Western Wood-peewee

ETA: No, this is a western wood-peewee. I’m changing the title to reflect that, but I’m not changing the writing on the sketch. No eye-ring…

Jackrabbit and Magpie

I had lunch with a colleague and had a little time after she got on her bike to head back to her office to do a little drawing. There are several grazing jackrabbits and a magpie got in front of this one and looked my way. Trying to get the effect of shady dappled grass is hard…

Scrub-jay after Wheat Bread

Still amazed by the way this paper takes my Derwents. Really having fun layering, experimenting…

Yellow-billed Magpie

Continuing to experiment with this paper. It takes color, apparently. These were Derwent Coloursofts.

The Fortuitously Delicious Paper

I recently moved offices, a chance to toss a lot of stuff that had been lying around and not touched for months or even years. One casualty of my zeal was almost a full ream of a metallic black paper whose name I forget entirely along with its provenance but which I sadly concluded was not going to work for anything.

But I retrieved it from the recycle bin, because I just felt so guilty. Good thing, too. It takes prismacolor and, I have just discovered, pastel like a dream. I don’t have a white version of either one of these to hand to test but I think this could lead to some very dramatic drawings. The paper has a very fine tooth which takes these media superbly well. I just wish I could remember the name of it, I’d buy different colors.

At right, a white-tailed kite in Prismacolor (French Gray); below, a starling and jackrabbit in pastel pencil (Cream). Watch this space.

Western Bluebird

Perched on the panels set up for wildlife tranquilization target practice…

My Birdathon

A bit about how the day went can be found on Feathers of Hope, but here are a few of the sketches from this memorable weekend:

List of birds that made it into the sketchbook:

Wood duck
Mallard
California quail
Great egret
Snowy egret
Cattle egret
Green heron
Turkey vulture
White-tailed kite
Northern harrier
Red-shouldered hawk
Swainson’s hawk
American kestrel
Common moorhen
American coot
California gull
Rock pigeon
Mourning dove
White-throated swift
Anna’s hummingbird
Belted kingfisher
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Black phoebe
Ash-throated flycatcher
Western kingbird
Warbling vireo
Western scrub-jay
Yellow-billed magpie
American crow
Tree swallow
Northern rough-winged swallow
Cliff swallow
Barn swallow
Bushtit (including nest, found in Arboretum in acacia grove)
Bewick’s wren
House wren
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Western bluebird
Northern mockingbird
European starling
Cedar waxwing
Yellow-rumped warbler
Wilson’s warbler
Song sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Golden-crowned sparrow
Red-winged blackbird
Brewer’s blackbird
Brown-headed cowbird
Bullock’s oriole
House finch
American goldfinch

This can’t be right, because I have counted 52 birds and I know I have 58 (because there are 60 pages and all but the last one is filled). But I have blisters and a ravenous appetite for a burrito, so I will leave you here. Thank you for sponsoring me if you did. Next year, please join me! It was a blast.

Scrub-jay after White Bread

In an attempt to find out whether any of the crows we radio-collared were still around four years later, W. threw out some white bread. But the scrub-jay wasn’t having anyone else go near it, a small feisty corvid in a region of feistier and larger corvids. It harrassed the crows and magpies so much, though, that it ended up with most of the half-loaf of bred.

On another note: I’ll be doing the Yolo Audubon Birdathon this weekend with a twist; I’ll try and sketch every species I see. Please consider sponsoring me either with a set amount or per bird sketched. I’m going to do the whole birdathon/sketchathon on foot and will walk about 4 miles west to Pedrick Road in the hope of seeing migrant warblers; from there to the UC Davis Arboretum, then home. Hoping for 60 species sketched. (Unlike normal birdathons where heard-only birds count, I am not going to sketch a bird unless I see it.)

Thanks for your support!

Hovering White-tailed Kite

Cattle Egret Rookery

Last night we went to the Audubon board meeting and got there a bit early, so we walked over to North Pond to see the astonishing heron rookery. These birds are likely the displaced birds from the UC Davis Arboretum, where they’ve been hazed in an attempt to preserve historic oak trees. They are now depositing vast quantities of ammonia in North Pond. The rookery seems to be mostly a mix of cattle egrets and snowy egrets.