California Gull

Numenius tried to call me on the radio to say he had horned larks on West Campus. The radio had turned itself off, and I was having a splendid time painting this adult non-breeding California Gull at Lake Spafford.

(When he arrived panting to announce the horned larks, my paints got put away pretty quickly…)

Northern Flicker, Red-shafted

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count; please consider spending 15 minutes (or much longer!) counting birds in your local patch and submitting them to the compilers. It’s easy. You can do several counts over the weekend and submit them all.

I decided to keep a running count of what caught my eye outside my window at work this morning. Best birds by far were five American pipits which I have never seen at work before; now on the “birds at work” list. Sent in the list. Easy as pie.

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk

Causing a commotion at work…

Nuttall's Woodpecker (for Christopher)

Waiting for when you get out here, C.

Barrow's Goldeneye

A ride out to Lake Solano yielded much better results than the last one. I saw 10 new Bigby birds, including this Barrow’s, a Bewick’s wren, Hutton’s vireo, and Western grebe. We also heard an intriguing empidonax flycatcher call. Strangest was a sapsucker as we limped home — I saw clear black-and-white facial markings, Numenius saw a red breast. Hybrid red-naped/red-breasted?

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Finally was able to catch this one — five seconds, again. The wash was added after it flew off.

Looking West: American Crows

When what you have on your desk is a red ballpoint pen, it’s what you draw with. Even if the birds are really black. But they look like a valentine, somehow.

I am entering this as my contribution to Illustration Friday’s theme, “Choose.”

Mountain Plover

Knowing I had a meeting near where mountain plovers have been reported, and knowing I’d be travelling there and back with a birder, I decided to look at photos of plovers to try and get myself ready for sketching them. I did this plover portrait on the right from a photo I found on the Web.

Because there was an accident on northbound 113 before Flannery Road, which is where the plovers have been reported, we had to take a detour. We got to the spot when the sun was getting ready to set. I started sketching in pencil quickly. Their legs and feet were not visible at this distance in the short grass.

I didn’t have time to do any watercolor washes, but did a few quick ink sketches too. The birds were settling in for the night. Next time I hope to be able to spend a bit more time with them and see them more closely; for now, this was a great way to end a meeting!

White-crowned Sparrow

American Robin

A robin from last week…