Swallows

Mary’s home. I went across the street for manure and to deliver turnips; she invited me for tea. We sat outside watching the swallow action.

The tree swallow was flushed by a car. Immediately its place was taken by my first barn swallow of the year. Yesterday I had my first rough-winged, and today at the bypass we saw our first Bigby violet-green swallows. The only one to get now for the year is bank, and that one’s going to be tough…

Male Northern Harrier

Seeing the ferruginous hawk last week has made me look for it even though we haven’t seen it since. I spotted a white blob on the ground at the base of the levee this morning, got the binoculars on it: not a ferruginous, but a beautiful adult male northern harrier, and sitting still for once. I got the scope out and started to sketch, filling in more detail as the bird stayed put.

Then I realized: this bird’s wrong. The eyes are wrong. They have a pale yellow eye with a tiny dark pupil (especially tiny in the full morning sun).

So I started again. Here’s my second attempt. The bird was flushed by a jogger on the levee but by then I had my first sketch for color reference…

I love the way these birds stand, legs splayed, ready to spring.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

The zonotricchia sparrows will be gone, soon. I heard golden-crowns this morning at home, rare among the white-crowns. Then two popped up outside the window.

I reached for my pentel waterbrush, realized that the reason it wasn’t flowing much water was because of a red plastic ring around the middle (no doubt there are instructions about this but they’re in Japanese), took off the ring and squeezed, and a huge sploosh of black ink came out. I rinsed the brush and then did this quick doodle of the sparrow’s head.

The sparrows were quite cooperative and one of them was coming in to full breeding plumage. The tail’s a bit short: I ran out of paper. Hope these birds make it safely to their breeding grounds in Alaska…

New medium

I’m pretty comfortable with Adobe Photoshop and am now very competent in InDesign, but I’m terrible at Illustrator. Which is too bad, because it’s a very powerful sketching tool.

I drew a sketch of a crow outside my window, then drew it freehand in Illustrator with the pencil tool. Minor tweaking only — this took about 5 minutes.

I hope to improve. I won’t do much digital work on Bird by Bird but this is a good skill to develop…

White-tailed Kite: Hovermaster

When Christopher was here over the weekend he spent a lot of time photographing birds. When he stopped to take a photo of this one, I took out my sketchbook.

It’s much harder than it seems, getting the angle right.

Crow in the Puddle

A few days off, folks. I didn’t do much sketching apart from a Western gull in Point Arena on Saturday, but here’s a crow from last week when we still had puddles everywhere.

The high temperatures and high winds have made the mud a memory… and this morning I heard my first oriole. Hope to spot him tomorrow morning to be able to sketch. If he’d cooperate and sit in the top of the almond tree, fast losing its blossom, that would be perfect.

Mourning Dove

Red-winged Blackbird

More birds in the puddle today…

Ferruginous Hawk

I was out getting some sodden and rotting straw on the garden when Numenius said “There’s a very light red-tail out here.” I went to fetch my binoculars. The bird flew. “That’s a rough-legged hawk,” I said, noticing the windows in the wings.

The bird returned to its perch. It’s not a rough-legged but a young ferruginous. I didn’t finish getting the straw on the garden and I didn’t sweep the house for my dear friends who are coming for lunch (or another friend who’s arriving from Massachusetts tomorrow, and who requested that we put salt on the bird’s tail till he gets here…).

Housework: oh well.

Horned Lark, Saturday at the Bypass

California Duck Days is a sort of orgy of people coming together, spreading out to see birds, getting wet, and finally regrouping at the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area Headquarters, bedraggled, tired, and hungry.

I took a small group out to Lake Solano, not on the bike. We saw several phainopeplas and had wonderful looks at a red-breasted sapsucker. I then took myself around the Wildlife Area before heading into town.

I found this horned lark on the road; sketched; went home and did an oil pastel version. It was raining…