9 April 09
9 April 09
Western Kingbird
The year’s first Western kingbird at work. We should be hearing ash-throateds soon.
3 April 09
Bluebird
The bluebird pair seems to be hanging closely around the box near the horse paddock, but I have no idea how to tell whether they’re nesting or not. You can go close to hte box and sometimes hear young, but I don’t think they’re that far along yet…
1 April 09
Tree Swallow
The nest box I thought was completely occupied by the house wren has been actively investigated by tree swallows and Nuttall’s woodpeckers in the past couple of days. A starling has also been interested but the hole is too small.
I clearly need to put up more boxes…
26 March 09
Back and Badass
They’re back. Wild turkeys cross the field in flotillas.
25 March 09
White-tailed Kite: Display Flight
More kite sketches: beautiful in flight, beautiful especially in the quivering display flight.
24 March 09
White-tailed Kite
I think these birds are incubating. Switching duties; the other one perches nearby…
22 March 09
White-tailed Kite
Gusty winds… this kite was having a hard time staying perched on a branch and in fact gave up.
20 March 09
House Wren, Nestbuilding
The male house wren has been singing on top of, and from within, the nest box and today I saw it enter with a twig. No sign of a female, yet…
16 March 09
American Robins, Again
Intense, these guys. They are feeding and almost nothing gets in their way.
I always forget they leave, mostly, in summer. They seem so much a part of the landscape here. But they are thrushes, after all, and need thrushy wooded places, not semi-desert which is how we spend our May-October.
I picked up the first pencil I could when one landed outside the window just now and it was a prismacolor watersoluble graphite. I like how dark they can get. I kept going and added a light wash. Nice way to finish a work day.