Pigeon Guillemot

Another treat about Alcatraz was being so close to pigeon guillemots, the large black alcid with huge white wing patches and startlingly red feet…

The biggest treat of the day, though, was this very smart five-year-old who asked intelligent questions about treating oiled wildlife. After a while I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. “Maybe work with birds,” she said. “Or maybe,” I whispered, “President of the United States.”

Eyes like saucers, she ran out with a belly laugh to her mother. “I’m not telling you what she said,” she said.

But then she did.

Western Gull

Our trip to Alcatraz was fascinating in many respects, but having nesting Western gulls so close was a treat. I sketched a lot of them, in between tending my table.

The buildings haven’t been restored much since the island was turned into a National Park, though plenty of work has been done on the gardens, a task that used to be fulfilled by inmates. The rooves, the chimneys, the parade ground were covered with nesting gulls.

The young are comical, flapping ineffectually and cheeping almost as ineffectually. Spotted fuzzballs.

Today was International Drawing Day. I did do a few sketches that weren’t of birds, including this view of San Francisco from the ferry on the way back in…

Bald Eagle and House Wrens

I took a quick trip over to the Raptor Center at lunchtime. I heard a house wren singing outside the gate but never saw it, and hoped to draw a couple of hawks.

This bald eagle is missing a wing. It’s very nervous and I try to avoid much eye contact and try to stay away as far as I can. It didn’t seem very agitated today.

As I sketched (quickly; didn’t want to disturb the bird too much) I heard house wrens — left, right, straight ahead, behind. They are small and it took a while before I found one I could see… But it kept singing and singing till I spotted it. I had no idea.

Nothing takes me out of my head as much as doing this…

Mourning Dove

This morning I spotted a Swainson’s thrush outside. By the time I’d grabbed a pen and sketchbook, it had disappeared, though I continued to hear it sing over the next couple of hours. Luckily, a mourning dove appeared just behind the pomegranate tree, so I had a go at that instead…

Cliff Swallows

Zeladoniac at Drawing the Motmot passes on a tip from bird artist Barry Van Dusen: concentrate on one bird until you really GET it. Don’t switch between herons and warblers to pigeons and caracaras: really learn them one at a time.

“For example: Monday=Raptor Day, Tuesday=Shorebird Day, Wednesday=Cassowary Day (or whatever shows up for you). Try it!”

Well, we have no shortage of swallows, it seems. Now that the barn swallows are nesting, the cliff swallows that normally nest colonially on the bridge over the creek have started prospecting the carport also, and one pair is about 1/3 of the way along.

I sat outside last night watching them coming to and from the bridge, collecting mud that is abundant in an area where an underground pipe is burst. Water is precious here and it’s just pouring into evaporation land, something that makes me nuts, but it does make good mud for swallow nests.

You get about 2 seconds per bird in flight. If you’re lucky. But they tend to repeat the same gestures, the same turns, particularly on the return journey when they have to fly into the wind.

I went over to the mudhole and sat down. Several swallows alit, wings and tail fluttering, while they collected mud bits. I’m not clear the color on the underside of the wing is right, but I think I’ll spend some more time with them later on, as Barry suggests. Till I really know the bird. You might be seeing swallows for a while…

Swainson's Hawk in the Field

Done in my Moleskine Sketchbook which is not well adapted for wet media, but oh well.

Barn Swallow

A pair of barn swallows is nesting in the car port. Now that they’ve finished building their nest and have stopped flinging mud all over the place, it’s a bit more peaceful. It’s a good spot: It gives them protection from the sun and the fierce wind, which has resumed after a five-day respite. They will eat mosquitoes voraciously all summer, which is fantastic.

I’m not sure whether they take turns incubating, but one of them sits on the nest while the other one sits on an outsize nail nearby…

Swainson's Thrush

It has cooled down. A Swainson’s thrush was singing outside this morning. I spotted another one here at work while I was on hold on the phone; quickly sketched it.

The wonderful relief of a southwest breeze…

Guinea Fowl

Wandering home from a reception on campus last night, I stopped because I heard a warbler chip. Never did see the warbler, but below the oaks was a sizable flock of guinea fowl, wandering around like they owned the place.

I’ll be participating in Drawing Day, on June 7th. The aim is to publish a million drawings from around the world on this date. Join us! I probably won’t just be drawing birds, but hope to draw lots of them… Thanks to Katherine Tyrrell of Making a Mark for alerting me to this event.

Wind, Hot, Out of the North

We’ve had no rain for three months. We’ll likely get none at all till November.

The dust now blows and gets in our eyes, our nose, like some dustbowl parody. The garden clings to its billing as drought-tolerant, for now.

The birds are clinging, meanwhile, to their treetop nests, swaying and dustblown.