The Magpie Nest

Canada Goose · Friday August 27, 2010

Canada goose, pen and prismacolor Not many bird sketches lately. Sorry.

Four of us made it to the Arboretum at lunch today and came across a large flock of Canada geese as well as at least one cackling goose.

Hastily sketched but time to get back on this…

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Barn Owl Contour Feather · Tuesday July 20, 2010

Barn owl feather, mixed media Lucky me, that I get to find a barn owl feather outside my door…

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Wild Turkey with Chicks in Walnut · Wednesday July 14, 2010

The nice thing about going home for lunch these days is the welcoming committee outside. The walnut tree’s been pruned, making it a lot easier to see 40-lb birds perched on the lower branches. (I exaggerate, but only slightly.)

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Critters at a Wedding · Monday July 12, 2010

Cedar Waxwing, pen and wash Numenius and I were at a wedding in Oregon this weekend. The setting was gorgeous — out in the forest south of Corvallis, in the Alsea Thyme Garden. Western tanagers and Swainson’s thrushes were singing during the ceremony. I spotted this cedar waxwing beforehand but was unable to see the dipper I was sure was working the creek that ran alongside the garden.

Rough-skinned newt, pen and wash The pond was home to rough-skinned newts, swimming around lazily. And a young garter snake made me very happy. I spotted a raven overhead during the ceremony which seems particularly auspicious since the bride is the bloghoster of Frogs and Ravens. (No frogs, at least not that I heard, but hoping a newt and a garter snake make up for that.)

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Wild Turkey Chick · Monday July 5, 2010

Wild turkey chick, prismacolor And they’re back. Two sets of chicks, each with two or more adult females, rampaging across the landscape. They’ve been eating the fallen mulberries out back, driving the cats to near apoplexy with their constant cheep-cheep-cheeping…

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Second Brood · Wednesday June 30, 2010

tree swallow, pen and ink The tree swallows seem to be working on a second brood. It was so hot last week I have no idea if everyone made it through, but frequent visits to the nest box make me hopeful…

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Pennsylvania Birds · Monday June 28, 2010

Back from a calligraphy workshop. I failed to identify warbler chips but there were lots of birds I did catch up with, including this grackle.

Delighted in seeing a robin with some green to be in instead of parched brown.

This eastern kingbird was flycatching from a tall stalk.

Notabird, but a fun thing for this westerner to see nonetheless. This woodchuck is apparently living under the shed at Sheila’s.

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Black-Chinned Hummingbird · Friday June 18, 2010

Black-chinned hummingbird, balllpoint pen A walk around the Arboretum at lunch while England were busy squandering chances against Algeria yielded this lovely beauty, guarding his tobacco plant in glorious bloom.

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Blue Grosbeak · Thursday June 17, 2010

blue grosbeak, watercolor, colored pencil, digital media This beauty was singing during the halftime break between Nigeria and Greece this morning…

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Trip to the Zoo · Tuesday June 8, 2010

Saturday June 5 was World Drawing Day. We took a trip to Sacramento Zoo, a small zoo on a completely manageable scale. It has been such a cool spring but it’s warming up now and we didn’t stay too long. I used only my Derwent Sketching watercolor pencil (Dark Wash, 8B on paper — and worked much larger than I usually do. It was fun and made a change from pen.

I started out around the pool containing waterfowl and the noisy and raucous flamingoes which are being somewhat shielded from the public during breeding season (it didn’t stop a lot of people trying to get them to “do something” loudly, which always gets me more upset than I think it will).

The greater hornbills have been doing well at the zoo, this male having been bred in captivity. I am always astonished at the protruberance on the head and find it difficult to draw to make it look different from the feathers.

Birds in cages: not my ideal, nor theirs. I draw these birds with respect and hope that what is learned about them here can help their populations in the wild.

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