Booze, a dead bird in the car . . . just call it one bizarre picture

Experimentation is essential for artists, Josephine L. Winsor once said, so maybe that explains why the 74-year-old painter from Wayne was drunk in a national park after dark with a dead woodpecker in her car.

Winsor, whose oil and acrylic paintings focus on real-life settings, was involved in the surreal situation on Dec. 11 inside Valley Forge National Park.

According to documents obtained by the Daily News, officers at Valley Forge found Winsor's 2001 Ford Focus inside the park around 11 p.m., after it was closed. Her speech was slurred, the officer wrote in the probable-cause statement, and field-sobriety tests found Winsor's blood-alcohol level was .113, above the legal limit of .08.

Then the officer noticed "a deceased bird [later identified as a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a type of woodpecker] inside the vehicle" and she was charged with a violation of the Migratory Bird Act. Winsor, who taught art in Wayne, declined to comment about the incident on two separate occasions, but her attorney, Stephen Baer, said she had a few drinks with friends during dinner earlier in the night on Dec. 11.

She's no killer, though.

"She did not kill the [bird], the [bird] was already dead. She was going to use it for a model," Baer said. "It's a strange charge. She had no knowledge she was doing anything against the law."

Baer said Winsor found the dead bird on the grounds of the Willistown Conservation Trust in Malvern. She planned to use it in her artwork.

Last month, Winsor pleaded guilty to the violation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacob Hart in Philadelphia ordered the National Park Service to find a taxidermist to preserve the bird and for Winsor to foot the $350 bill. The judge's order, first reported by Courthousenews.com, also asked the National Park Service to put the bird on display, preferably at Valley Forge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela Foa, who handled the case, declined to comment.

Winsor attended the University of Pennsylvania's graduate school for fine arts and has painted in France, India, New Zealand and Wyoming. Her website says that she is moving to New Zealand. Another website said Winsor sometimes held painting workshops at Valley Forge.