Shout

For fantastic wood cuts of birds, please visit Wood Chips.

Rain!

Some very badly needed rain fell overnight and this morning, and more is on the way.

This has led to an orgy of feeding on worms on the part of crows, robins, mockingbirds, and anyone else who thinks this is a fine meal.

The edge of the large puddle outside drew a steady stream of worm-gleaners all afternoon…

Double-crested Cormorant

We walked into town today to attend the Martin Luther King celebration downtown. On the way home I saw this cormorant preening in the afternoon sun…

Golden Eagle

It’s warm thse days at lunchtime. Becky and I went to the Raptor Center to sketch today. I continue to struggle, mightily, with raptor bills — particularly the bills of eagles, which really are big but always end up making them look like mutant gannets or parrots. Depending on whether the bills are too fat or too skinny.

You Say Goosander...

Common merganser at the UC Davis Arboretum today at lunch.

Red-tailed Hawk

Frosty mornings make for cold raptors, but it’s been warming up into the 60s during the day. This red-tail had finally gotten warm enough to soar at lunch today but had to make a series of circles to gain any kind of elevation — so kept returning to the same position with each circle. I got these pieces of bird together in this sketch after about five of the circles.

Robins a-Rovin'

At this time of year quite large flocks of American robins search for food, stripping trees of their berries and moving on to the next ones… These were active at dawn this morning in the almond tree whose buds are starting to think about busting out.

Wilson's Snipe

I joined the Davis Bike Club slow ride this morning as the adjunct birder. We toured West and North Ponds and found snipe at each. Frosty morning with no wind turned into a gorgeous day by noon…

A Trip to Macworld

I took a trip to Macworld today on the train, and sketched my way down and back. Given that tomorrow is the 21st (!) worldwide Sketchcrawl, and there will be as usual a large San Francisco contingent, I thought I’d participate in the same spirit but just a day early. Drawing birds from a moving train is a bit of a challenge since the birds invariably move too, fast, away, but it’s a good exercise.

I ran out of ink while I was in the middle of drawing the church near the Moscone Center and had to head out in search of more, a lovely tuscan red Waterman ink I found at Patrick’s on Market. This all doesn’t have a lot to do with Macworld. To tell the truth it was a bit disappointing and I won’t be going back — even if there are any more, which is now a question. It’s the end of an era? Adobe wasn’t there. Wow. That was major. Anyway, I had fun sketching; it was a fantastic day to be on a train and to eat lunch outside, at the fabulous Samovar Tea Lounge, sheltered from the wind.

The gulls didn’t move away and I had fun drawing ring-billed, California and even a herring gull. I saw a glaucous-winged juvenile (it might have been a hybrid but who’s counting) but it didn’t alight near me and I didn’t have a chance to sketch it…

(Other, not necessarily birdy, sketches from my jaunt can be found here and here.)

White-crowned sparrow

On Sunday morning, I heard a sickening thwack. It was really hard. No bird hitting a window that hard could survive it, and this one didn’t.