Mallard

Ron and Joe came to visit yesterday. We had a great time wandering around the arboretum, becoming intoxicated by the scent of a flowering Philadelphus (I’d love to put a couple of these in the garden in an area that’s just been cleared of sort of obnoxious groundcover, along the wall by the kitchen and bathroom windows… it’s called “Purple spot mock orange” and thrives in our hot, dry climate). We spotted Townsend’s and hermit warblers. We went north to see the tricolored blackbird colony. We had lunch at Kathmandu which was fairly mellow given that everyone was at the Whole Earth Festival. And we did a quick lap of the Festival because (well, just because).

I had planned to sketch a lot more than I did, but here’s a mallard and a Swainson’s hawk silhouette. I did a pastel drawing of a Western kingbird that I’ve yet to upload. The wind is ferocious just now and dust is blowing around horribly. I hope all the birds sitting on nests in high trees are okay…

Western Bluebird

The bluebird was looking in what I thought was the starling’s hole. It may still be up for contention…

European Starling

Starlings are ubiquitous here, so much so I almost don’t notice them. But this is an error: an introduced species, they compete for nesting cavities with native birds (some of the sketches at left show a bird at a hole, which it won off a pair of Western bluebirds).

I find this bird unusually hard to draw. It has weird proportions: a small head and very short tail, and the neck seems sinuous. Long, gangly legs. Many of my attempts make it look like a woodpecker (or a bluebird). The hardest part, though, seems to be rendering the shine on the feathers.

I once worked with an Australian woman who called starlings “bodgies,” Oz for greasers on motorbikes. The Bodgie Bird.

American Crow Eating Hapless Rodent

It’s that time of year. Corvids are after protein…

Double-crested cormorant

Behind on lots of things, but I stopped at the Arb on the way back from lunch and spotted this cormorant with its double crests… sat on the roots of a tree and sketched for about 15 minutes.

Swainson's Hawk

They mowed the field. We had tons of Swainson’s hawks coming in and looking for insects and rodents. (Lots of great egrets too, plus a couple of ravens we almost never see here; they got attacked by crows.)

White-tailed Kite on Alert

The kites have settled into nesting. If they get underway before the Swainson’s hawks get back, they have more choices of nesting places. This one’s mate is probably incubating by now, in a pine north of my work window. The male continues to display; they take turns on the nest. The kip-kip-kip with almost stationary wings and landing gear down is a familiar experience these days here in the Central Valley, and one of the most exhilarating.

Hummingbird Nests

We were taken on a tour of a friend’s property yesterday. He has a lot of riparian oak woodland and for some time now has been keeping tabs on what nests on his patch.

We saw at least six Anna’s hummingbird nests: at least two incubating females, at least three nests with visible chicks. The chicks hatch with very short bills, which start growing fast (as do the chicks; hard to see how they stay in that nest which is little bigger than an acorn cup, adorned with lichens, but they somehow manage).

As I watched these two chicks, perfectly immobile, their mother buzzed by me and hovered right behind them…

Six-word Memed

Dave of Osage Orange has tagged me with the six-word biography. He of the muddy boots and light heart.

Here we go:

Little’s as good as shared mudpies.

If this is too opaque, this might (or might not) shed some light on it.

The bird is a vocal black phoebe outside the window. I’m wandering; got up early to listen to the Red Sox/A’s opening game in Japan.

If you’re inspired to try and encapsulate your life in six words, please consider this an invitation…

Nesting Season

The crows have been busy for the past few days. They’re collecting smaller pieces at this point: grasses, mostly — so I assume the engineering portion of the building’s pretty much over.