12 June 09
Juvenile Tree Swallow
There’s at least one chick in the tree swallow box. It looks close to fledging. I’m pretty stoked.
9 June 09
White-tailed Kite: Display Flight
The white-tailed kite is flying all around the pine, semi-hovering with landing gear down. They are among the loveliest of birds…
8 June 09
Fayoumi Chicken
This one, today, was for work, for the cover of a manual on poultry health in Africa. The Fayoumi is a very old Egyptian breed of chicken.
7 June 09
The Coop
I spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Davis Food Coop, explaining how to see birds while you’re camping (hint: don’t wear white). Was able to do a few sketches of the nesting house sparrows and also at the end a Nuttall’s woodpecker nestling, calling loudly for food…
5 June 09
4 June 09
We had rain — thunderstorms — last night, and they also irrigated the alfalfa. Plenty of hunting for hungry herons out on the field. They are almost exactly the same value as the green of the alfalfa, so it’s hard to see them as they move in their slow, deliberate way across the field. I tried to catch that “almost not there” feeling here, not sure how well I did….
2 June 09
1 June 09
Nuttall's Woodpecker
I was sorry not to sketch both birds, since they perched one above the other on the pole in an interesting way. Being very highly patterned, they lend themselves to that.
