)

The answers:

Judy M was right on: "This is one of the Bird Girl statues, correct? The most famous one was depicted on the cover of a book called- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."

To that I add, it's called "Bird Girl," because it once served as a bird feeder/statue in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.

The statue (below) is now in the Telfair Museum in Savannah, where I saw it last week.

Painting of the Bird Girl reimagined, bottom, is by Lisa Ocampo.

On Monday I  asked:

Where was this photo taken?

Diane Louie answered correctly:

"The poster celebrates the college town pride of Allendale, South Carolina, home of the USC Salkehatchie West campus. I am guessing the photo was taken in a fast-food restaurant, given such clues as the red seat cushions, bare tabletop, napkin dispenser and far window poster reading (from the back side), 'HOT... & JU....' "

In fact, I took the picture at the local Hardee's in Allendale, S.C.,, one of the few places open on Veterans Day after 2 p.m.

(Nice work, Diane!)

It turned out to be a wild tortoise chase -- a Gopher Tortoise chase, to be exact -- in the Georgia hinterland.

On our trip to Savannah and Augusta last week, my wife and I decided to see if we might find a threatened species at one of The Nature Conservancy's preserves in the region.

An Internet search turned up the Charles Harrold Preserve in Metter ("Everything's better in Metter.") It was the first ecological preserve in Georgia.

Prominently displayed on the 73-acre preserve's website was one of the aforementioned tortoises, and the preserve was not too far out of the way.

Turns out that the tortoises were tough to find, but we did see some "good" birds -- including the Red-headed above, who put on a little show.

Also had a life bird, a Red-cockaded Woodpecker that proved next to impossible to photograph.

Also some cactus, beautiful woodlands and rare plants that were exclosed so they would not be eaten, I figure.

Worth the slight detour.

More on the preserve here.

Jim Onesios writes:

These bluebirds were taken on Sunday 11/17 at the Celery Farm along the trail beside Meadow Lane. There were four of them.

(Thanks, Jim! Great sighting and pix.)