Black Phoebe After a Rain Shower

Numenius and I went to Sacramento after lunch today. He was looking for a new sketchbook. We went to Art Ellis where I asked (with no real hope of finding any) for the Clairefontaine Dessin à Grain I’d seen mentioned on Urban Sketchers (the link there was to a hand bookbinder in East Timor, it’s gorgeous stuff). What I did find and decided to try was an Artist Marker Pad (Bee Paper Company).

The phoebe above is my first set of sketches. It is very smooth paper, leaving no bleed lines. I wish it came in sizes large enough to fold and bind… Anyway, the bird. Black phoebes are great to draw in pen and ink because they have such clearly defined, um, black and white markings.

American Crow in the Tree

Definitely crow congregating time. Huge flocks spread out over sodden plowed fields to gorge on worms, then all flock back into Davis for the evening.

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

I hear these birds far more often than I see them.

Nuttall's Woodpecker

A pair of Nuttall’s woodpeckers has been hanging around outside, prospecting in the wooden table. There seem to be goodies there.

The New Chickens

Two new chickens were brought in night before last. They spent the night in the coop and I let them out with the others yesterday. Then I found out last night they had spent their entire lives inside cages.

I went back over this morning and found one of them but not the other. Hoping it was hiding somewhere…. and that they will get the idea they are supposed to spend the night inside the coop, not under the tangerine tree.

White-crowned Sparrow in the Sun

Sandhill Cranes

Numenius and I took a trip to Lodi yesterday to see the sandhill cranes. They have put in a couple of pull-offs by the side of the road on the north side, which makes it much easier to see the cranes late-afternoon without looking straight into the sun.

I did a few pen and ink sketches before jumping into the CarbOthello pastels. I really like this medium and think I should do more with it.

Crow and Jackrabbit

Another storm’s coming in, and the birds are swooping around especially crows. They seem to be setting up winter roosting patterns or something.

After the weekend’s rain there is still not much green for the jackrabbits to eat, but more’s on the way, and this could crack it.

Chickens...

Three white hens are browsing goodies in the garden next door when I walk up the path. They run to greet me. (Amazing where a pair of opposable thumbs will get you in chickenland.) I let the others out, and throw out some scratch for them. They tend to cluster there for about five minutes, pecking away at the scratch and each other, until they gradually disperse to feed on whatever they can find in the garden. (After the rain this is likely to include snails and slugs.) They lift their heads then scatter crazily at the cry of a red-shouldered hawk.

From 13 chickens we’re consistently getting 3 eggs a day. We’re not in this for the money…

Red Scrub-jay

Scrub-jays have plenty of attitude, and I sometimes think they should have been bright red. This one is.