The Magpie Nest

Yellow-billed Magpie · Monday April 23, 2012

I got more Pentel brush cartridges today and want to keep working with the brush. Magpies are a good subject for black-and-white sketches…

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Crows on Newly-mown grass · Monday April 16, 2012

American crows: pen and ink

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Mallards in the Rain · Sunday April 15, 2012

Mallard: pen and ink After the rains, there is a pair of mallards in the pond out the window. The female was hunkered down in the long grass but the drake was peeking out…

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Nuttall's Woodpecker · Tuesday April 3, 2012

nuttall's woodpecker, male, pen and ink They’ve mowed some of the grass outside and there’s a lot of bird activity, including this male Nuttall’s working the insects up the locus trunk.

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Burrowing Owl · Wednesday March 21, 2012

burrowing owl, pen and wash This burrowing owl lost its left eye at an early age, and has been at the Sacramento Zoo ever since. He was having trouble seeing out of his remaining eye and was determined to have a cataract. He was having the cataract removed today at the Vet Med Teaching Hospital; I got to go in and take pictures. (I also made a quick sketch while we were waiting to go into the anesthesia room.)

ETA: Found out last night the owl didn’t make it… :(

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Mallard Hybrids · Monday March 12, 2012

Mallard hybrids,pen and wash The Wildlife Health Center has done a lot of work on avian influenza and has tested a lot of the mallards at the Arboretum, which turn out to be mostly mallard hybrids. The population has dropped tremendously since a pair of river otters moved in a couple of years ago… Sketched these yesterday just by the bridge near Mrak Hall Drive.

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A Sketchcrawl in the Arboretum · Sunday March 11, 2012

Pete Scully has been very diligent about organizing regular sketching outings in Davis. Today we dodged rain showers in the UC Davis Arboretum. About 8-10 of us spent four hours wandering around sketching.

I took the opportunity to do quite a bit more bird sketching than I’ve been doing of late. A cormorant was very cooperative (apart from when dogs went by) and I got several chances to have a turn at drawing it.

Marlene and I snuck off for a quick mocha at around 2 pm, which took us past the Australian section. There was one bush in full bloom with red blossom, where hummingbirds and orange-crowned warblers were frantically feeding.

great day; I haven’t done this much sketching in a protracted way for a while.

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Bluebirds prospecting · Tuesday March 6, 2012

There is a Western bluebird pair scoping out the nest box by the office. Unfortunately for them, the tree swallows are interested too, and are far more aggressive. Maybe we need more boxes…

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Eurasian Collared Dove · Monday February 27, 2012

(Eurasian collared dove, graphite/prismacolor)! First time I’ve seen the Eurasian collared dove at work… Their range has been spreading throughout this region. I heard them at home at lunch today too.

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Trumpeter Swans · Monday February 20, 2012

I’m up in the San Juan Islands, Washington, for a spinning workshop. There are three trumpeter swans on a lake near my friend Jean’s house. I spent a good long while sketching them yesterday.

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