House Wren, Nestbuilding

The male house wren has been singing on top of, and from within, the nest box and today I saw it enter with a twig. No sign of a female, yet…

Wood Duck

There was a pair of wood ducks perched in a cottonwood tree at the west end of the Arboretum today, peeping softly at each other.

Inky-Pinky

Birds on poles and branches. The house wren is advertising this condo, loudly. Bluebirds still dithering.

American Robins, Again

Intense, these guys. They are feeding and almost nothing gets in their way.

I always forget they leave, mostly, in summer. They seem so much a part of the landscape here. But they are thrushes, after all, and need thrushy wooded places, not semi-desert which is how we spend our May-October.

I picked up the first pencil I could when one landed outside the window just now and it was a prismacolor watersoluble graphite. I like how dark they can get. I kept going and added a light wash. Nice way to finish a work day.

Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nutallis)

After They Cut the Grass

American robins, foraging. They dart and then listen, then pounce.

House Wren

Now a singing house wren is checking out this nest box… The hole in the pole, which had been the focus of the bluebirds for weeks, has been heavily prospected by starlings.

Turkey Vultures

Sun today, great weather for Friday bird sketching at lunchtime… we saw these turkey vultures kettling, finding an updraft. They were joined by a red-tail or two and three red-shouldereds.

They all moved off, though, so we headed into the Raptor Center for some close-ups. Trying to stay loose, I brought along a normal #2 pencil. The least intimidating of tools.

The two turkey vultures at the Raptor Center are fairly mellow and allow prolonged close scrutiny. The sun was catching bluish green iridescence in their feathers…

Double-crested Cormorant

Another Thursday at the Arboretum. The crests are now clearly visible on these cormorants.

After the Rain Shower

Lots of intermittent rain, still. The stone fruit are all in blossom, now, pretty much. Lurid greens and yellows punctuated by pinks and the payne’s gray of another shower on the way… This scrub-jay was pouncing onto something — worms? — from the peach tree outside the kitchen window at lunchtime.