Wednesday February 1, 2012
Scrub-jay after the Rain
Lots of bird activity today following a shower overnight, which our new weather station tells us provided .04” of rain…
Monday January 2, 2012
Colusa NWR: Day One
A falcated duck has been reported off and on from Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, a mere hour north, for about three weeks. We didn’t get a chance to go before the holidays and then I was off to southern California, but we did finally get up there on Friday, December 30. Nobody saw it at all that day, but it was beautiful and calm after a storm had blown in… I sketched waterfowl, particularly shovelers and a nice Eurasian wigeon. Coots were getting territorial.
Thursday November 10, 2011
Hermit Thrush
This one met an instant bad end on a plate-glass window this morning, but the colleague whose house it was brought it in for me to draw…
Wednesday November 9, 2011
Saturday October 22, 2011
Acorn Woodpecker in the Arboretum
This is only the second time I’ve ever seen this species in Davis. Lots in the chaparral, but not here….
Friday October 14, 2011
Anna's hummingbird on nest
Dusting off my Pentel brush pen, woohoo!! This drawing’s from a photo of a bird on a nest atop a pine cone at North Pond.
Thursday September 29, 2011
Monday September 26, 2011
Young Red-tailed Hawk
A hawk flew into the tree and stayed for a long time, partly obscured by branches. It finally flew out and across the field to the horse paddock, where it perched for long enough for a sketch…
Sunday September 25, 2011
Gulls at Point Reyes
We spent the day at Point Reyes today, hoping for a massive fallout of warblers given the cold front that had come in. Unfortunately we only got five species, but we did have a lot of time to study gulls.
The Western X Glaucous-winged hybrid, above, was at the Fish Docks near a Western — smudging in the face and not-quite-black primaries set them apart. We then went down to Drake’s Bay for lunch, which we shared with mostly Western gulls.
I’ve been drawing these with Derwent Inktense pencils and adding water. It’s a great way to work fast. The colors are Bark and Indigo.




