Cattle Egret

They flooded the alfalfa field just south of the house today. When it got light I saw dozens of cattle egrets (probably, by the time I’d finished, 200 birds) flying toward the flooded part. I rigged up my binoculars onto the tripod and snuck up on them (not so necessary; one of the field workers walked right through them and they shifted a token amount and returned to their spot).

Most of these birds are either young or no longer in breeding plumage, but I did find one (right) with a good amount of pinkish-orange on the head and back.

Turkey Vulture

A juvenile red-tailed hawk, the same one, I think, that caught the ground-squirrel last week, this morning got one of the cottontail young that have been hanging around outside my window at work. It fed for about half an hour and then took off, leaving the hapless bunny behind. We looked at the carcass; mostly the liver had gone and part of the gut.

The turkey vulture arrived within the hour. It was very wary and after a few bites it took off too, but returned a little later to resume eating. A second joined it and was chased off. More vultures circled overhead and one actually landed on the back of the other, presumably to shake it off its meal. Between the four or five of them, not much was left of the rabbit.

Do fresh carcasses smell so quickly? They must. There were no other birds around this one to alert the vultures to its presence…

( I’m off to back from the Raptor Center for lunch to draw one of these birds up close. I’m interested that the feather sheen on the neck is bluish-green while the wing feathers have a definite brown cast…)

Western Wood-Peewee

It’s been a good migration day today. Lots of Wilson’s, yellow, orange-crowned warblers, all of them moving constantly and allowing a glimpse as they duck behind the foliage of the walnut or peach trees… I took a bike ride into the Arboretum and found this wood-peewee calling, returning always to the same bare branch after chasing an insect, resuming poses, a cooperative subject, in other words…

Nuttall's Woodpecker, Again

Zeladoniac at Drawing the Motmot has some wonderful advice on better bird drawing here. She’s headed off to Panama for two weeks so now would be a good time for me to catch up on her archives.

The reason I’m posting a sketch off a Nuttall’s woodpecker again is because I wasn’t happy with the last one, which was, I’ll confess right now, drawn from a photo minutes after I’d seen a Nuttall’s outside my window, which flew off before I could get much of it down. It was a day where I was panicking about getting a “good enough” sketch done in time to post. Time to nip that kind of silliness in the bud. A half-drawn sketch is better than nothing… and, it’s always better to draw from life if you can. I’m really going to try Zeladoniac’s advice about the afterimage; oh, and get really familiar with the birds you see every day…

Red-tailed Hawk

Another young ground squirrel bit the dust outside my window at work yesterday, this time courtesy of a red-tailed hawk. The hawk flew up into a sumac and looked around, carefully, for about five minutes before starting to tuck in. There was a lot of ground-squirrel screeching, I think by the hapless young one, that stopped after a while.

Because the hawk stayed for quite a long time in the same place, resuming poses, I was able to get quite a few sketches done, including one in color. And I was glad of my new monocular; I have a pair of binoculars at my desk but they’re way too heavy to hold while you’re sketching!

March of the Turkeys

They cut the alfalfa yesterday. I missed the flock of cattle egrets last night (hope they come back today!) but the turkeys were heading east in a great procession this morning, picking through the rows of mowed alfalfa.

Back from New York

I got back early this morning from New York, a day later than planned. Almost no bird sketching time at all, and precious little of that in Central Park, though I did manage a fleeting American redstart by memory. (The Connecticut warbler that was nearby eluded my pen though I caught a glimpse of that too, with no binoculars.)

I bought a sketching tool at B&H (an experience not for the impulse shopper unless they don’t mind unloading thousands of dollars in an afternoon): a monocular. This is so tiny I have no excuse ever not to have it with me. Ever. I’m very pleased…

Starlings on Wire

I’m off to New York for three days. I’ll certainly be sketching what birds I see but may not be able to post anything till I get back…

Keel-billed Toucan

Another zoo creature, obviously. I sketched it in black and white and did a quick color sketch on the spot which I finished this evening. The bill is more luridly neon than this…

Little Green Heron

As I was sketching this green heron at the UC Davis Arboretum we spotted a kitten under a Mercedes and spent the next hour and a half trying to extricate it (without success). This watercolor is done from a pen and ink sketch, colors from memory, as we waited for the kitten to emerge from the car wheels for a can of catfood (thanks Fernanda). Hoping it will come out of its own accord tonight…